Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Centre Lock Wheels

RBW, I did have the Plus 8 early lightweight centre lock alloys as I really liked the design. However I did have problems getting them off once they were tightened to what I understood to be the correct torque and left for a few months without the recommended regular removal and re-fit. At one point I couldn't remove them with a much longer pole than Rich uses and a pneumatic gun had to be used. I decided at that point against regular use and resorted to wires as I didn't want to find that a wheel couldn't be changed whilst out on the road touring at any time.

I can't comment on the safety issues but I understand from a number of conversations that the alloy nut (of different dimension to the standard nut used on the wires incidentally) used on the Aero alloys was later drilled to take a grub screw for retention purposes.

Rob T, interesting update on the Morgan centre-locks, thanks.

While I have zero experience of such wheels, I have at least on a couple of occasions when I have removed non centre-lock alloy road wheels for others stuck at the side of the road.

Once on my way to a Morgan event passing a chap who was at risk of shaking his car off it`s jack trying to break the wheel`s bond to the axle... as I walked towards him I passed a newly erected large road directional sign, which had some rocks around it`s base, I picked one up and carried on walking towards him.... Understandably he looked a tad confused, until I put the spare under the car lest it fall off the flimsy jack and proceeded to use the rock to pound the back of the wheel rim and persuade the wheel to brake free, I left him to put the spare wheel in place, all done in no more than a couple of minutes..(-:

If you beamed up and watched the Porsche Centre-lock vid from the link I posted, you can imagine the owner of that Porsche might not take to kindly to someone taking a rock to the rim of his wheels...(-: I can only wonder at the cost of those wheels. I suspect that the use of the alloy paste acts to restrict bonding of dissimilar metals, and in the case of normally attached wheels, it seems logical(?) that it might also inhibit corrosion on the alloy of the wheel expanding and gripping the steel wheel studs that would no doubt remove some of the paint in the alloy fixing holes during the process of putting the wheel back on to the axle..?

I also noted your point re a later modification of the Morgan centre-lock wheel nut to incorporate a grub screw, whether as a primary locking aid or to stop the wheel nut from loosening initially, or to stop it from coming off completely should the wheel nut come loose..?

I note that there is mention of some sort of spring lock in the Porsche vid, though I have no idea how that works exactly .. Perhaps a bit like the rather primitive lock spring on some race cars that stops the nut coming off completely if it comes loose..? Though in F1 I have seen wheels come off unintentionally while the race car was leaving the pit area..!!!

Waikiore, many thanks for taking the time to help me to understand your thinking on GoMoG info, much appreciated.