I Deserve a Flippin T-shirt

[wildbill23c]

Glad to here everything is ok besides a couple brake parts, could have been far worse. And let me guess you were watching that wheel and tire bounce away and thought "hmm that looks like the same wheels and tires on my Bronco II" LOL.

 

[straycat]

So I was on my way home from work with the BII, stop at the car wash, stop at the hardware store, noticed nothing off. Came back out from the hardware store and get on the road, noticed a little vibration that hadn't been there before. Figured I'd look into it when I got home.

I was about halfway home when, going about 45 MPH when the vibration got really bad and then all of a sudden went away. I think it went off into the field on the other side of the road along with my left front wheel.

I must say though, for holding the undistinguished title of "worst rollover test ever" the BII handled very well with only 3 wheels. Never felt unstable, never tried to roll. I didn't even have to think about my reactions. In fact the whole time I was trying to keep control of the vehicle my conscious mind was watching the errant wheel bounce off into the field so I could go get it back easier.


An hour later, 4 lug nuts borrowed off the Ranger, and some carefully executed mechanicing I drove her home though. All I lost was 5 lug nuts, one stud, the backing plate, and the bottom 1/4" on the rotor disc.


Now where does one go to get a shirt that says "My Bronco II lost a wheel and all I got was this stupid t-shirt"?

Dude!! You are a Ford Tech for crying out loud....man!!! I hope none of your customers ever have that issue after you worked on their car or truck....lol

Glad that nothing happened to you. Lucky Day, Eh??

 

[adsm08]

A friend of mine had that happen in his S-10, it's spooky how fast it actually happens. His steering wheel started shaking and about the time he thought "oh shit, I'd better get off the road" , off shot his drivers side front tire. The tire never hit anyone thank god.

That is more or less exactly how it went. I was going to pull over at the next good spot, then it got really bad, and shoom- there goes my wheel.

Do you know why the wheel flew off? Just curious.

Well, after checking all the lug nuts on all the wheels, the evidence points to my error. The rears were good, the right front was not in immediate danger of coming off, but it was not as tight as it should have been. I probably put them on with my electric impact while the battery was low and never double checked them.

Holy cow. Do you have skid marks in your pants now?

Sounds like a pucker moment for sure.

No to both. I actually handled the emergency driving on auto-pilot while watching my wheel bounce off through the field thinking 'Oh, that probably isn't good'.

You won't get a "flippin" T-shirt...because you didn't flip it...

Yeah, well the forum software would have filtered out my original choice of an F word.

And let me guess you were watching that wheel and tire bounce away and thought "hmm that looks like the same wheels and tires on my Bronco II" LOL.

Nope, just "gotta see where that lands so I can go get it", and the aforementioned "that's probably not good".


And now, as promised, carnage pics.


The rotor

The backing plate

The busted stud

This was definitely the last lug nut to come off. The shear pattern looks like the stud got bent and snapped off.

All back together

And the official temp tonight in the Gearhart back yard?

30 degrees.

 

[adsm08]

Dude!! You are a Ford Tech for crying out loud....man!!! I hope none of your customers ever have that issue after you worked on their car or truck....lol

Glad that nothing happened to you. Lucky Day, Eh??

No, none of my customers have ever had this issue. I won't say I've never run one out the door with a loose lug nut or two, but I've never let one leave the lot like that. The crazy thing is that the wheels haven't been off since October or there abouts. I could check the build thread and find out exactly because the last time the wheels were off was when I converted it to manual hubs.

 

[Andy D]

Yah, Good job. The first time it happened to me, it was preceded by the most gawd awful clanking noise. This was in my 1949 GMC panel truck. I thought it was something expensive, but the lug nuts pulled through the wheel.

 

[adsm08]

Oh, BTW, it is possible to burn rubber on ice. When I got back from the test drive I did a 4-wheel peel on the ice sheet in the driveway, you could smell the burning rubber when I was done.

 

[wildbill23c]

Glad its all back together and no major damage or injuries.

 

[88_Eddie]

i think i'd need a pair of non-spoiled britches over a t-shirt, but whatever floats your boat.

 

[mk42gunner]

...Well, after checking all the lug nuts on all the wheels, the evidence points to my error. The rears were good, the right front was not in immediate danger of coming off, but it was not as tight as it should have been. I probably put them on with my electric impact while the battery was low and never double checked them.


All back together

And the official temp tonight in the Gearhart back yard?


30 degrees.

I am surprised that the tire got out of there without any body damage, I had the left rear tire leave my 88 F150 at about 20 mph on a gravel curve. I got a 31x10.50 size dent from the wheelwell to the fuel filler door.

Mine happened the evening I had changed rearends, my immediate thought was that I hadn't tightened the u-bolts and the rearend came loose. I worked my way through high school in a tire shop and have replaced gazillions of tires and never had one come loose.

I figured out that my air impact hadn't been oiled in approximately forever and barely snugged the lugnuts.

Lesson learned-- always use a reliable torque wrench on aluminum wheels.

The next day I even found all five lugnuts about 20 yards from where the wheel came off.

My truck had a vibration about 2 miles before the separation, I even stopped and looked witha flashlight, but didn't check the lugnuts because "they can't be loose". Yeah right, I am somewhat paranoid about that now.

Glad no one was hurt,

Robert

 

[LIMA BEAN]

Mr. & Mrs. ?. Sucks your kid died and the other 4 in the other vehicle are dead too. As a top shelf tech I will work on yours as I do mine... REALLY!

 

[Tedybear]

Hang on. Before we go to far off the deep end.

People make mistakes and errors. Most shops have "torque rules" where EVERY lug nut on a customers car gets torqued down to the factory required specs. I once got fired from the first shop I ever worked at because I used to use a torque wrench on every wheel I pulled. The shop said "Waste of time.....". A year later? (And I feel probably a few lawsuits)... New Shop policy: All lug nuts get torqued down TWICE and verified by another tech. That was over 20 years ago, by a well respected national chain shop.

I've used an impact on the lugs on our BII several times, and have also had them loosen back up. (If you saw the wheels I use? You'd understand why LOL) Now I tighten them twice with the torque wrench.

It happens. Well done on keeping the old girl on the road and not having an accident. These mini beasts are durable little things. Glad you came out of it without injuries!!!

S-

 

[adsm08]

As a top shelf tech I will work on yours as I do mine... REALLY!

Yeah, I have much better stuff at work and lugnuts there get torqued consistently every time. I don't even have a little compressor at home, and certainly nothing that will run my good impact gun.

My electric one is good enough for wheels if it has a new battery in it. The only thing I can think of here is that I used that and the battery wasn't charged up enough. I don't usually use it for lug nuts, but I do know that I was working in the dark, rushing, and pissed off about having run into a really stupid problem on the last job I did on this vehicle.

These are situations I don't run into at work.

 

[88_Eddie]

i have an electric impact that runs off a wall outlet. I used it for about a year to tighten lug nuts thinking that it torqued them more than enough. then the other day i realized that i could easily loosen them with a ratchet once i had used the impact. no wheels came off, but it was still worrisome.

 

[country0001]

Same thing happened to my left front on my Ranger. Lost the wheel, skidded about 100 feet. Guided it of the road and got a wheel back on it. Never did find the wheel I lost.

 

[adsm08]

i have an electric impact that runs off a wall outlet. I used it for about a year to tighten lug nuts thinking that it torqued them more than enough. then the other day i realized that i could easily loosen them with a ratchet once i had used the impact. no wheels came off, but it was still worrisome.

That is kinda relative too though. I torque most wheels to 100 ft.lbs, give or take. That is plenty for 90% of the passenger vehicles on the road. I can still easily take those off with my small 1/2 ratchet which is about 2.5 feet long.