I was driving home from work and having fun pushing my '77 a bit to get the feel of my new Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers, 2.25" Y-pipes and Hi-Flow Catalytic converters, when the unthinkable happened !!!

The car started to shake violently and a flapping, clacking noise was coming from the right-rear wheel. I said to myself "DAMN, my first flat tire"... I stopped the car on El Camino and stepped out with engine running to see which tire was flat.. There was no Flat !

THEN MY HEART STOPPED FOR A FEW SECONDS !!!! My right-rear wheel was held on by just ONE lug nut and I couldnt see any studs in the other holes. Another lug nut was still in, but it was out by half an inch and it came out in my hand with the snapped stud attached..

It was so embarrasing, but more than that was the hurt i felt. That my perfectly running, mean sounding "just waxed and buffed" machine was sitting at the side of the road and being winched onto a tow truck.
My corvette center mechanic told me that one of the studs might have snapped and because of the strain on the remaining studs and lugs, they might have started popping off one after another and that if I had driven a few metres more I might have had a bad accident and written off my car...

Insurance doesn't cover it, because no one was hurt and no property was damaged and they said it was a mechanical problem.
I feel sad, but Lucky in a way...

 

Count yourself lucky. It could have been MUCH worse. A new rear hub or maybe just the studs should be no big deal.

 

Count your blessings and thank the Corvette gods above. It could have been much worse and really really really really really bad.

 

7/16th studs and frequenty loosening and retorqueing (and over tightening) will do that to a stud.

 

wow, about 10 seconds separated this from being a relative "non-event" from what could have been a breaking news story on your local news. you should go buy a lottery ticket.

 

cracked stud .. perhaps, but I think more likely that the lug nuts were not tightened properly.
It's happened to the best of us .... and me, too. (not on the vette)

 

Luckily you didn’t drive any further than you did

 

Close call! By the way Black Vettes rule.

 

that happened to me a few years ago. driving my 72 skylark convertible down route 3 east, and all of a sudden i saw this silver 'flash' out of the corner of my eye. and then another, and then the shaking started.

by the time i pulled over, i had 2 left, and one popped out getting lugged onto the truck.

 

Damned Right !!
Impossible to keep clean but look orgasmic when polished.

 

Over 10 yrs ago, I got new tires on my '63 with KO's. I left the shop, got on the freeway and felt a shimmy. I went right back to the shop and found that 2 of the wheels had been misaligned (a problem with KO's). If they had come off, there would have been glass dust all over the freeway!

 

Question to all:
Is this something that could result from over-torquing with an impact wrench???

 

Over-torquing can stretch the lug bolts, causing them to "neck" and weaken

 

That bites. Hopefully the repairs won't be too bad.

 

Actually, the repairs are done, I got to pick it up today evening.
He replaced 4 out of 5 studs on the wheel.

Damage was about $120 with labor

 

yep thats what probably happened. one missing lug nut will not cause that. I had one missing on my 81 the whole time I owned it. just never got around to fixing it. two tight lugs will hold that rim on. but use all 5 to be safe. you were very close to having fiberglass damage

 

my dads 74 had the driver rear fall off and it stuck between the t-arm and wheel well area....... some glass damage...... i think 2 studs were broken....he thought that soemone might have tried to steal the rims and realized there was 2 locking lugs..........

good thing it didn't fall off



b

 

same thing happened to me end of last summer in my 76. Problem was, the wheel actually came off. Luckily I wasn't going fast and was slowing down to see what the shaking was. Amazingly there was no major damage other than the lugs and the fact that it's hard to drive on 3 wheels. When I took it all apart to put new lugs in I inspected everything and there actually wasn't any other noticable damage. Praise God. Glad the same fate didn't befall you.

 

Thats not to bad. I don't even want to know how much it will cost me to get my rear fender painted after the tire came apart on me.

 

No way! Everybody knows the BLUE ones are faster!

Seriously, what should I set my torque wrench to when I'm tightening my STOCK wheels? I haven't any idea...