NSW motor vehicle licence at 75year old

[Geoff_H]

21 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

The recommended torque for the wheel nuts on my car is 88-108 NM, alloy wheels. Whenever I get new tyres the tyre shop tightens them so tight with a rattle gun they are impossible to get off with a standard spare wheel brace supplied with the car. They are even hard to remove with the long handle of my 1/2 inch drive socket set. I then torque them all to 90NM and if I have a puncture I can undo them all with the standard spare wheel brace.

 

So many people have never changed a wheel these days and have no idea what to do except make a phone call.

 

You won't usually find the torque settings in the specifications or Wheels section of the owners handbook. Check the "For Emergencies" section which will have details regarding changing a wheel. That is where the torque settings are in my cars handbook.

Only go to a garage that has a torque limiter attached to a rattle gun.  It is what I do with my alloy wheels, observe the setting and attachment of the device.  And when they say that they won't let the car back on the road without them as tight as possible, inform them of their knowledge inadequacies and publish the company on social media. 

[spacesailor]

And Who mends their own punctures now ! ,

Only offroad 4 wheel drive knuts like me , ( tyre Pliers  ) anyone .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

Wheel studs are pretty reliable, and have a lot of inbuilt strength. The three biggest problems are;

 

1. Tyre-fitter dills using torque wrenches to fully tighten nuts, instead of just snugging them up, and finishing them off by hand.

2. Extremely dry threads and rust causing stud thread pickup ("galling"). I always use a tiny bit of anti-seize - despite Toyota stating that no lubricant should be used on wheel studs.

3. The failure to understand that steel wheels utilise a tapered cone for the nut - but alloy wheels virtually always utilise a flat seat and a steel washer under the nut.

 

You get people using coned nuts on alloy rims, when they have a flat seat - which is a recipe for losing wheels.

 

The standard wheelbrace in the vehicle toolkit is all you need to use, to reach the required nut torque - but the nuts tighten with extended use, and generally require extra leverage to undo.

Turbo brings up a very good point about ensuring mating surfaces are clean, and free of paint, dirt, dust etc.

[facthunter]

And always tighten all the nuts a little bit to centre them and then tighten fully  The problem with the  studs is ALL the stress goes in a small length, and the taper means the drive goes through the  studs in shear if the clamping force is not enough.  Nev

[Geoff_H]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

Wheel studs are pretty reliable, and have a lot of inbuilt strength. The three biggest problems are;

 

1. Tyre-fitter dills using torque wrenches to fully tighten nuts, instead of just snugging them up, and finishing them off by hand.

2. Extremely dry threads and rust causing stud thread pickup ("galling"). I always use a tiny bit of anti-seize - despite Toyota stating that no lubricant should be used on wheel studs.

3. The failure to understand that steel wheels utilise a tapered cone for the nut - but alloy wheels virtually always utilise a flat seat and a steel washer under the nut.

 

You get people using coned nuts on alloy rims, when they have a flat seat - which is a recipe for losing wheels.

 

The standard wheelbrace in the vehicle toolkit is all you need to use, to reach the required nut torque - but the nuts tighten with extended use, and generally require extra leverage to undo.

Turbo brings up a very good point about ensuring mating surfaces are clean, and free of paint, dirt, dust etc.

My car does not have a wheelbrace.  Nor a spare wheel.  Destroyed two wheels recently.  Drove about 10km on flats at 80km.  Not the normal precise steering it normally has.  

[BrendAn]

My record is 13 truck tyres in 200 km. We had to strip most of them because we carried heaps of spare tyres but no rims. Having a 900 CFM compressor and hydraulic jack legs helped a lot though 

[Thruster88]

I have a car on order that is available in near identical form from Subaru and Toyota. The Subaru has a full size spare, the Toyota which costs about 2k more for the same spec has a can of "mobility foam", would not be much fun with a wrecked tyre on a dark night. I hope all the pot holes get fixed before April '23.

[turboplanner]

2 hours ago, BrendAn said:

My record is 13 truck tyres in 200 km. We had to strip most of them because we carried heaps of spare tyres but no rims. Having a 900 CFM compressor and hydraulic jack legs helped a lot though 

What was the cause of the flats?

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by turboplanner

[BrendAn]

26 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

What was the cause of the flats?

 

 

 

The telfa Rd w.a corrugations and the truck was an old 8 wheel acco with a Schramm drill rig on it. Weighed nearly 30 tons all up. Different rego. It was registered as a tool carrier . I flew home from Port headland the other 2 boys drove it all the way to Perth. That 200 km of gravel used to the trip from hell. The road trains used to let all their tyres down to 70 psi at the start of the gravel then pump them all up again at the mine. Pia on a triple rt. It's all bitumen now.

Edited November 1, 2022 by BrendAn

[BrendAn]

38 minutes ago, Thruster88 said:

I have a car on order that is available in near identical form from Subaru and Toyota. The Subaru has a full size spare, the Toyota which costs about 2k more for the same spec has a can of "mobility foam", would not be much fun with a wrecked tyre on a dark night. I hope all the pot holes get fixed before April '23.

Is that one of those Toyota's with the Subaru engine

[Bruce Tuncks]

I was the oldest guy I knew who still did his own stuff on his car and plane. Thanks guys for telling me that this is not so silly after all.

There was a commercial place where he bragged that he actually used real oil on changes, Apparently, lots of commercial places use cleaned-up sump oil from service places. It looks real clean if a suspicious owner checked, but it no longer has much additives left.

[Bruce Tuncks]

But it gets real hard to lie under the car or plane any more. Getting down is hard, getting up again is harder. And I have to get up lots cos I never start off with the right tools.

[Geoff_H]

Bruce, may I be so crude as to ask your age?  I have just started to allow one trusted garage to do work on my car's. Still do simple stuff, stuff that takes less than a few hours.  I absoluely agree with the having to get up to get the tools I forgot 😁

[Old Koreelah]

Understandable to pass off your maintenance work to a trusted mechanic when you get a bit long in the tooth, but do you do when he gets too old? Ours is already cutting down on major overhauls and my wife’s car needs it. 

[kgwilson]

No mechanic, sorry "automotive technician" gets under cars any more & haven't for a long time. They walk under the hoisted vehicle but still get a stiff neck.. I gave up any home mechanicals 10 years ago but won't let anyone near my aircraft & still have to turn myself in to a contortionist to get to stuff under/behind the panel.

[BrendAn]

On 01/11/2022 at 5:05 PM, BrendAn said:

Is that one of those Toyota's with the Subaru engine

they are a sporty looking thing, i looked at one and saw the boxer engine. what a surprise that was.

[facthunter]

Didn't think they were sold within Australia. nev

[BrendAn]

13 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Didn't think they were sold within Australia. nev

Edited November 2, 2022 by BrendAn

[BrendAn]

Just now, BrendAn said:

next time you go past a toyota dealer there will be a couple in the yard i would think.

[Thruster88]

Might not see any on the lot, there is a 6-8 month wait for the new GR86 or BRZ now with 2.4l boxer. Last of the light weight, manual transmission,  rear wheel drive cars.  

[Bruce Tuncks]

Best car I ever had was a Leyland P76 with the 2.6l straight 6 engine.  I would still have it but it became so unfashionable that the wife needed a new Toyota. I think it had 600,000 km and it hardly missed a beat. The worst thing was when it blew a ballast resistor and I had to make a 3 second decision whether to try and fix it or catch the bus home. It would start but stop as soon as I stopped cranking. Well I realized the problem as soon as the bus moved off with me in it , and next morning I fixed it in a few minutes.

It was the last car I understood what every pipe and wire did....  it had no computer and a single SU carb, which needed a plastic air-cleaner to be sealed with silastic. It got sold for $900, and Romano, a local guy at Elizabeth who restores old cars, nearly wept to hear that. It cost $2400 in '74.

[Bruce Tuncks]

[kgwilson]

P76 was a much reviled car but most owners loved them. I remember the TV ads where you could put a 44 gal drum in the boot.

[facthunter]

We were talking of the period 68-9 I thought.. That's the types that didn't come here. I think I saw one in Lae. PNG.

[spacesailor]

WELL !.

I,m four score, at long last.

AND I STILL DO MY OWN SERVICES .

Just need to put the engine hoist ready to haul ME up each time I go under the Paj or Delica .

AND

I put a ' mechanics pit ' in my garage .

spacesailor