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Model A, B & V8

Ford Garage

Dangerous Reproduction Lug Nuts

Shown on this page are styles of reproduction Model A Ford wheel stud (lug) nuts to watch out for.

Green is good! Red is bad!
Though the nut shown above has the correct stud shoulder relief (green), the minor diameter of the threaded portion of this nut (red) was made too large for the 1/2-20 stud size.

What this means is that the nut will still screw on the stud okay, but the amount of surface engagement between the remaining nut thread and a good wheel stud is greatly reduced and weakened.

Actually, the remaining threadform in the poor quality nut shown above is probably stronger than the thread crests on the stud itself, so the threads on the good drum stud will be deformed and ruined first, as the nut is torqued.

The terrible quality nut should survive just fine while destroying the stud!
Moral of the story: A poor quality lug nut ruins the good studs of an expensive hub and brake drum assembly, and makes a dangerous wheel attachment.

Original Ford style wheel studs are swaged into the drum and hub assembly, and have an unthreaded shoulder at their base.

Shown above is another common lug nut problem which adversely affects both the studs and the wheel attachment.

The original design lug nut on the left has the correct corresponding relief in the threads (green) to clear the unthreaded shoulder at the base of the stud.

The low quality reproduction nut on the right has the nut threads running all the way to the base of the nut and has no relief (red) for the stud shoulder.

Many reproduction nuts are missing the thread relief for the stud shoulder, and the nut threads will tighten and bottom-out on the unthreaded stud shoulder before they actually fully tighten the wheel to the drum!

Then people think they should add those fabulous (not!) conical wheel nut washers to take up the slack. Another bad idea!

The only thing the conical wheel nut washers really do is add more mis-fitting interfaces into the joint, as well as wasting valuable thread engagement length of the already-short stud.

The conical washers make a bad situation much worse. I do not care to ride in any car with conical washers on the wheels.

If conical washers are being used to try to compensate for wallowed-out lug nut holes on any wheel, then that is another big red warning flag!

Seriously?? Combining dangerous/damaged wheel(s) with 20 dangerous wheel stud nut and washer attachments??

Grow up and get a good replacement wheel ASAP! Plenty of nice original wheels are out there and available for people intelligent enough to seek and find them. (I myself have about three dozen excellent spare 19" wheels).

Get a set of the correct wheel stud nuts. Then throw away all the foolish conical washers and bad lug nuts!

Moral of the story: Use correct wheel stud nuts having the proper shoulder relief at the bottom, and throw away any wallowed out wheels and the dangerous conical washers while you are at it!

More related information on Ford Garage:

  1. For more Model A & B related information, use the Site Search box at the top or bottom of this page.
  2. Model A, B & V8 Wheel Stud Removal and Installation Swaging
  3. Model A, B & V8 Wheel Stud Chart
  4. Model A, B & V8 Swage Cutting Tool on www.goodson.com
  5. Model A & B Wheel Lug Nut Seat Reamer
  6. Model A, B & V8 KR Wilson Rear Hub Puller
  7. Model A, B & V8 Truing Hubs on A Brake Drum Lathe
  8. Model A, B & V8 Brake Drum Lathe Rear Hub Mounting
  9. Model A & B Cast Iron Front Brake Drum Comparison
  10. Model A 1931 Cast Iron Rear Brake Drum Details
  11. Early V8 Hydraulic Brake Drums for 1932-1935 Wire Wheels

November 2002