Left Hand lug nuts ?

WEB · Post by **WEB** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:36 am

Greetings to all,

I have always wanted an older military jeep and finally found one that doesn't have to be rebuilt from the ground up as my mechanical experience is limited. The new addition is a fire engine red 1953 m38a1 which has been heavily ciiliainized (civilian seats, wheels, ball hitch, one peice windshield, all blackouts removed, and a rollbar.) It looks almost new and drives very nice but maintenence may have been a little neglected. My 14 year old son and I plan to restore it to its former military glory,so far we have replaced most of the brake system because all five cylinders were leaking due to pitting from not replacing the brake fluid. I have learned a ton from this website already and will surely have plenty of questions in the future.

So I will start off with an easy one. Why are the lugnuts/studs on the drivers side, a left hand thread pitch? Or is it just my jeep?

evanso1975 · Post by **evanso1975** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:32 am

Many older (pre-1970?) vehicles have left hand lug nuts on the drivers side. Basically a safety thing; if the nuts haven't been torqued down, the rotation of the wheels when driving forwards prevents the left hand lug nuts from loosening (and leaving you minus 2 wheels on the driver's side). Similarly, that's why the passenger side ones are right hand.

Welcome to the site, and have fun with your project.

artificer · Post by **artificer** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:14 pm

They can safely be replaced with all RH treaded ones, if that is your wish.

WEB · Post by **WEB** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:58 pm

I was thinking that it might be something like that. Kind of like the left hand pedal on a bicycle, but it just didn't make sense to me how that would pertain to wheels . Thanks for the info.

Wyatt

artificer · Post by **artificer** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:12 pm

Certain marques like Dodge/Chrysler used this until the early/mid 50's when they realized it made no real difference.

Post by **wesk** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:53 pm

It had a lot to do with old habits. The early wagon and motor car car wheels seldom had any self locking feature for their lug nuts. The nuts were usually plain flat nuts against a plain flat surface on the wheel and in many cases there was only a hub nut again with no modern self locking devices. Then along came the raised dimple lug holes in the wheels and the angled face lug nuts and the issue was solved. When torqued properly the raised dimple maintains pressure against the tapered nuts and essentially locks them.

Phil4280 · Post by **Phil4280** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:12 pm

I have also found it being used on modern trucks as well Being military and civilian .

Phil...

jaycee · Post by **jaycee** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:18 am

with regard to your brake cylinders, you can send them to white post restorations and have them brass sleeved and rebuilt which makes them forever cylinders,but it is expensive. jeep parts are easy to come by but i mention it because it might appeal to some folks and also some jeepers may have interests in other antique vehicles where parts are made from exotic "unobtainium alloy"