As title really. A friends Tiger (golf front hubs) has an issue where the front wheel nuts keep coming loose. On closer inspection it seems the wheel studs are lose. The wheel nuts will tighten up, but after a short distance two of them come loose again. Also there is movement in the disk, which I assume is because a grub screw is missing. They obviously tighten up as the wheel nuts are tightened.

So how are the studs held to the hubs? They just look like bolts poked through from the back. Are they usually spot welded in place or something?

ta

Dan

Ford studs have splines which are pressed into the hub - they should take a few heavy whacks to remove them. You might have the wrong studs with smaller splines.

Hi Dan,

wheel studs are normally a tight splined fit into the hubs. They have many small splines (a bit like that on a gearbox output shaft only smaller). The studs are then driven in from the back and are usually pretty solid. If you're hubs have had them replaced at some time it may be that they are either the wrong size or very worn.

I have changed mine 2 or 3 times during the build and they are still fine.

HTH

John

[Edited on 10/5/11 by Daddylonglegs]

Try new studs with one of the more permanent Loctite STUD N BEARING grades

The small screw that holds the disc to the hub is not overly important; it's only to stop the disc coming loose when you remove the wheel. With the wheel in place the disc is fully located by the studs and by the clamping force of the wheel.

Thanks guys - I'll go and have a look at it later.

Take the disc off and check there's no rust behind the area where it seats, even a good layer of paint can cause problems.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, but, I thought VW's used bolts not studs. But I could be wrong.

On my Super Six (mk1 Golf GTI front hubs), it uses wheel bolts, not studs.

Are you sure that some bodge monkey hasn't just wound some bolts into the back of the hub to form wheel studs? So they can use wheel nuts rather than bolts?

Sounds like the sort of thing that might be done as a temporary fix when you have some wheel nuts and some M12 hex bolts lying around, but can't find any proper wheel bolts.....

Tightening the wheel nut would have the effect of winding the bolt out of the hub as well, which may be why they are coming loose.

You can get stud conversion kits, maybe it has these but they have been improperly installed?

Thanks for all the input guys. Just to close out on this I went and had a look last night. The from hubs are VW, but they have evidently been re-drilled to a Ford bolt pattern to match the Cortina rear end. For this reason the studs just sit in a drilled hole and actually the studs rattle around in them. They are therefore spot-welded in place at the rear and these welds have failed. Options are to get some larger studs and wack em in or re-weld. We're going to re-weld in the interim. I suspect most Six owners will have the same. I have a Super Six Independent and interestingly the front is Ford while the rears are re-drilled VW!

Would imagine that any weld on a cast steel hub would fail, probably as soon as the weld cooled. just my opinion.

tony

Hmmm strange - I'd have thought that with everything done up nice and tight there'd be no movement leading to loosening even if the studs were just sitting in clearance holes. Are you sure there's nothing else going on - like vibration from an unbalanced wheel or hub with runout, incorrect/damaged taper on the nuts, incorrect torque, dirt/corrosion, etc? Maybe worth a good check? Most likely the obvious seeming root cause you've already identified, i guess.