Left hand lug bolts question

[PurpleBeeper]

I believe the left handed studs were from '70-'72 only on the driver's side. My stepfather told me a story... He saw a huge, muscular guy changing a flat tire on a '70-'72 Duster (driver side) trying to impress his girlfriend. He snapped one stud in half......then a 2nd one....and then a 3rd stud snapped in half. Then my stepfather walked up and said, "you know those are left-handed studs, right?"

 

[zyzzyx]

Left-hand, Right -hand, sounds like some Engineer had a lot of idle time on his hands! He probably made
40 grand a year doing useless **** like that. Probably the same guy who made the decision to not put
torque boxes and frame connectors on all the cars. Just glad he didn't work for the engine department! Ha!

 

[Jerry Hall]

Left-hand, Right -hand, sounds like some Engineer had a lot of idle time on his hands! He probably made
40 grand a year doing useless **** like that. Probably the same guy who made the decision to not put

torque boxes and frame connectors on all the cars. Just glad he didn't work for the engine department! Ha!

In the muscle car era 62-72 I think they did a great job, we can all attest to that 50 years down the road. What you call useless **** worked and even with loose lug nuts the wheels didn't fly off. My grandfather was a mechanical engineer in the 50's and 60's. I'm told he made great money for the time, around 18-20K a year. Real good money considering started work for a major company in 1965 at $68.50 a week.

 

[YY1]

1966 at least until 70 or 71 IIRC

My 66 has them and my 72 does not

 

[GetX'd]

I swapped my left hand for right hand when I restored the car a few years ago. Just made for one less thing the uneducated had to know.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I swapped my left hand for right hand when I restored the car a few years ago. Just made for one less thing the uneducated had to know.

Yeah, me too. You definitely have A LOT easier time finding lug nuts & not having to worry about a shop not being able to get the lug nuts off. I've taken my Mopar to a couple shops over the years (twice I can think of). The last time was for a brake problem I just couldn't figure out (bad new proportioning valve from Inline) & when I got the car back, the shop manager said, "You had some weird studs/lug nuts so we changed them all to right-handed threads" (I think he was a Chevy guy). The only real issue I ran into with left-handed studs was finding deep well lug nuts for Centerlines back in the 80's

 

[DeltaV]

My '70 Charger has them.
My '71 Satellite did not.
My '72 Fury III did not.

 

[pearljam724]

While we’re on the subject. What’s the proper length to order new ones ?

 

[Jerry Hall]

you collect those? i have a tin somewheres full,with the lug nuts.

Same deal, box them up and let me know. 36092 is my zip.

 

[Cranky]

My '70 Charger has them.
My '71 Satellite did not.
My '72 Fury III did not.

When did you acquire the cars? My 72 Challenger that I got in 74 had the left front changed out after a crash but the left rear was still left handed. I bought the car that way in the summer of 74 and when I was going to fix a leaking LF tire, I found out it was right handed and took a closer look as to why since the LR was left handed. That's when I found out the car had been wrecked. I parted cars in the 70's and did a 71 road runner and remember that it had left handed lugs on it....

 

[DeltaV]

When did you acquire the cars? My 72 Challenger that I got in 74 had the left front changed out after a crash but the left rear was still left handed. I bought the car that way in the summer of 74 and when I was going to fix a leaking LF tire, I found out it was right handed and took a closer look as to why since the LR was left handed. That's when I found out the car had been wrecked. I parted cars in the 70's and did a 71 road runner and remember that it had left handed lugs on it....

'70 Charger was acquired in 1985 from owner #2 who had it only for a very brief time.

'71 Satellite was acquired in 1974 from my parents who acquired it in early 1972 as a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer demo. It had around 3,300 miles at that time.

'72 Fury III acquired in 1987 from owner #1. It had 102k miles at that time.

 

[Cranky]

'70 Charger was acquired in 1985 from owner #2 who had it only for a very brief time.

'71 Satellite was acquired in 1974 from my parents who acquired it in early 1972 as a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer demo. It had around 3,300 miles at that time.

'72 Fury III acquired in 1987 from owner #1. It had 102k miles at that time.

It's pretty wild what ChryCo did with their cars. I've found lots of stuff over the years that was supposed to happen and did not and things that wasn't supposed to happen but did....

 

[mobileparts]

Left Hand Studs have N O T been manufactured by ANY company in over a decade now....
That, being said, I still have EVERY "B", "E", "A", and "C"
Body Left Hand Stud -- at this moment in time --
Front & Rear , Drum & Disc !!!!!! N.O.S. ONLY....
AND, for those who are guessing when they ceased to be utilized by the car manufacturers, MOPAR was
"Stubborn" to the very end.... 1970...
Starting with their 1971 models -- they squashed it
also.... (Canadians might chime in and say "we still had it" but those cars (sorry, eh?) we're "Left overs"!!)
Yours, Craig

 

[Kern Dog]

Although I like and agree with most of Chrysler Corp. engineering and design from the 60s and 70s, the LEFT hand thread idea was annoying and unnecessary.

 

[khryslerkid]

Working on vehicles way back when, it was probably one of the first things you learned about Mopars. Sometimes you learned the hard way! It was just par for the course along with many things manufacturers did back then and are still stumping mechanics today on the newer vehicles. I can think of other things that Ford, GM and AMC did that didn't make sense either. Oh and lets not forget the foreign manufacturers!

 

[Photon440]

The left hand idea wasn't just Mopar. Until 1965 a lot of Olds, Buick and Pontiacs has LH threads on that side. Jeep kept it up until 1971. Rolls Royce and Bentley used them until at least the late 1980s. Ford F-350 dualies had them until 1986 in 9/16 size. Common on semi-trucks and trailers in 3/4" and up, no problem finding new studs and complete hubs in that configuration.

 

[BBishere2]

Some moron with an air gun tightened the studs on my 1968 Coronet R/T far too much - when I went to change wheels - 19 out of the 20 snapped off. It's amazing that they didn't do that driving down the road - however, you may find out like I did that the geniuses at MOPAR put 2 different sizes of knurls on those studs and did use both sizes on the same hubs - so I had to buy 4 boxes of studs - 2 left hand and 2 right hand - 80 studs in all and then return the ones I didn't use - talk about a pain in the ***, not to mention that even back then (1974) at $1.00 per stud, that was $80 bucks to a kid in high school working at McDonalds for $1.60 per hour!

The studs snapped off as I tried to turn the breaker bar on them to take them off - no warning, no turning, just snap and they broke. Needless to say, the air was a dark blue around there for some time.....

 

[OKDart]

Although I like and agree with most of Chrysler Corp. engineering and design from the 60s and 70s, the LEFT hand thread idea was annoying and unnecessary.

It was a lot more common in the early years, not just Mopar, because is worked. 10-15 years ago, someone posted a video of chrysler engineers testing the theory on a car. I've tried searching for that video, but can't find it.

Any vehicles or trailers you see on the side of the road missing a wheel due to it coming loose will be on the L/H side most of the time. I keep mine L/H when I can, lots of lug nut selection on Ebay.

Bicycle pedals are the same way, for the same reason.

 

[Cranky]

Although I like and agree with most of Chrysler Corp. engineering and design from the 60s and 70s, the LEFT hand thread idea was annoying and unnecessary.

I wouldn't say it was unnecessary. I was driving my dad's 67 Chevy and heard a knocking sound. Don't know if it would have been felt at speed or not since it was the only time it happened but a left front wheel was loose. This was way back in 68 or so and the way I found the problem was pushing on the tops of all the tires with my foot (saw a older guy do that a couple of years earlier and asked what he was doing) to see if there was any movement and that one moved. Thinking it was worse than it was, I popped the poverty cap off and saw all five nuts just about ready to come off and yes, all five were backed off to the same spot. My assumption was someone didn't tighten them after fixing a flat. Don't remember having a flat with his work truck so it must have been my dad

 

[wagonman]

Last summer when building a Gasser the drag link from Speedway was a bit to long. Had to shorten it and it left to few threads for the tie rod end. Try finding a 5/8 left hand fine thread tap. Well low and behold the local machine supply had one in stock. $30 made in China and will probably be used once. Good thing it wasnt a LH metric thread. Over engineering was Mopars forte till the bean counters stepped in. Say K car!