Stripped Hubcentric Spacer Stud

[Heardcuh]

I bought two sets of these hubcentrics from American Muscle a couple weeks ago.

http://www.americanmuscle.com/1in-billet-aluminum-wheel-spacers-2015.html

When I put them on, the install was very easy and I was pleased the with look. I torqued each nut from the spacers to my hub to 90lb/ft by hand, and then torqued my wheels down to the spacers at 150lb/ft by hand. Today when I was removing the wheels to retorque the spacers as per the instructions, I started with the passenger front, went great. Then the passenger rear, and the first one I begin to remove, I notice it's taking a long time to remove so I begin the others and loosen them, and go back to the first one - it's just spinning.

I start to think this could take up a lot more time than I bargained for and call American muscle. I get connected to a fellow named Jeff, explain to him my problem and listens politely before asking if I'd hold while he confers with another associate. So that's fine, he comes back with an idea to grip the nut and pull it out while turning it somehow.

I use needle nose vice grips to grab on to the lug and a crescent wrench to twist the pliers while pulling back. This does nothing expect mar up my performance package wheels. So I tell Jeff, (who during this exchange was all you could ask for in a rep, so I hope AM gives him some recognition) that when I eventually get my wheel off that I'd like to know what's going to be the deal about having these warranty replaced and if I can have them shipped out before I have to ship this pair back so I don't have to drive around without them or have to swap them around creating extra work and time lost for me. He says that typically AM would like their product in route back first before they send them and I tell him that's understandable, you don't want people not sending back your stuff and keeping it all.

We decide about maybe I'll purchase a new pair as a sign of good faith and then send the defective back with the other good one for a refund. That way AM doesn't have to front them, and it's most convenient for me. He says to hold again for a bit so he can discuss it with his supervisor. So I wait, and he comes back with disappointing news. His supervisor said that they will expedite shipping me a pair but I will pay full price and not receive any refund. I tell him this is under the assumption that the part is not defective, and that I made the error - which I take a little offense to because I specially did everything carefully and by hand to avoid anything going wrong. So I tell him I understand it's not his fault to bear me the bad news and I know it's above his head but I'm pretty disappointed.

Now I have to get ready for work and I don't have time to drill the thing out, so I'm stuck with it on, my PP wheel is marred, and it seems that at least one supervisor at AM will not support a customer for something as small at a defective wheel spacer.

So the point of all of this is be extra careful with that particular wheel spacer, this situation was pretty defeating.

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[BlueThunder]

I'm not sure how those lugs that come installed are secured inside the spacers. That's what it sounds like came loose. It's not the threads, it's whatever holds it in. So when you try to remove it, the whole thing is spinning.

You might want to contact Coyote directly https://coyoteaccessories.com/ as they will probably have a better idea as to how to get it out and what possibly went wrong.

Just for argument's sake and I know it's not the most appealing idea, but have you tried tightening it? I'd leave all 4 of the others on at their normal torque. Tighten up the loose one if possible to spec. Then get your breaker bar in a good position (and cover your door/fender with a blanket or something just in case) and try giving the bar a quick shot that will hopefully get the lug-nut loose quickly enough that it will spin out by hand.

Otherwise, I got nothing. And I just installed these exact ones recently. Only thing I do that's probably different than most is I torque in increments. Finger-tighten so it's sitting flush, slowly ratchet them so they're a bit tighter, then torqued (star pattern each time) the actual spacers to 80, then 120 (as per the recommended specs on CJPonyParts video), then the same thing with the wheels only difference I did 100 then 150, waiting about a minute in-between each tightening.

Good luck man.

 

[Heardcuh]

[MENTION=25248]BlueThunder[/MENTION] thanks man I will contact coyote. Also yeah I tried tightening and loosening it back and forth with an impact wrench just now. No luck just spins super fast.

 

[BlueThunder]

@BlueThunder thanks man I will contact coyote. Also yeah I tried tightening and loosening it back and forth with an impact wrench just now. No luck just spins super fast.

Yeesh. Funny we were talking about these in another thread and I couldn't find anybody who had any problems which is why I went for it. Only other way I can think of, which is sort of what AM recommended, is that you need to exert a lot of force outwards as you try to unscrew the lug-nut, essentially using friction to hold the inside bolt against the spacer from spinning while you unscrew the lug.

Not sure what to try. If it spins fairly freely maybe a vice grips over something protective yet grippy and then pull hard/turn at the same time. Otherwise you're wedging something into a socket and then hammering it onto the lug-nut, but then you're still vice-gripping the socket so you can pull on it.

Might be able to push hard on the wheel 180 degrees from where the stuck lug is while you turn, or even get somebody to pull on the wheel closest to where the lug is to exert enough friction pressure against it, just make sure it's jacked/lifted securely.

 

[yellowstangatl]

These were probably cross threaded. Do you put on your lugs with an impact? Do you always hand thread the nuts on first? I did this on my last mustang on multiple studs. I don't use an impact on lug nuts anymore.

 

[ITSMEPAUL]

I don't use an impact on lug nuts anymore.

A-1

 

[jbailer]

Chad, unfortunately you know this now but if not, you had the right idea with torquing the wheels but got it backwards, that's why it stripped. The torque spec is for the studs/hub. So you should have been torquing the wheel adapters to the hub at 150 lb ft and then torquing the wheels to the adapter at 90-95 lb ft per the specs for the Coyote wheel adapters.

 

[Heardcuh]

[MENTION=15518]jbailer[/MENTION] oh god. So I'm gonna have to check them all now. Hopefully the rest are as good as the front passenger and I can tighten the hubs down even more and then keep the wheels looser

 

[BlueThunder]

I'm not sure that's correct. In fact most of the information I found stated that the actual adapter should be up to 120 because of the smaller nuts and you don't want to crack the adapter. This guy states about 120 on the small nut holding on the spacer, and in the questions he says 120 on the spacer and 150/factory spec on the wheel. Says the same thing for a few different adapters including the Eibachs (not sure if CJPP sells the Coyotes, but they're all pretty much the same thing, 6061 billet aluminum).

I'd check directly with Coyote before you do anything to be certain.

http://www.cjponyparts.com/wheel-sp...black-pair-v6-ecoboost-gt-2015-2017/p/WHSP19/

 

[jbailer]

I'm not sure that's correct. In fact most of the information I found stated that the actual adapter should be up to 120 because of the smaller nuts and you don't want to crack the adapter. This guy states about 120 on the small nut holding on the spacer, and in the questions he says 120 on the spacer and 150/factory spec on the wheel. Says the same thing for a few different adapters including the Eibachs (not sure if CJPP sells the Coyotes, but they're all pretty much the same thing, 6061 billet aluminum).

I'd check directly with Coyote before you do anything to be certain.

http://www.cjponyparts.com/wheel-sp...black-pair-v6-ecoboost-gt-2015-2017/p/WHSP19/

Yes, I highly recommend checking with Coyote. Don't just take my word for it and I'm not being facetious. It's a costly and time consuming mistake. The torque spec follows the stud. The factory stud is much beefier than the one on the adapter. Ford's spec is 150 lb ft. It doesn't matter if you are bolting a wheel or an adapter to the hub. Coyote uses a 14mm stud (listed on the box). According to their chart (on the box) the torque for that stud is 85-95 lb ft.

EDIT: After re-reading your post and going to that link, I think you misunderstood the OP's issue. He used the torque spec of the adapter to bolt the adapter to the hub and the factory torque spec to bolt the wheel to the adapter which is backwards. I also HIGHLY doubt you can crack that adapter with those lugs. We are talking about 2 flat surfaces. I'm pretty sure you'd strip it long before it cracks. The factory lug has a recommendation of 150 lb ft, not sure what the quality of the spacer's nut is. I think when Bill said 120 lb ft in the video for the small nut, he was probably worried about the nut stripping, just a guess though.

 

[jbailer]

Figured I'd include these pics for reference.

 

[Heardcuh]

Lol this is getting confusing. The way I understood it was tighten by hand, the spacer TO the car at 95lbft and the WHEEL to the spacer at 150 as per instructions. I specifically didn't use my impact wrench on any of this to place it safe and still somehow this one stud on the spacer is just spinning away and I can't get the wheel off.

 

[BlueThunder]

Yes, I highly recommend checking with Coyote. Don't just take my word for it and I'm not being facetious. It's a costly and time consuming mistake. The torque spec follows the stud. The factory stud is much beefier than the one on the adapter. Ford's spec is 150 lb ft. It doesn't matter if you are bolting a wheel or an adapter to the hub. Coyote uses a 14mm stud (listed on the box). According to their chart (on the box) the torque for that stud is 85-95 lb ft.

EDIT: After re-reading your post and going to that link, I think you misunderstood the OP's issue. He used the torque spec of the adapter to bolt the adapter to the hub and the factory torque spec to bolt the wheel to the adapter which is backwards. I also HIGHLY doubt you can crack that adapter with those lugs. We are talking about 2 flat surfaces. I'm pretty sure you'd strip it long before it cracks. The factory lug has a recommendation of 150 lb ft, not sure what the quality of the spacer's nut is. I think when Bill said 120 lb ft in the video for the small nut, he was probably worried about the nut stripping, just a guess though.

So that guy at CJPP is wrong then? Or they have a flunky that uses his account to answer questions improperly....yikes. I went by that and a few other similar videos I found, but I'm guessing they just followed that because the actual instructions Coyote provided are a little off. They say to install the adapter with the factory "open-ended lug nuts" which we know we don't have with the cap lugs. Then install the tire onto the adapter using the supplied nuts.

So we have to swap the nuts around to make it work. Thankfully I've already taken mine off and tightened the adapter to the spacer at 120 and put the wheel back on with no problem. Guessing I'll take the wheels off again, check the spacers to 120 (I think that's fine for those) and then put the wheels back on at 100 (easier to measure on my torque wrench) and see how it feels.

Thanks jbailer.

 

[Heardcuh]

Called Coyote, pressed 2 for customer service and got to the voicemail of someone named "Ross" I think, sounded like Roz. Left a message explaining what happened, what AM thought and if we could discuss a free replacement if I sent them the offending part. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

[BlueThunder]

Called Coyote, pressed 2 for customer service and got to the voicemail of someone named "Ross" I think, sounded like Roz. Left a message explaining what happened, what AM thought and if we could discuss a free replacement if I sent them the offending part. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Any luck getting your wheel off?

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