Rear wheels FIA

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Wild Card 09
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Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:39 pm
Location: Gerlingen, south west Germany

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Wild Card 09 »

Yes splined centres add well over 100,- to the price of each wheel, and they do weigh quite a bit more, too. I just bought a set, and definitely needed to sit down after hearing the price! I bought six, plus splined hub converters and six spinners and that really adds up. However, I am very impressed by the quality of them and the clever integration of the splines.
1981 BRA 289 (Chassis number 005)
petercharman
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Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:11 pm

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by petercharman »

Wild Card

I have to ask, why 6?

Peter
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Wild Card 09
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Location: Gerlingen, south west Germany

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Wild Card 09 »

Because I once had a weekend drive down to spain very nearly messed up by the lack of a suitable spare tyre. I lost a day and ended up getting a courier to drive a wheel down to Dijon. It wasn´t a Cobra run, but the thought that if it had been, finding the right rubber would be a challenge even on a weekday.

I don´t intend to carry a spare in the car, although I did in the past. I´d rather have less ballast, and more flexiblity as far as luggage is concerned.
I intend to run the same size mix that has worked very succesfully on my car (215/60 15 and 235/60 15) until now, and have the two spares sitting in the garage waiting for their moment of glory that hopefully will never happen.

damn, does age make you pessimistic, or what! :D :D

....or did you think I was goign to build a six wheeled hillclimb special, maybe :wink: :wink:
1981 BRA 289 (Chassis number 005)
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Wild Card 09
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Location: Gerlingen, south west Germany

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Wild Card 09 »

And I only bought four splined converter hubs. The six spinners were because experience in the past with a Friends 289 Mk II have shown that the alloy spinners do get easily damaged. Gerry preferred to sell me the stainless ones, and having messed around with them in the garage, I can clearly see that THEY will outlast everything else!
1981 BRA 289 (Chassis number 005)
petercharman
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Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:11 pm

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by petercharman »

Wild Crad

Yes it is definetly your age!

I carry a an MGB wire wheel as my spare and had to use it when returning from the Le Mans classic in 2006, when we were having a sprited run up to the port with my new 5.00 litre TVR engine installed and lost the front offside wheel at about 100kph

Had to return home with a rather thin wire wheel in it's place and dirty underpants!

I was using Gerry hexhead nuts to hold the wheels on, I have three for sale if anyone wants a (part) set, could not find the one that came off, I was lucky o find the FIA wheel about 100m away in a corn field.

I now use the shelby stainless steel spinners with wired tell tales.

I did have thoughts of the six wheeled tyrel driven by Jody Schekter that I saw at the Brish Grand Prix in 1976 at Brands Hatch (where I meet my wife) and wondered how that was going to work on a cobra!

Peter
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Roger King
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Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Roger King »

petercharman wrote:I carry a an MGB wire wheel as my spare and had to use it when returning from the Le Mans classic in 2006, when we were having a sprited run up to the port with my new 5.00 litre TVR engine installed and lost the front offside wheel at about 100kph
How on earth did you manage that? I've never heard of a wire wheel being lost - two possibilities, maybe?
1) The threaded end of the splined hub fractured inside the spinner - this used to happen with fine-thread Healey 3000 spinners/hubs fairly often.
2) The splined hubs were assembled to the wrong sides of the car.

I trust it was the first!

Roger
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Wild Card 09
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Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Wild Card 09 »

Now that is quite a scary moment story :shock: :shock: !!! A 100 kmh belly drop must have shaved a little bit of paint off the chassis, as well!

I´m not up to speed on these things yet, but if I remember what I was recently told, the left side of the car runs a right hand thread, and visa versa.
That means that hard acceleration will tighten the nut....but also means that hard braking will undo it, and as 80 % of the braking power runs through the fromt axle, it is there that you are most likely to loosen the nut (as in your case happens).
It also occurs to me that the heavy stainless spinners are probably more likely to suffer from this problem as their weight makes it more difficult for them to gain and lose speed as suddenly and either hard acceleration or braking can induce! Oh dear!

My age (and experience) induced "attitude" will definitely see me lockwiring the spinners on there, too!
1981 BRA 289 (Chassis number 005)
petercharman
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Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:11 pm

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by petercharman »

Roger & Wild Card

All of what you mentioned went through my mind, especialy putting the hubs on the wrong way! but that was not the case as I used the axel off my MGB and did not remove the hubs, plus I checked books and about every wire wheel car I saw on the boat on the way home.

What happened, well I borrowed a set of wheels & tyres (do not think they were FIA) from Gerry for my SVA and he had some chrome hex nuts made for them (no ears) specifically for the SVA test. I loved the clean lines of the nuts and he let me have them instead of shelby eared spinners when I got my wheels.

I had to have the rear conical shape to the nuts machined to suit the FIA wheels and this took away some material but not what I considered to be crittical. With the nuts, Gerry supplied a purpose made long socket and bar to tighten them with and this is I belive where the problem lies. I could only tighten them with the bar and could not get any percussion effect (could not whack them with a hammer) and I was never confident that they were tight enought.

You have inspired me to write up the incedent for the 289 magazine as an artical because there is a storey that goes with it after it happened The disc took all the punishment and ended up with a nice flat bottom to it, some minor damage to the splines, wheel arch and radiator.

Peter
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Wild Card 09
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Location: Gerlingen, south west Germany

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by Wild Card 09 »

Peter,
I just checked an MG workshop manual in order to confirm my previous statement....and discovered that I was 100% wrong! The right hand thread should be on the right hand side of the car! This means that under harsh braking, the nut will tighten onto the thread (as the nut tries to continue to spin, when the axle speed is slowed by the braking force). You were obviously not braking enough :D :wink:
1981 BRA 289 (Chassis number 005)
petercharman
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:11 pm

Re: Rear wheels FIA

Post by petercharman »

wild card 09

Two rules when we go out in the cars:-

1. Your are not allowed to follow another car (you must overtake)
2. you are not allowed to show a brake light!

so you are right, not enought use of the old barke pedal

Peter
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