Wheel bolt torque setting for Sprint 1.7

Hi guys, whats the torque settings for the wheel bolts on the 1.7 Sprint?

I'm planning at some point to wire brush down the bolt heads and spray them with some cold galv spray to give them a fresher look.

Cheers, Mark

My Sud haynes manual says 65lbs/ft.
Do the rallycar up to 70 using assorted alloys and steels with no problems.
rsfruitbat

Do you torque your wheel bolts!!!??

You are supposed to torque them and you will find that 'good' garages will do this after re-fitting a wheel to cover themselves.
I personally have never bothered and have never had a wheel fall off or been unable to undo one!

Originally Posted by garry-graig

Do you torque your wheel bolts!!!??

Always

meant to have a look in my haynes manual today mark but forgot, sorry but i see rsfruitbat has beaten me to it
is it not in your haynes manual that igave you you have the one with the sprint supplement, not sure if alloys have a different rating to steels on the sud/sprint . i know some cars do have different settings.

I've never used a torque wrench for this (life is too short) but was taught to always pull up to tighten / loosen in the first instance - less likelyhood of slipping off and grazing knuckles.
The one thing to watch with alloys is the heat from the brakes affecting things - I do always re-check after a heat cycle just to make sure (that will be the back wheels on the sud then!
I also put a thin smear of copper-ease on the wheel hub faces to prevent the alloys sticking onto the hubs. The advice used to be to use this on the nuts / bolts as well but not any more as it can apparently help the bolts come undone on their own.
KR James (up with the boy at 05.45...)

Essential components including wheel bolts/nuts require the correct torque fastening.: Worst case scenario is loose wheel fixings, or going beyond the yield point, for the same difference?:

I've never in my life used a torque wrench on wheel bolts. I know you should but when I started driving I didnt have a torque wrench or even think to use one on wheel bolts, 20 years on I still do it by feel

Thinking about it I've probably tightened up 10,000 wheel bolts in that time

The reason why I torque my wheel bolts is this.
As well as competing on rallies I also marshal. Many years ago I was on the top of a mountain in Wales about 2 miles in to the first stage. It was a fast , straight piece of road with a big drop on one side. As this Mk 2 Escort came up the hill at a great rate of knots. His front wheel came off and he nearly spun off the mountain .
On inspection the wheel nut threads had stripped . The other wheels didnt look much better. I asked him how tight he did his wheel nuts up and he said a couple of grunts .
An event of this type costs £450 to enter. He had travelled from Yorkshire (250 miles) with his service crew and booked accommodation for them all £250?. Petrol for van there and back £200.
If you tot all this up those wheel nuts shearing apart from potentially a major accident cost him at todays prices best part of a £1000.
Its up to you but I will continue investing that little bit of time torquing up my wheel nuts thankyou

rsfruitbat

Originally Posted by RSFruitbat

My Sud haynes manual says 65lbs/ft.
Do the rallycar up to 70 using assorted alloys and steels with no problems.
rsfruitbat

Thanks for that.

Originally Posted by kevjtd

meant to have a look in my haynes manual today mark but forgot, sorry but i see rsfruitbat has beaten me to it
is it not in your haynes manual that igave you you have the one with the sprint supplement, not sure if alloys have a different rating to steels on the sud/sprint . i know some cars do have different settings.

I didn't look to be honest Kev. Wasn't sure if the 1.7 was the same as 1.5 and that.

Originally Posted by RSFruitbat

The reason why I torque my wheel bolts is this.
As well as competing on rallies I also marshal. Many years ago I was on the top of a mountain in Wales about 2 miles in to the first stage. It was a fast , straight piece of road with a big drop on one side. As this Mk 2 Escort came up the hill at a great rate of knots. His front wheel came off and he nearly spun off the mountain .
On inspection the wheel nut threads had stripped . The other wheels didnt look much better. I asked him how tight he did his wheel nuts up and he said a couple of grunts .
An event of this type costs £450 to enter. He had travelled from Yorkshire (250 miles) with his service crew and booked accommodation for them all £250?. Petrol for van there and back £200.
If you tot all this up those wheel nuts shearing apart from potentially a major accident cost him at todays prices best part of a £1000.
Its up to you but I will continue investing that little bit of time torquing up my wheel nuts thankyou

rsfruitbat

fords have a nasty habit of the taper on the wheel nut being flattened when the nuts are over-tightened on steel wheels, seen plenty of mondeo's and transit's come in with that problem. prabably what caused matey's wheel to come off, 'what do you tightened them to? - f.t. ! (f***ing tight) ' seems to be the way with some!
i have actually refused to fit customers own wheels back on with damaged nuts before, if i fit them and they come loose then i am responsible
must say though that fiats/alfas/lancias are usually ok

Suspect that was told to pull up to tighten to stop overtightening them- never had a problem but might just check as the torque wrench is out and about anyway - interesting exercise.
James

I certainly torque mine up, and from my observations most of the regular competitors involved in racing Alfas in the Trofeo series in NZ do so as a matter of routine.

It costs nothing extra to do it (if you have the torque wrench) its good practice and just a part of making sure that everything is dead right when you are out driving. Stops the studs being overstressed too.

Some of the guys can even be seen rechecking the nuts between events. Heat and vibration can do funny things.

One of our guys did have a wheel on a S2 33 all but come off on the track, and has he "got religion" on this subject now !!! :-)

I torque my race car 'nuts' to 70lbs.

Everything should be torqued if your a purist....