Mr Ed

The constant changing back and forth of street tires and ET Streets has been hard on my wheel studs and I would like to clean up the threads. Should I use a “Thread Restoring” die or a regular die? The Thread Restoring die says “not for use on hardened threads.” Are the threads on a stud “hardened?”

BTW I have the Strange 12-bolt bolt-on rear and the studs are the 12mm ones that came on it. The Strange catalogue doesn’t mention them being hardened.

trackbird

iTrader: (4)

Replace the studs. If they are that bad or that "used" (you said it's been hard on them, and it has), I'd put fresh studs in there. That's the safest thing to do.

Mr Ed

That’s what I would do too if it wasn’t difficult. But I have ABS which causes complications. Without ABS you can just pull the axle out, unbolt the studs and put in new ones.

Unfortunately, there is not enough clearance to get the studs in or out past the reluctor ring (located on the axle ends for ABS). It and the bearings need to be removed and then pressed back on after the studs have been changed.

I replaced studs on one side about a month ago. Like you said, it’s normally an easy job IF the reluctor ring wasn’t in the way. I was hoping to postpone doing the other side for a while. They're not in very bad shape and I'm just trying reduce any risk of cross-threading a lugnut on a bunged up thread.