Reverse threads

Old Mike

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Its possible this was discussed before but I remembered this the other day and thought I’d ask. Back in the day, I had a ‘69 Newport that I got from my Dad and it had reverse threads on the drivers side wheel lugs. Later I owned two Chargers, a ‘71 and a ‘72 and they had standard threads, as well as the ‘71 Newport I have now. I never owned a ‘70, so I guess the question is, when did Chrysler make the switch? And do those of you who have older Mopars still have the reverse threads?
 
Because the automakers finally figured out that left hand threads on the left side of the car didn't really matter or do anything. You can find cars like my 69 Super Bee that have right hand threads all the way around because I replaced all of them on my car in 1972.
 
I still use left hand on the drivers side. Haven’t had the need to replace any yet if and when the time comes I would probably switch to RH.
 
I think 71 was the first year for all right hand threads.
 
My 1970 Fury Had reverse threads (left-hand threads) on driver side. Replaced all 10 wheel studs with right hand thread studs.
20180921_161912.jpg

My 1972 Fury did not, May 1972 pdtn date
 
71 first year for righty tighty lefty loosy.

The Boab has been converted to all RH threads.
 
didn't really matter or do anything
According to my dad, the principle was sound: Should the lug nuts be inadvertently left loose, forward motion of the car would more readily loosen the nuts on the left side if it had right-handed threads. So evidently left-handed lugs on the left side were more secure. I have never tried to test this claim.
 
Allow me, technically the left handed threaded wheel studs were supposed to be done by model year end of 1970. I personally have had two early 71 Dodges . One built in August, one built in September. One of those in Newark, the other Belvidere .
I have a 1971 built in November of 1970, she has righties .
So, to summarize , 70 was the last year with some carry over to early next model year.
 
Lefty tighty righty loosey on my 69 Fury's drivers side. I wouldn't have it any other way cause it's unusual.
 
According to my dad, the principle was sound: Should the lug nuts be inadvertently left loose, forward motion of the car would more readily loosen the nuts on the left side if it had right-handed threads. So evidently left-handed lugs on the left side were more secure. I have never tried to test this claim.
I think your dad was on to something. I once found out the hard way what happens when the lug nuts aren’t tightened properly. Several years ago, I was driving serenely down the interstate with my wife and two grandkids in our ‘02 Nissan Xterra. It had a lot of miles on it by then and I had just done some routine upkeep maintenance. And, I also had new tires installed, so she was running and driving smoothly. Then I began to feel vibrations in the steering which very quickly became worse. I thought to myself “****! and I just put time and money into this thing”, and then the left front wheel departed the vehicle and sparks were shooting out of the fender well. Luckily I was in the outer lane and, foot off the gas, I heeled over to the shoulder and stopped with the kids screaming in my ear. When I got out to look, the front wheel was gone but I also saw that none of the lugs were stripped or broken off. That meant only one thing to me. Some ******* in the tire shop didn’t tighten the lug nuts all the way. I took it for granted that the job was done properly and it could have cost us dearly. Worse, when I went looking for my wheel, I discovered that it crossed the median and went across the opposite lane at 70 mph. If it hit someone going the other way, they surely would have been killed.
 
I still have left hand threads on my '68 Chrysler. Still have brain in my head, so I remember that's what's on the car.
 
My 68 is left on drivers side. When I needed tires, I put the car on blocks and sent my wife with the tires in her SUV. I had a Firestone store destroy a stud with a pneumatic tool they use for nut removal on a regular car (05 Focus). I take no chances in the tire people knowing they are left hand.

In the case of the Focus, the rear wheel bearing went bad so the entire drum assembly was a month old when they ruined it. I made them replace it. Apparently, Ford engineers failed geometry because it is a regular problem for rear wheel alignment to be off and eat a tire in a month on a Focus. Firestone required me to get tires rotated at 3k miles for the warranty after replacing two sets.
 
My 68 is left on drivers side. When I needed tires, I put the car on blocks and sent my wife with the tires in her SUV. I had a Firestone store destroy a stud with a pneumatic tool they use for nut removal on a regular car (05 Focus). I take no chances in the tire people knowing they are left hand.

In the case of the Focus, the rear wheel bearing went bad so the entire drum assembly was a month old when they ruined it. I made them replace it. Apparently, Ford engineers failed geometry because it is a regular problem for rear wheel alignment to be off and eat a tire in a month on a Focus. Firestone required me to get tires rotated at 3k miles for the warranty after replacing two sets.
I learned yearz ago that their waz only one choice with those left handed lug nutz. REPLACE ALL THE LEFTY LUGZ + NUTZ WITH RIGHTYZ AZ QUICK AZ YOU CAN. Their isn't a tire shop on the planet with any employee working at it that waz even on the planet when the switch waz made 'tween '70-'71 so by now they're all programmed for ONLY Clock Wise Threadz. Wanna take a crap shoot on their ability to replace broken studz on either discs or drums of your Precious Mopar without screwing something up? And I won't add in the factor of availability of the leftyz in the industry today. Just my thoughtz, Jer
 
My Fury still has the left threads on the driver's side. I'm the only one taking the wheels on or off and my son has been trained properly when he will handle the maintenance.
 
My Fury still has the left threads on the driver's side. I'm the only one taking the wheels on or off and my son has been trained properly when he will handle the maintenance.

Ditto. No shop touches my Mopar.

Rock Auto has the lug nuts but not the studs last time I checked.
 
The LH thread idea was one of those technically sound ideas they just didn't think all the way through. Yes, a few people were probably saved from losing a wheel going down the road because it stayed on long enough to get pulled over before that happened. But that sorta gets outweighed by the thousands of lugs destroyed by tire shops and unwitting owners.
 
The decision to ditch them was most likely over COST. Whether Chrysler made them or got them from a supplier, somewhere there was a setup dedicated to machining reverse thread studs and nuts. It had to save money to eliminate that and just produce nothing but standard threads.
 
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