ARP hub studs failure (1 Viewer)

[digitalmarker]

Ok guys... was at the last mile of my knuckle rebuild tonight when two of the fancy new hardened ARP studs gave out and stripped while I was tightening them to the 26 ft lbs spec. Fortunately I was able to extract them all without damage to the hub by using the ends. Obviously very disappointed in these, they were not cheap, and now have to replace them with OEM on all four corners.

2 questions:

1. Has anyone experienced anything like this with the ARP kit? Or is this user error?

2. When installing the OEM studs, does the short end go inside the hub? When I removed the old OEM studs from the hubs, the front studs were installed long ends in the hub, but the rears were the other way around - short end was inside the hub. I found this strange and assumed it was the POs install error, but can’t find any documentation or threads on this to confirm the right way to install.

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

[fz1boxer]

where did you buy the ARP studs from?

 

[fz1boxer]

did you use a socket on the end of the stud or did you run the stud in with the nut?

 

[jonheld]

The 26 ft/lbs is the final torque of the nut on the the stud AFTER assembly. The studs are threaded into the hub until snug.
Again, until snug. There is no FSM torque spec for the studs themselves.
With the gold studs, obviously the threaded section goes into the hub and the hex head is for installation and removal.

 

[mikedamageinc]

No way 26 ft# stripped hardened ARP studs. My guess is they are counterfeit or your torque wrench is broken.

 

[scottryana]

I have not had my ARP studs strip like that but they do seem softer than stock. I bent 2 hitting them with a brass hammer trying to pop the conical washers, never had that happen with stock studs. But they were from Trailgear.....

 

[NLXTACY]

TrailFail strikes again

 

[mehbohdi]

Those don't look like the right thread, the hub end looks like you wore the the fancy gold coating off. Were you able to install these with your fingers or did you have to use a wrench? You should be able to finger them in, if the holes are clean. I've never seen ARP's in Wits End Gold

 

[jonheld]

FWIW, the ARP hub studs I just installed are black and look very similar to OEM.

ARP Hub Studs Upgrade

Front Range Off-Road Fabrication now have a hub upgrade for solid axle front ends, our Full-Floating rear end, and Land Cruiser front ends!

frontrangeoffroadfab.com

 

[scottryana]

Yep, this was before I knew any better. lol

TrailFail strikes again

 

[OGBeno]

OEM studs: long side goes into hub assembly.

ARP/TrailGear: ChinaCrapola

 

[Broski]

FWIW, the ARP hub studs I just installed are black and look very similar to OEM.

ARP Hub Studs Upgrade

Front Range Off-Road Fabrication now have a hub upgrade for solid axle front ends, our Full-Floating rear end, and Land Cruiser front ends!

frontrangeoffroadfab.com

Same, these are the ones I used with no problem

 

[jjdeneen918]

ARP head studs recommend a cleaning of the engine block threads with a tap tool.

we’re your hub threads dirty? Maybe a good cleaning with a tap tool would make it work better?

 

[cme4lyt]

I just replaced all my hub studs on all four corners with new OEM when I did my latest ‘4 corner refresh’.

As Onur states, the long end of the stud goes into the hub.

My process; I pulled all the old studs by double nutting them, chased the holes clean with a thread cleaner tap, blew the holes clean with brake cleaner, let that dry, screwed in the new studs by double nutting them and using blue locktite, let that dry, installed the next day and had no issues getting them to 26 ft lbs.

Probably more than you needed to know and probably a few extra steps in there that are not needed but that’s my process and it’s served me well.

Regards,

 

[cruisermatt]

those are either not not real ARP's or you did something wrong.

 

[Kernal]

Maybe send photos and/or the damaged studs to ARP for evaluation??

 

[digitalmarker]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I purchased these from Cruiser Outfitters, who seem to be a reputable shop and were recommended by a number of folks in the LC community. They have come through in another situation for me and generally seem to be honest/reliable.

This is what the packaging looked like:

Before installing these, I chased, cleaned with brake cleaner and rags, and blew out the inside of the holes on all of the hubs (yes I am OCD like that). I didn't over tighten these on the install, just made them snug, and torqued the nuts/cone washers to spec. The first time I installed these, there were no problems - torque wrench clicked at 26, and all was good.

The reason I took the knuckles apart again the next day was to install the tone rings on my new axles, which I forgot on the first install. And the studs stripped on the second re-install.

After the mishap last night, I posted a similar thread on Facebook where most people agreed that these are not real ARP products and are TG knockoffs.

I emailed Cruiser Outfitters this morning and they responded with this:

We have sold hundreds of these ARP studs from Trail-Gear over the years without issue. We have confirmed that they are in fact manufactured by ARP and prefer purchasing them from Trail Gear due to the convenience of the hex head. I personally run them on my rock crawler and have great luck with them and know many people that run them on their competition vehicles (King of the Hammers rigs).

They offered to warranty the broken studs, which is nice but kind of useless because I am obviously not going to put this garbage back on my truck.

Cruiser Outfitters also insinuated that my torque wrench is out of spec. While I am not disagreeing that it could be (it is a 2 year old Husky wrench from Home Depot), I don't believe that it suddenly went out of spec overnight, and over-torqued the studs so dramatically exactly 1 day after it installed them normally. I also can't imagine that hardened studs wouldn't be able to take a bit of extra torque and strip as bad as these did after 15 miles of gentle use.

I ordered a set of real ARP studs (black ones) from Valley Hybrids, a reputable shop here in California who has been installing them for years on various builds. They have done some work on my truck in the past and I have been to their shop, so have a higher trust factor in them than a shop I have only interacted with online.

So, I will keep this thread up to date on my findings.

But overall, a s***ty experience. I am just glad this happened in my garage, rather than on the freeway or on a trail.

 

[bigredmachine]

could have been a bad batch that wasn't hardened properly. they don't happened to have a hardness code on the head like bolts do they ?

 

[Cruiserdrew]

So Cruiser Outfitters is super legit and one of my favorite places to get stuff. Really, Kurt and his guys are top notch.

Trail Gear though, in my opinion, is HIGHLY SUSPECT (typically China copies of real parts) and I'm surprised that Cruiser Outfitters deals with them. But I am sure that CO will make things right.

 

[Mountainpassing]

where did you buy the ARP studs from?

Ok guys... was at the last mile of my knuckle rebuild tonight when two of the fancy new hardened ARP studs gave out and stripped while I was tightening them to the 26 ft lbs spec. Fortunately I was able to extract them all without damage to the hub by using the ends. Obviously very disappointed in these, they were not cheap, and now have to replace them with OEM on all four corners.

View attachment 2265880View attachment 2265881

2 questions:

1. Has anyone experienced anything like this with the ARP kit? Or is this user error?

2. When installing the OEM studs, does the short end go inside the hub? When I removed the old OEM studs from the hubs, the front studs were installed long ends in the hub, but the rears were the other way around - short end was inside the hub. I found this strange and assumed it was the POs install error, but can’t find any documentation or threads on this to confirm the right way to install.

View attachment 2265879

Thanks in advance for the input.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I purchased these from Cruiser Outfitters, who seem to be a reputable shop and were recommended by a number of folks in the LC community. They have come through in another situation for me and generally seem to be honest/reliable.

This is what the packaging looked like:

View attachment 2266614

Before installing these, I chased, cleaned with brake cleaner and rags, and blew out the inside of the holes on all of the hubs (yes I am OCD like that). I didn't over tighten these on the install, just made them snug, and torqued the nuts/cone washers to spec. The first time I installed these, there were no problems - torque wrench clicked at 26, and all was good.

The reason I took the knuckles apart again the next day was to install the tone rings on my new axles, which I forgot on the first install. And the studs stripped on the second re-install.

After the mishap last night, I posted a similar thread on Facebook where most people agreed that these are not real ARP products and are TG knockoffs.

I emailed Cruiser Outfitters this morning and they responded with this:

We have sold hundreds of these ARP studs from Trail-Gear over the years without issue. We have confirmed that they are in fact manufactured by ARP and prefer purchasing them from Trail Gear due to the convenience of the hex head. I personally run them on my rock crawler and have great luck with them and know many people that run them on their competition vehicles (King of the Hammers rigs).

They offered to warranty the broken studs, which is nice but kind of useless because I am obviously not going to put this garbage back on my truck.

Cruiser Outfitters also insinuated that my torque wrench is out of spec. While I am not disagreeing that it could be (it is a 2 year old Husky wrench from Home Depot), I don't believe that it suddenly went out of spec overnight, and over-torqued the studs so dramatically exactly 1 day after it installed them normally. I also can't imagine that hardened studs wouldn't be able to take a bit of extra torque and strip as bad as these did after 15 miles of gentle use.

I ordered a set of real ARP studs (black ones) from Valley Hybrids, a reputable shop here in California who has been installing them for years on various builds. They have done some work on my truck in the past and I have been to their shop, so have a higher trust factor in them than a shop I have only interacted with online.

So, I will keep this thread up to date on my findings.

But overall, a s***ty experience. I am just glad this happened in my garage, rather than on the freeway or on a trail.

i finally decided to get a simple torque wrench calibrater i stick in my vise. cheeep ,easy, and a bad wrench is worse than no wrench.
those husky wrenches are known to be fairly hit or miss if i recall, just look up the reviews.
people snapping bolts..and drastic spec changes one use to the next.
but barring that scenario i feel for yah..i just used toyota oem and locktite.