So how about that, front wheel flew off!
Well, Im pretty young, 23 years old getting into the hobby of muscle car restoration. Iv'e learned alot and I feel I have so much more to go! What have I learned today? 1) don't work on the car when exhausted/sleepy! 2)torque everything down!!!
So today while I was working on my 68 dart, my very first full restoration. Not first muscle car, but full resto.
I decided to drive it around my neighborhood, see if everything is going smoothly. Then out of nowhere the car lifts about 2 feet in the air (front end), as I drive over the front drivers side tire, and then WHAM! she slams right into the ground. I get out and I see the tire rolling and come to a stop by the rear. the front end drivers side is laying on the floor with the front fender panel dented in.
I take a closer look and it seems that the only thing that made contact with the floor was the disc brake. The front end was resting on the drivers side disc brake. (all other tires are still on the car, so im refering to only the drivers side front). So I dont know what can also be damaged from this, aside from the disc brake, dust shield, maybe the wheel and wheel studs and lugs, and my obvious fender dents.After the tire the car drove right into garage, started up fine and sounded good.
I jack up the car from the k member and put the tire back on and rolled it into the garage. (luckily this happened right in front of my house! thank God!)
I only found 2 lugs, which i take it the other 3 fell off on my little test drive.
my theory as to why this happened:
about 2 weeks ago, was a car show in my area, and i had some friend and family coming in from out of town and I told them that I would be there, in the Dart, with the Dart finished. So I pulled quite a few all nighters working on the car, and at most only getting 2-3 hours of sleeps, while taking down rockstar energy drinks like my life depended on it. Trying to get the car finished. When your sleepy and exhausted, your not thinking the best. So I remember I got this great deal on 15" indy mags, so I swapped out the mismatching wheels with the full set of mags ( it looked beautiful, lol) looking back I remember that all I did was snug them down, I didnt tighten them down 100%
So after the incident I checked all the lugs and they where all loose! not 1 was tight. So im sure with the lugs being loose and the car getting driven they came even more loose, with the front wheel being the first to go.
on the drivers side wheel, I take it that the other lugs fell off until there was just 2 left, seeing it wasnt on snug, with the back and fourth motion from the wheel it caused them to just pop off, causing the tire to slide of the wheel and under the car.
To me this is my #1 theory.
theory #2 is the wheel studs were not long enough for the bolts to get a nice snug fit on them, so driving the car caused them to just come right off. (dont find this to be likely.)
theory #3 The wheel stud were so rusted that the force of driving caused the threads to just strip causing the bolts to fly off, thus the wheel coming off. (more likely than theory #2, but #1 still sounds like the culprit)
Well I would love to hear if anyone else has ever encountered a similar issue! I just laughed, you know when its just so ridiculous that all you can do is laugh about it?
If anyone has an idea to what could be the issue, please let me know!
The car is a 68 dodge dart sedan, 318, 4 speed, 3.55 sure grip.
Front end out of a 73 duster, k member, disc brakes, rear drums, steering linkage, steering column, rear end. heck i feel the whole drive train might be out of the 73 duster!
So with that said the bolts that i bought for it where 1/2-20 standard mag wheel lugs. not sure if maybe these where the wrong size so they came right off, or what the deal is.
Not sure if my wheel is any good now either, It seems that the accident chipped off some of the wheel.
also, Ive been getting some tire rub on the front fender panels, are 225/60R15 to big for the front?
well thanks for reading my long story!