1949 Dodge, Righty loosey, lefty tighty?!?!

I know what you mean; I hate having to keep an extra set of metric and regular screwdrivers, crescent wrenchs, and pliers around.

 

Like Fugly sez, never seen a Mopar spin off a wheel. Highway tractors with Budd wheels have "Backwards" threads on one side too.
Having lost wheels on Fords and Chevys, I can say that I like leftys!

 

Not to mention the ever popular Left-Handed Monkey Wrench.

 

W. P. Chrysler was adamant about having the best engineered cars. So there were things like left handed lugs on their cars. It DOES have a valid engineering reason.

This is also mentioned in every manual on these cars. Which is why you should always get the appropriate manual for the car upon which you are working. It saves being surprised. Seems it might also save money...

Cosmo

 

The origin of thr left hand threads came from the old horse drawn wagons with a single nut on the axel to hold on the wheel. The more a left hand nut moved in the direction of the wheel, the tighter it became. A right hand nut on the left side would simply turn it's self off with the direction of the wheel.

It was so engrained in the builders mind, that when they went to 5 nuts, they just went with the flow although there is no way for a 5 nut system to lossen its self with the motion of the left wheel.

PS, After 35 posts on this subject, I can't believe that I am the only one to know the reason for left hand nuts. I must be getting to old for all of you teanagers on this site.

 

it has to do with inertia and is more related to early 'knock off' wheels. Take a look at any of the Brit rides with KO wires. You'll see UNDO (or OFF) with an arrow pointing to the direction of rotation to remove the wingnut. This is more related to braking than driving. As the old race cars hit the brakes, there was a tendency (called inertia) for things to keep turning and one side would tend to tighten up while the other side would obviously be inclined to loosen up. A moment's contemplative imagination while staring at the studs marked L will reveal the factuality of the situation. Nobody wants their lugnuts, wingnuts, etc coming off after awhile due to inertial rotation tendencies. This is why the LH stuff is on the driver's side and vice versa.

 

While we are on the subject of nuts, originally, the nuts for wagons were handmade so that no two nuts fit the threads on other stud.


Often circus people were noted for skipping out in the middle of the night and not paying the locals what was owed to them. So the sheriff would take the nuts off of the wagons and not return them until all the bills were paid


<OThis led to the famous line that the sheriff would say..."I've got them by the nuts" (true facts)<O

 

My 65 Satellite still has the left hand nuts, the studs have the L and R on them but with chrome nuts that is not visible. The chrome nuts on the passenger side have a notch on the corners to tell them apart, and if it goes to the tire shop I always remind them of the way it is since I am sure most of the youg guys who work there have never come across them before.

 

Ford actually did on big truck stuff. I'm working on a '33 1 ton and it has them.

I could be mistaken on this one cause I'm going off my poor memory, but I think I remember my dad's mid 1990's Volvo car carrier having them too...

 

yep, our 50 F4 has them also

 

My 63 galaxie had leftys on it, and the hub was about fubared from tire monkey and their impacts. I had to have it cleaned up on a brake lathe.

 

also Internationals i usually switch drums so they are all the same, seems most of the old ones I have dealt with have the studs in the drums swedged in an they are a bitch to just exchange the studs

 

Chrysler had a lot of safety innovations. Another was the safety rim wheel, with a ridge to hold the tire on the wheel in case of a flat. This prevented the tire from coming loose and getting all balled up and wrapped around the steering. It saved a few lives, and Chrysler offered to license the patent to any car or wheel manufacturer, free of charge, in the interest of highway safety.

Nobody took them up on it. It would have cost a few pennies, less than a dime per wheel, to change the tooling for the rims and nobody would spend the money except Chrysler. They never chiselled when safety was at stake.

Same with bonded brake linings instead of rivetted. Another Chrysler innovation from the early 50s. Others copied that one after a few years, as soon as they found out how to make them cheaper.

 

I think most GM cars had left hand threads on drivers side up thru 1963....there may be some exceptions that I am not aware of.

 

http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/44636_142880135752766_2096715_n.jpg
Hello everyone,
This is my 1949 dodge with 392 Hemi 6 speeds.

Biggo

 

Thats how mine is.. surprised me too the first time i took the wheels off. I imagine their thought process was that the centrifugal force would keep them from backing off if they came loose or something

 

Da, how about just looking at the stud threads to tell right from left.

 

My 51 Pontiac is the same way and so is my 57 Willys Jeep. I think its pretty cool something you dont see anymore.

 

Wasn't enough of the threads showing to really tell, studs were also rusty and it wasn't till I snapped the second one off I got to looking close at the end and it looked like a letter ' L ' stamped on it, but with the scale and rust was hard to tell. Does make since for the logic behind the thought but I never would have guessed.

 

Along with the left hand threads, MoPar used bolts, instead of nuts..... Not one of their stellar moments.......

4TTUK

 

X2 I had the exact thing happen to me on the exact same vehicle my 68 cuda.

Mopar was not the only ones to do this, almost every make did this, Mopar just carried it on a little later than others. It wasnt a bad Idea, It just confused people so The Idea was simplified for the masses I guess the Mopar guys Just were a little sharper than the rest and didn't have the problems the others did.....J/K....

 

Yep, in Australia, I owned a 1968 valiant "wayfarer" ute, that had leftys on the passenger side!!!!! work that out............
I also have a 55 Dodge with the same problem, errr.....innovation...

 

Everything is upside-down there.

 

Left side = passenger side where the steering wheel is on the right.

 

Wait till you discover "Positive Ground" (for the battery) on some older cars.......
OLder Mopar?.......Hell I forgot?

 

...and Oldmobiles!

 

The previous owner had put a 12v battery in it back in the late 80's I was told, thus why the wires under the hood are cooked. They said it smoked the wires and they just left it sit after that. During my research I have found a lot about the 6v +Ground systems, going to convert this to 12 -Ground to avoid any issues, plus there really isn't any gadgets in this to mess up. Guy on ebay has the resisters to plug into the insturment cluster, swap a few other items and good to go.

Say, does anyone know what 'type' carb this uses?? The one on it says Stromberg but I didn't see a number and there is a spare in the trunk just like it. When ordering a rebuild kit which one do I use?

 

HA!!! here's my thread from a few months ago regarding the same thing.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=748593

 

Chrysler used Carter carburetors for years. 49 Dodge used a Carter Ball & Ball single barrel, model BBD D6M1 on the Coronet, BBD D6P1 on the D29 and D30. This is from the Canadian Service Data book, US models may have used something else, or the Stromberg may be an aftermarket replacement.

Fluid Drive models with M6 semi auto trans used a different carb, one with 2 electrical switches on it. Standard trans models, and Fluid Drive models with the 3 speed trans, used a plain carb with no switches. But all had an automatic choke on the manifold, called a Sisson choke.

 

it was suppose to stop the wheels from falling off when the wheels were loaded by acceleration forces or so I was told, wasn't really necessary nice theory though