So yesterday I put my stock wheels back on. I don't own air tools, so I made do with a lug wrench.

The problem is that I can't get the back of the wheel to align flush with the hub. There's always a gap between the wheel and the hub on all four of them.

Did I miss something? I've put wheels back on my car before, other cars, my friends' cars, but i've never ran into such a problem.

Do I really just need an air ratchet?

 

What exactly do you mean? can't get it flush with the hub?

 

Are the hubs all rusted up? The hub face on the stock wheels is a much tighter tolerance than most aftermarket wheels

Did you forget to take off you hubcentric rings from the aftermarket wheels if they were there...

If you can see gaps at the studs....for gods sake don't drive it like that

Also...you never " need" an air ratchet for anything.....They are nice sometimes..but they can FU more things than fix if you aren't careful

 

Im assuming that when he said that he put his stock wheels back on, he had to take aftermarket wheels back off. Look for a central o-ring that most aftermarket wheels have to help locate the wheel on the hub. Sometimes they get stuck to the face of the rotor,,,
You can easily pop them off, they should be made of plastic. And remember to put them back in the aftermarket wheel...

 

oh i'm definitely not going to drive it like that.

the hubs are all a little rusty. if i can't get any of the other ideas/suggestions to work, i'll put a brush on my grinder and go at it.

 

10 to 1 the problem is that the hub ring is stuck on the face of the rotor. The wheel hubs would have to be pretty rusty for the stockers not to fit back on.

 

Ya I'm going to guess you didn't remove the hubcentric rings

 

/\ That's what I'm thinking to. Happened to my Cavalier as well, didn't realize until I accidently took it off (slipped and hit the piece) and put the wheel back on, in fear that I thought I broke something.

 

are you tightening with the car still jacked up or is it down?

 

never use air tools to put on the lug nuts, no clue to your problem tho, maybe something is stuck there lol

 

Aggreed, air tools = fail in my book...
Buy a torque wrench... love that sound of the double click...

 

it was the hub rings.

stupid, stupid question.

*facepalm*

 

Are you starting all 5 lug nuts loosely with the wheel off the ground, then hand tightening them uniformly in an alternating 1-3-5-2-4-1..... pattern so the wheel is centered uniformly on the hub with the wheel off the ground?

 

^Only use air tools to put lug nuts on a humvee. And not those pansie-*** civilian things either