Bought myself a great driver yesterday, 1959 mercury monterey. Brought her home and didn't do much with her. Figured id start going through it this week to see what all needed done. This afternoon the bf and I decided to take her for a short drive to our friend's house and, well, we got a couple of miles down the road and the wheel flew off. Thanks to some friends, we were able to get a wheel on and limp home. Needless to say, she's gonna need a bit more work now
That sucks, but luckily the damage is fixable. I wouldn't even want to try to find a replacement fender for one of those. I would question the other wheels if this one had wallowed out lug holes. I had a front wheel fly off my '53 once and while it didn't do much body damage, it is horrifying and it makes me always pay special attention to wheel fitment and lug nuts.
I had a buddy who was getting his really nice '72 911E ready for a weekend of autocrossing one time. They rolled it off the alignment rack and somewhere along the way forgot to torque the lug nuts. He peeled off down the road, made a few turns and his rear wheel ran off, rolling the rear fender out along the way. It was a bad day for him, too.
I know, Jeremy drove it around the block a few times before we took it home and we didn't notice any problems on the way home. I honestly can't understand how this happened. They weren't loose....
Something is weird, that's for sure. I know you were stoked about the car and I'm sorry to hear about this. Let us know if we can help. BloodyKnuckles
Jeeez..... that sucks. I know when I get a new car my money is spent a million different ways in my mind before I ever touch it. It would suck to have ideas and a fixed budget (like most of us do) and have to start spending money to get it back to what it was when you got it. Good luck and hopefully its uphill from here.
I lost a rear wheen on a Chevelle once many years ago...Ive been overly obsessive about checking lug nuts ever since.
Well, I guess its helping some that I'm not the only person who's had a wheel fall off. I had been wanting this car since even before Jeremy had picked it up. Things have been hard for my bf and I, as it has been for a lot of people, but I just couldn't think of anything but having this car. So, I cashed in my retirement (wasn't really much in there any way) and made Jeremy an offer. Jeremy put his projects aside for a while and with help from some of the Iron Lords I was able to bring my car home finally. Anyone who wants to judge me and throw their opinions out can go ahead, but I know that this wasn't a situation of shoddy work or idiot fng. I can tell you the wheel was not loose. I don't know how it fell off, but it wasn't because I drove off with a loose wheel.
Well, the fender will be hard to find but it shouldn't be terribly expensive to buy when you do find it, so be glad nothing worse happened and thank your lucky stars, I guess.
He beat me to it. Check the others before you drive it again. Take a real good look at the other wheels too as those may not be the correct wheels for the car. When I blew the photo of the car up to see the wheel it looked like the center of the wheel might not fit the hub right. Double click on the photo ( either one, my screw up) and the photo will enlarge for a good look at the wheel. Please check them very closely to make sure that they actually do fit the car correctly and aren't just wheels that someone stuck on the car to get rid of it with. My wife lost a front wheel off her Caddy on the way home from work that I still think someone tried to take off in the parking lot where she worked then. She had driven that car at least 10,000 miles without a problem and then all the sudden the wheel falls off 3/4 of a mile from the parking lot.
Left-handed threads or something? Seriously, that sucks. I hope you get that figured out, because that rig ain't safe.
on left side of the car the natural opposition to the forward rotation of the wheel, is for the lug nuts to come off. they may have been tight but just not as tight as they should have been. It sucks that it happened to your car, but you're not the only one here that has been passed by your own wheel. Mine was on..or off of an elcamino
Did you find any of the lugs? Do they still thread on? Do they go on smooth and tight or do they seem to wiggle around on the threads? I had a tire come off a beater once. Turns out the PO put some funky metric lugs on the normal SAE studs.. They threaded on but just wasn't right.
Nobodys judging anybody...we have all had our share of shit happen that shouldnt have ...since none of us were there, the ideas being posted are nothing more than educated guesses of what might have caused this to happen.
Glad everyones ok. What about doing some welding and learning to bump metal. Can't hurt it. Gain some great skills along the way.
hah man I think everybody forgets to check the lugnuts sooner or later . I lost a tire once when the studs pulled out somehow LOL and I've also put wheels on with the lugnuts fingertight and forgotten to tighten them when I let it off jackstands.
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