Left hand lug bolts question

Dibbons · Feb 27, 2019

Our new 1971 Road Runner had all the studs the same, which leads me to believe changeover took place in 1970.

Cranky · Feb 27, 2019

Dibbons said:
Our new 1971 Road Runner had all the studs the same, which leads me to believe changeover took place in 1970.

Explain why my 72 Challenger had LH lugs on it.....must have been a long change over lol. Mom did some strange stuff is all I can say.

YY1 · Feb 28, 2019

It's not the owners that were the problem.

It was (and still is) other people who worked on them.

It's a sound idea per physics and safety.

I printed up colorful, attention getting magnets for mine that I placed above the wheels in the event I had to take it in to a shop. However, during a disk brake conversion, it became non-cost effective to keep the LHT.

mobileparts · Feb 28, 2019

Why could a 1972 have Left Hand Wheel Lugs on it?
Left overs at the factory {No pun intended} , Canadian car (famous for that) , Bought / needed a Hub & Drum -- and the auto parts store / warehouse
back then had a Lefty in stock , or it might fall under the category / heading of "Who knows???".
When & If you need them --- we'll investigate what it is (1970 - 1972 were "lumped" together -- so it probably is the 1970 stud ) But we'll verify, for sure,
if you need or want them...... Yours, Craig.....

T5 copper · Mar 1, 2019

When I was 16 was going to change a tire on 68 Fury damn the nuts would not come off .Looked at studs they all an L on them so I went to passenger side and saw R on the studs that was my introduction to left hand thread.

Robby442 · Aug 6, 2020

6PKRTSE said:
I believe 70' was the year of the change over from l.h. to r.h. I have 4 70's coincidentally and 2 of them have l.h. and 2 of the have r.h. and all appear to still be the original studs in each car.

Happen to see your post from while back on left hand threads which I was researching for a friend. Any interest in selling one of your 70's Chargers.

6PKRTSE · Aug 13, 2020

Robby442 said:
Happen to see your post from while back on left hand threads which I was researching for a friend. Any interest in selling one of your 70's Chargers.

Nope, sorry. Nothing is for sale.

33 IMP · Aug 13, 2020

This (left hand threads, on the left hand side) is a holdover from the 1920s, when wheels were held on with bolts, not studs and nuts. My 49 business coupe, and both my 33 Imperials use drums with an alignment pin (Ever notice old steel wheels that had an extra bolt hole, or two, for some reason?) and bolts that thread into the drum. If those wheel bolts worked loose, the wheels wouldn't wobble on the studs, cause there weren't any. They just fell off! There was sound engineering reasons, they just carried the idea over till it was unnecessary.

Cranky · Aug 13, 2020

mobileparts said:
Why could a 1972 have Left Hand Wheel Lugs on it?
Left overs at the factory {No pun intended} , Canadian car (famous for that) , Bought / needed a Hub & Drum -- and the auto parts store / warehouse
back then had a Lefty in stock , or it might fall under the category / heading of "Who knows???".
When & If you need them --- we'll investigate what it is (1970 - 1972 were "lumped" together -- so it probably is the 1970 stud ) But we'll verify, for sure,
if you need or want them...... Yours, Craig.....

Had a flat my 72 Challenger LF and had a hard time getting the nuts loose because I was thinking they were left handed but they were right hand instead so went to the LR just to check and low and behold, it had left handed lugs on it. After checking closer, I found that the car had been wrecked on the left front and the LS drum had been changed and could see other evidence of it being wrecked. Even the bearing dust cap was newer looking than the RF. The car had 40k miles on it and everything else looked original to me. Learned a few good lessons with that car....never get your sister to co-sign ANYTHING, take a look at the lugs for an 'L' or an 'R' no matter what year the car is and check out the body for damage from previous owners before buying it!

33 IMP · Aug 13, 2020

Yep, the lug BOLTS on my cars have giant "L"s on them. Tire changers and brake techs in the old days used to look for stuff like that, but how many eighty year old tire guys are there out there?

copper67sat · Aug 13, 2020

My 67 Satellite has left hand studs on 3 of 4 corners - I still haven't changed them after 33 yrs. Previous owner had to replace the RF rotor and the one he got must have come from DS on the donor. He told me he had such a hard time finding one that he almost converted it to drums - this was in the late 80's.

I didn't know about left-handed lug nuts before I got that car. Found out the first time I tried to take a wheel off (LF) and couldn't get the nut to budge. Thankfully I mentioned the problem to my dad before i grabbed a bigger cheater bar and he thought he remembered Mopars having left-handed threads on the DS (dad was a Ford guy). Saved me from busting off studs. After that I learned to look for the L on the end of the stud.

Left hand lug bolts question

Dibbons

Well-Known Member

Cranky

Banned Henchman #27

YY1

Well-Known Member

mobileparts

FBBO Gold Member

T5 copper

Well-Known Member

Robby442

Member

6PKRTSE

Well-Known Member

33 IMP

FBBO Gold Member

Cranky

Banned Henchman #27

33 IMP

FBBO Gold Member

copper67sat

FBBO Gold Member

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