sunflower 1972

Which way to loosen the locking nut. Pull the wrench towards the front of the car, or pull the wrench to the back of the car? I've ALWAYS had an issue with left hand threaded items. The front of the car is the right side of the photo.

jim2527

Counter clockwise as pictured... so towards the rear. Think of the nut as being a lid on a jar. Right hand threads you'd 'remove' the lid. Left hand threads you'd 'tighten' the lid.

caskiguy

righty, tighty, lefty, loosie/ or reverse for left hand thread

sunflower 1972

Now I'm really confused. The photo is the front inner part of the rear strut rod on the RH side. In my mind, looking at the photo, counter clockwise would be pulling the wrench towards the front, or to right in the photo.

sunflower 1972

Wrench handle is hanging down. Move it to the 3 or the 9 to loosen?

derekderek

Think of it as a regular right-hand thread. now put the wrench on it and tighten it. which will be pulling the wrench handle towards the 3. rotating the nut over the top towards the 9.

70Yellowbird

Hold up a bolt w/nut in the same orientation as the one you are working on. Turn the nut, paying attention to whether it's loosening or tightening.

naramlee

im giggling so hard right now, did I post this? cuz im the same way :P

Shark Racer

I follow the right-hand rule when I'm upside down and backwards and starting to get a mental block.

When tightening a right-hand bolt, using your right hand, put your thumb in line with the bolt body and head, your palm on the body of the wrench. Rotating so that your palm puts pressure on the wrench would tighten it. With left-hand thread, this same activity would loosen the bolt. Going back to the simple right-hand thread, another way of looking at it is if were to only use your palm to apply pressure on the wrench, torque would be applied in the direction of your thumb pointing if it's perpendicular to your palm. (IE thumb and pointer finger in an L-shape).

Essentially, the right-hand rule from physics is an explanation of where the linear application of torque goes, but conveniently it can be used for figuring out which direction torque is applied.

L88Plus

Put a damned wrench on it and give it a try. If it gets harder to turn, you're turning it the wrong way.

Why are you trying to make this more complicated than it is? Considering a sex change and want to get a head start on what it's like inside a woman's head?

Shark Racer

When bolts have already been tightened to significant torque values and require some leverage to break free, this advice may not work at all - it will feel equally difficult in either direction.

slofut

Those are coarse threads, look closely at them and they will reveal which way the nut needs to turn.

ignatz

Almost all you need to know, look which way the threads seem to go into the nut and turn in that direction to loosen.

Buccaneer

Is this thread for real? Like #8 I had to LOL a bit. How many members does it take to explain which way to loosen or tighten a nut, not trying to be funny, just honest.

Bergerboy

Can we now move on to Lightbulbs please???

ignatz

I posted once about measuring underhood temps and got lectured by all and sundry about the best way to convert Centigrade to Fahrenheit. Not too much about the actual numbers. Everybody's got an opinion which is usually better than anybody else's.

revitup

Where the heck is there a LH thread here?

Bikespace

The adjustable strut rods are basically a turnbuckle shaft and a pair of heim joints. One RH, one LH, like your tie rods.

I put red electrical tape on the LH thread ends, and make sure they end up on the port (left) side of the car, to make it easier to remember which way to turn them. Even then, I get it wrong half the time and have to look at the pitch of the threads.

dmaxx3500

are you using the ''CORRECT'' left handed wrenches?

Bikespace

The right hand rule works for electromagnetic fields, too. Just remember that electrons flow in the opposite direction of current (Thanks Ben Franklin!), and everything is backwards in Australia.