Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Wire wheels and how tight should the spinner be ?

Can anyone assist me please as I have just refitted my wire wheels for the first time and I am unsure how to know when the screw knock on spinner is tight enough ? Any suggestions will be most welcome please

They do self tighten.....as long as you don't reverse the car for a great distance!
A couple of good taps with a hammer should suffice. Whatever you do, don't overtighten them.

Tight enough for the wheel not to fall off

Not very technical but this is what I do remembering of course that the direction that the thread on the spinner tightens is against the force of the drive of the wheel, I just give it two firm hits with the mallet on a block of wood.

There was a video posted on here a few weeks ago of a wheel being changed in a race on an old Mercedes with spinners (might have been the Sir Stirling Moss programme) and the pit crew just gave each wheel two firm hits so if it's good enough for Sir Stirling's race cars, it's good enough for me

Every time I've had a wheel off I've always regreased the spline as well, cleaning off the old grease as well

I'm from the "make them bloody tight" school. The first time I removed the 2 spinner wire wheels (dealer tightened) from my mog I thought I would they would never come off. Destroyed some good wood achieving it but finally had them off. Decided to put them back on with medium blows from the brass hammer. Within a few days there was a clunking noise from the rear and sure enough they needed a few more solid blows to restore quiet. Absolutely no evidence that they were self tightening - au contraire.

Thanks for the response so far I was just worried that I might over tighten them I did clean off all the grease and re grease with copper grease so it looks like I'm doing ok so far and I will recheck after 25 miles or so just to be sure.

Thank you all so much

My Mentor says "Get the damn spinner on damn tight". He gave Me a demonstration using My lead hammer. I could barely remove them. I do use a lead hammer that is almost 4lbs. My view is that the brass hammer will not do the job. But then I bought a half dozen lead hammers when I could find them at a good price.

Sorry for my ignorance but what is the difference between the hammer that comes with the Morgan and a lead hammer ?

Straight Lift from MWS website. (They supply Morgan with wire wheels)


Fitting Wire Wheels



Please use the Fitment Guide to establish the correct parts for your car


Fitting Centre-lock Wire Wheels

Fitting Centre-Lock Wire Wheels Diagram


There may be some vehicles, usually kit cars or replicas, that wheels can be supplied for based on their running gear but are not listed in the Fitment Guide; please contact us to discuss your requirements.
A centre-lock wire wheel is fitted onto a car axle using a splined hub; the splines (or serrations) of the hub lock with the splines on the inside of the wheel centre to produce drive. Splined hubs may be integral fitting or bolt-on. Please refer to the vehicle's service manual for instructions on fitting integral splines. The diagram below illustrates fitting bolt-on hubs.

Fitting Bolt-On Hubs Diagram

When putting a centre-lock wheel onto a splined hub, the splined area inside of the wheel centre must be greased to ease the wheel on and prevent the two surfaces corroding together. All new MWS centre-lock wheels are provided pre-greased; ready to go on the car.

The wheel is secured onto the hub with a spinner (knock-on centre cap). The spinner should always tighten towards the rear of the vehicle; this ensures that as the wheel turns whilst driving the spinner tightens and locks into place.

A spinner spanner is required to apply/remove spinners without ears, such as octagonal (Continental) or Federal. The spanner fits over the spinner and is tightened/loosened with a hammer. MWS can supply the following spinner spanners:


Two-eared and three-eared spinners can be applied/removed by using a copper and hide hammer or soft-blow plastic hammer directly onto the ears of the spinner. MWS recommends using a wooden spinner saver for two-eared spinners.




Do not over-tighten spinners as this will damage the threads and ears and make them more likely to work loose

Spinners (or knock-on caps)

There are no recommended torque settings for spinners and the exact number of turns will vary from one vehicle to the next.

A spinner should be fitted with the wheel jacked up off the ground so that the hub, wheel and spinner are all centralised.
Apply the spinner by hand and tighten 3 to 3½ turns; give the spinner a couple of taps with the hammer; lower the wheel to the ground and give the spinner a couple more taps.
As long as the hubs are fitted correctly then the spinners will self-tighten and lock as the car is driving.
If you hammer the spinners too enthusiastically then you will deform the thread of the spinner and the hub and they are more likely to work loose.
Over-tightening also means that if you ever need to replace either the hub or spinner then you will also need to replace the other part as the deformed thread of the old part will not fit with the new thread.
If your spinners keep coming loose then it is probably because the hubs have been fitted on the wrong side. For example, the left hub goes on the left-hand side of the car as you sit in it, not on the left as you look at it from the front.

That's great thank you Tony

Thanks for that Tony. You'd surely need the strength of ten men to deform threads of that size?