corvett66

I have a 2003 50th Anniversary coupe. I pulled the wheels off today to clean them. 2 of the lug nuts on the left rear came off very hard. When I put the wheel back on, those 2 lug nuts would not torque down. They just kept turning. So I am guessing the studs are bad. Or maybe the studs are just turning in the hub?
Has anybody else had an experience like this? Looking at the service manual, it looks like a fairly complicated procedure to replace a stud. You have to pull the rotor and caliper off, then separate and pull the whole hub off.
Is this best left to the dealer to do? Or can any competent shop do it?

m6 c5

Sounds to me like two of the studs are stripped, its actually fairly easy to replace them yourself typically. Ive never done it on a corvette but on the other cars Ive done it to you can rotate the rotor to a certain point so you can tap the stud with a hammer and it will come out. You will then have to set your new studs into the rotor by pulling them through. The way I did it was with a breaker bar, old lug nut and an old lug nut that I drilled out and used as a spacer/washer, it took a lot of force but it worked fairly well.
BTW Ive done 10 studs like this.

cdkcorvette7

Sounds like they got stripped. I wouldn't take it back to the shop that last had the wheels off as they are probably the ones who stripped them (might be worth a call to the service manager if you had work done recently), but any shop should be able to replace studs if you're not comfortable doing it.

It's not a bad job though, especially if you have the service manual. I replaced my rear studs a couple years ago. Very easy if you have air tools...

Dope

Did you look at it and see what the actual problem is? Are the threads stripped off of the studs? Or the lug nuts? One is obviously a much easier problem than the other.

If it's the stud, they're fairly easy to replace. Maybe a 3 out of 10 difficulty level. You don't seem like a gearhead so I would probably have a reasonably competent shop do it.

Dope

pluslt

This might help.

http://www.z06vette.com/forums/f117/...acement-44186/

Pay particular attn to Lou's shortcut on drilling holes in the ebrake cover.

Vega$Vette

The problem with changing the rear stud is the brake backing plate has to be removed to get the studs in.

Most guys opt for drilling a hole in the backing plate rather then going thru the rather extensive job of removing the backing plate which requires pulling the axle etc.

Hopefully it's just the lug nut 9 out of 10 time it is.

jaguar5822

Not very hard at all, just did this yesterday actually.

1. remove wheel
2. remove brake caliper bracket
3. remove drum shoe
4. cut off a lot of the broke studs with cutoff wheel
5. tap the stud out with a hammer
6. line up the stud hole around the 9 - 10 o'clock position, the hole you drill will be maybe half an inch up from the little hole in the backing plate already there where the drum retainer spring hooks on
7. widen hole (I used a dremel) to where it's large enough to get the new stud in
8. use washers or an old nut over the stud, then use a wheel lug to tighten it and it will pull it through
9. cover the hole in the backing plate with something (I used thick durable tape)
10. put it back together and you're done

11. even if you take it to a good shop, give them the instructions and it will save you a ton of shop labor

PS: pay attention to the drum shoe retainer spring, it's a bit of a pain but only takes me a few minutes with 3 flat head screwdrivers now, but if you've never done it, it WILL be the most frustrating part of the job.

Vetteman Jack

I guess my question would be can you get the lug nut back off - if not, that would make the stud replacement a bit more difficult.

$$$frumnuttin'

The nut material is softer than the stud, if I recall correctly, so the nut threads should be smoothed out, while the studs are harder and more likely to not be damaged. However, most automotive joints are designed to break the bolt (or stud in your case) when overtightened to prevent a hazardous condition...let me know which piece has the smoothed out threads and I can shed more light on the problem.

corvett66

Here's the latest scoop on my problem.
I pulled the rear wheel back off and checked everything out real close.
The studs and lugnuts were not stripped. They were a little rusty, so I cleaned them up real good. So I put the wheel back on and torqued it down. 2 lugnuts would still not torque down; they just kept turning.
I pulled the wheel back off and cleaned out the 5 holes in the wheel. I figured the nuts weren't seating well in the wheel.
That did the trick. I put the wheel back on and all 5 nuts torqued down without continuing to turn.
Thanks to everybody for their suggestions. I'm glad I didn't have to replace some studs.

garage-ghost

Sounds to me like you still have a problem. There is a good reason why the nuts wouldn't tighten up and I don't think a little dirt would be that reason. Keep an eye on them.

cdkcorvette7

Why would dirt in the wheel stud holes keep your lug nuts from tightening down? The force applied with a wrench would just cause the lug nut to compress whatever was in there...

You might want to take another look just to be sure everything is okay. Were you torquing the bolts with a torque wrench or just going by feel?

corvett66

I was using a torque wrench set at 100 lb/ft. I suppose it could have been a problem with the wrench and it wasn't clicking when it was supposed to and I just kept on tightening, but it worked on the other lugnuts.
I will keep an eye on them. But I think I am good for now.
By the way, I just got back from a 1000 mile trip last weekend to Montana in the Corvette to Custer's Battlefield at the Little Bighorn.
I averaged 27 mpg and the car ran great.

$$$frumnuttin'

watch it...you may have had a repair done to that car in the past, and the mechanic put on 2 "inch" (English) nuts instead of the 12 mm Metric nuts...they are so close in dimensions that it cause lots of problems in the aftermarket....half inch vs 12mm is the gremlin....