Wheel studs shearing off

[John Hilley]

On our 1999 Brave 35C while driving down I35 in Iowa, all eight right wheel studs sheared off. Can't find any reason why. Luckily whees stayed on hub. Replaced studs and drove furthur 5,000mi. Also had speedometer and odometer quit, would start working again after a complete stop and one after a stop and backing up. From posts suspectit is the VSS.

[John Hilley]

On our 1999 Brave 35C while driving down I35 in Iowa, all eight right wheel studs sheared off. Can't find any reason why. Luckily whees stayed on hub. Replaced studs and drove furthur 5,000mi. Also had speedometer and odometer quit, would start working again after a complete stop and one after a stop and backing up. From posts suspectit is the VSS.

[ISLAPP]

Wow, Any idea what caused them to break? Glad you were able to pull over ok.
Mike

[WilleyB]

While I'm trying to learn as much as I can between my first time purchase and my firs trip this coming spring, and just getting a new torque wrench today (my Ford book says they have to be torqued)and somewhere I've read there would be consequences if I didn't.
I'm just wondering if you use a torque wrench when checking the wheels.
Willis

[TXiceman]

You can over stress the wheel studs if you use an impact wrench which some of the lazy techs or wheel changers tend to do. You should us a torque wrench if at all possible. With a lug the size on your coach, you will probably have trouble over-torquing the lug by hand unless you use a "cheater pipe" to gain the additional leverage.

Since you had one break in this way, I'd be back to the dealer to pull all of the wheels and check the lug bolts and properly torque them. It might no have happened to all of the wheels, but i would insist that they replace all of the lug bolts.

Ken

[SRT]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Hilley:
On our 1999 Brave 35C while driving down I35 in Iowa, all eight right wheel studs sheared off. Can't find any reason why. Luckily whees stayed on hub. Replaced studs and drove furthur 5,000mi. Also had speedometer and odometer quit, would start working again after a complete stop and one after a stop and backing up. From posts suspectit is the VSS. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The speedometer/odometer quitting is caused by a bad speed sensor on the rear axle. Had 2 replaced.

[MoHoGuy]

wow, you're lucky! i had a friend that experienced this on the 101fwy in Los Angeles in the wee hours of the morning.

while driving, the RIGHT REAR lugs all sheared off and both wheels came off the motorhome(Southwind F53/V10). he was able to safely pull off the freeway with no wheels. unfortunately, his wheels were still on the freeway and several cars had struck them and caused much damage to other vehicles.

memorize your torque specs!!!!

the correct torque for the F53 chassis are 140ft/lbs (or 190NM)

there was an update in '03 which raised the torque spec to 150ft/lbs (or 200NM)

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas...atsnew2003.pdf (PAGE 12)