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

It's an interesting question with, as we see, a range of views as to the correct answer.

I once watched an italian mechanic replacing a wheel on a racing Ferrari 250 swb. He used a 3" dia. aluminium rod, with a V cut in the end to fit over the spinner ear, and was going at it with a 4 lb hammer - without restraint, shall we say.

Perhaps it's just the strains of racing that demand such an approach.

After fitting and tighting a wheel, in order to check if the spinner does not move after running, apply a small touch of nail varnish above the junction between the spinner and the wheel hub.
If the spinner turns, the varnish touch will be splitted.

I don't think there's any need to go mental when bashing one's spinners, but I do think you have a point. Let's do some fag-packet calculations (well actually, plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet, which is much easier)

Imagine a typical wheel hammer weighing say 1.5kg, swung with all one's strength through a distance of a meter, which is much further than an average swing.

If we simply dropped it under gravity from the height of a meter onto the spinner it would take getting on for half a second to drop that height, but of course we are accelerating it much more than that, so the time taken is much less, let's say we can swing our hammer in the blink of an eye, which is around 0.2 seconds.

That means our hammer hits the spinner going at 10m/s, the accelerative force being 1.5 * 50m/s^2 or around 75 Newtons. Neglecting all the boring stuff like air resistance, flexibility, inconsistent acceleration, we can pretend all this energy is now in the head of the hammer.

We're not going to get anything like 100% energy transfer and so the force of the impact is going to be much less than this due to all sorts of factors, but even if it wasn't you'd be applying an instantaneous torque of 75Newtons at about .15 meters, or about 8 ft-lbs - which isn't much at all really.

So, unless my maths is horribly wrong (and that's quite possible), I would say that under normal conditions that it's highly unlikely one would distort the hub threads by whacking the spinners enthusiastically unless one used Mjölnir and got Thor himself to wield it for you.

CBY
What a great idea just wish the other half used nail varnish as I'm going to look very odd going in and buying some 😊

Well done Tim. I don't suppose you could compute the force which allegedly tightens the spinner when the car is is motion? Intuition says it can't be that great, but my intuition's not always that great either if truth be told.

Wait till you see the colour choice.

I've used a small coloured circle stuck to the spinner opposite the valve after tightening and the spinners have never yet moved either way.
I'm not entirely convinced about self tightening. I think it's more about resisting self loosening.

Each to their own but I would never hit my p&j with anything let alone a hammer! And I’m not that good a shot anyway so wouldn’t want to risk hitting the wing or bruising my nuts. Too much uncontrolled energy being released far too quickly for me. I prefer slowly slowly with an extended spanner, it’s all about feel. Never had a wheel fall off or even had to re-tighten yet.

Doesn't an S1 Aero have a grubscrew to prevent loosening?
Re hammers, I used an MG spinner spanner to tighten/remove. A couple of taps with the hide mallet after tightening and never had issues. A tap or two to help loosening before the MG spanner helped too.
On the current car with alloys I torque the 5 nuts to 70 ft lbs. none have loosened to date and never too tight on removal.

GoMog also has an article saying much the same. A word of caution the splines get razor sharp so don't touch them.
http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan25.html

E. Tighten Spinners

While car is still on jacks, drive the knock-off spinners up tight. If using 2-eared or 3-eared knock-off spinners, use lead hammer provided. Octagon spinners should be driven up using wrench and lead hammer. Wrench tightening alone is not sufficient.

F.Test

Spin wheels by hand to make sure there is no rubbing against brake calipers. Also, rock wheel assembly to verify that the knock-off cap has seated completely in the wheel. No looseness should be noticeable.

G. Retighten Spinners

Lower the car and hammer the spinners until they will not move with even the hardest blow of the hammer. After the car has been run 25 miles, be sure to re-check the knock-off spinners for tightness. The wheels seat themselves on the adapters after the initial run-in and knock-off spinners can be tightened further.

THIS IS IMPORTANT. Knock-off spinners must be very tight to prevent wear. Continue to tighten knock-off spinners every 100 miles for the first 500 miles. Then check tightness every few weeks. WIRE WHEELS should always be checked for tightness of the knock-off spinners regularly.

Webmaster note: Considering the torque involved here. I strongly suggest you carefully clean and regrease the splines on the adapter, the splines in the rim hub and the threads of the spinner itself EACH time you remove them. A bit of dirt in there can lead to seizing.