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Sun Oct 12, 2003 1:11 pm

Recently purchased a 68 Squareback with 8 spoke Empi rims. Took the rear wheels off for the first time and noticed that it didn' t take very many turns before the lug nuts were off. When I went to put them back on three would go in and one nut didn't seem to get enough thread bite to go in. Took the wheel off and all four wheel go into the hubs with no problem. I suspect the lug nuts are too short for the Empi's. Anyone else have to put longer lug nuts on when they mounted Empi rims? Help please - I will not drive the car anymore until I am confident that the rear wheels are not going to fall off.
:evil:

Sun Oct 12, 2003 1:28 pm

You can buy longer lugbolts at a VW shop. I think it was Empi that made them?

Sun Oct 12, 2003 5:25 pm

I use screw in studs on mine (with loctite). They are 14mm x 1/2", then you can use normal chrome lug nuts sold by any tire or auto parts store. I don't know where you are located, but most of the big VW parts suppliers have them like Aircooled.net, RMMW, So Cal Imports, CIP, and lots of others. Something to think about, if the rears are like this, then the fronts are probably like that too. This isn't an area to scrimp on money, as a tire coming off can hurt in more ways than one. I hope this helps.

Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:01 pm

Thanks for the replies. The car is in the garage until I get all four wheels properly secured. Gonna go to my local shop either Monday or Tuesday and see if he has he 1 inch VW bolts. If not then I will get on line and buy the studs. What pisses me off is the wipe that sold me the car (which is in excellent shape - just full of surprises) knew the lugs were too short and never mentioned it to me. It would have not kept me from the buy. I am glad that I pulled the one wheel off the adjust the clutch cable. If I had not done that I would probably have found out the hard way that they were too short. Oh well....live and learn.
8)

Sun Oct 12, 2003 11:46 pm

Sounds like you've got the stock bolts, these are too short to use with alloys as the alloys are thicker than the original steel wheels.

One thing worth bearing in mind is what kind of spare youre running, if youre running a steel spare keep a set of the original (shorter) bolts in the car. The reason for this is if you have to fit the spare to the rear the bolts will go too far through the drum and foul on the brake shoes.

the longer bolts will however work with the steel spare on the front wheels as theres nothing behind to foul on.

I would check the front bolts too, you'll probably find the stock ones have been used here too as they have been used on the rear.

Wed Oct 15, 2003 3:04 pm

Got the squareback on the road last night. I called Foreign Aide out of Albuquerque, New Mexico who UPS'd me EMPI stud and lug nut sets for all tires. Got the mechandise in less than 1.5 days (Kudos to Foreign Aide). Took about 45 minutes last night to covert all from lugbolts to lugnuts.

Thanks to the Forum crew for all the input on this issue.

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