Boy am I glad someone started this thread.
PLEASE DO NOT BANG ON WHEELS THAT ARE UP IN THE AIR!
If the wheel is up in the air, you are essentially banging on the bearings...and they do NOT like it.
We always firmly TAP the wing nut until it seats on the wheel with the wheel up in the air to make sure it seats. Make sure the wing nut is seated to the wheel and the wheel is seated to the hub. We then lower the car with the wheels on the ground and whack it good. As Ron said, you don't need to get "Gorilla" with the hammer here. We have never lost a wing nut and I don't beat them on hard enough to even mark the wing nut. We even use a BIG nylon hammer without any problems. We have never even used a lead hammer. Original owners may squirm, but I am confident in the fact we have driven many THOUSANDS of miles with no problems.
To take the wheel off...MAKE SURE the wheel is on the ground when you bang on it to loosen the nut. Just think about those poor bearings and you will understand why we leave the wheel on the ground.
Safety wire.
I have to admit, I will only very hesitatingly drive a car that has not been safety wired. I refuse to drive one without safety wire unless I have personally checked the nuts. I refuse to ride in one that I have not personally checked--period, no exceptions. If I ever do, (rarely), drive home without safety wire, I usually can't even make it home without becomming paranoid. I even used a claw hammer once when I got home because I was so nervous the nuts were going to fall off. However, once they are safety wired, I drive forever and forget about them.
Note:
Please bend ALL safety wire ends over to show you care and to prevent safety wire sized holes in your hands. Besides, it looks cool...please see above photo. (Yes, Ron has permission to use it.)
Antisieze,
If you don't use antisieze, you will experience the following:
Best case: You will ruin the rim and the knock off with galling. It is highly unlikely you will stop at best case.
Worst, and most probable, case; You will sieze the nut onto the hub and you will experience all sorts of new words in your vocabulary as you CUT THE WHEEL, WING NUT, AND HUB apart to disassemble the whole mess. You will be left with mess on the floor and a big hole in your wallet to fix the mess. You MUST anitsieze the threads AND the face of the knock off where it contacts the wheel face. We even antisieze the drive pins a little.
David
