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Hello European Folks,

 

I am pissed, so you will have to make allowances for my attitude.

 

If you have experience installing spokes on wire wheels, please proceed. If not, do not read further, as I will not need your input. And will RESENT any discussion that you might incite.

 

I received my BEAUTIFUL Dayton 60-spoke wire wheel that I just got off of eBay. It has been newly blasted and painted. It is a beautiful wheel for a spare tire. It has two short spokes missing, which I knew up front, so I bought 2 new spokes and nipples. Now, my problem. I have found that I cannot insert a spoke into its hole and get the proper angle to its other hole UNLESS I LOOSEN UP THE SPOKE NEXT TO IT. Here is the rub. I have soaked the nipple in liquid wrench, but it does not want to budge. It is a very soft metal, and I have destroyed it trying to loosen it up. The metal is so soft that the spoke wrench and vice grips have destroyed two of the available surfaces on the nipple. The only other surface is the screwdriver slit on the very end of the nipple. Even with my impact screwdriver, it will strip the nipple before it loosens it up.

 

So, do any of you know a way to loosen up the nipple? I have made sure that I am turning it in the correct direction. (Rule #1!)

 

Here is the way I look at it. I have 58 of 60 spokes, all very tight. This is 97 PERCENT of my spokes. Personally, I would enter 24 Hueres de LeMans with 97 PERCENT of ANYTHING! So, should I not just walk away from any further damage to this beautiful wheel? And put my PVC tape on, and have my tube and tire installed, and put the assembly in my spare tire compartment, and drive down the street like I know what-the-hell-I-am-doing?

 

Thanks in advance. I am also posting this to my stateside forum, hoping that there will be at least one person in each country that has had experience with spokes. I am not in the mood for discussions about a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. You get my drift. Again, thanks.

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Hi George,

 

Don't even think about Les Vingt Quatre Heures with 97% of anything. It won't do. 100% minimum.

 

Where does 58 out of 60 spokes get you ? It gets you a high-speed blow-out, and 100mph upside down skating on the rollover bar and soaked in leaking petrol isn't my idea of cheap thrills.

 

Experience, not theory, on both counts.

 

Find a good wheel shop and have the job done properly.

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

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It has two short spokes missing

So it's for a spare... where are the spokes? Are they adjacent?

 

Ivor

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Hi George,

I have a little experience with the spokes. Over the last year I have been trying to get my 5.5J x 15 centre laced wheels re-chromed (with no luck). I partly stripped one of the wheels to prove to myself that I could re-build it and all went well.

 

As you state the nipples are quite soft. That, plus years of rusted adhesion, make it all very difficult for disassembly (replace with stainless).

 

I would have thought if you have a missing spokes(s) then the new one(s) should go back the way the old one came out.

However you have clearly tried getting it in with no joy.

 

As the associated spoke, that is stopping the original spoke going in, is now damaged why not cut it out/off and replace with a new one. That way the original should go with

nothing in its way. Ensure that this spoke can be fitted without hinderance from any other spoke.

 

Please don't use the wheel with less spokes than required. You know it not the thing to do.

Keep us updated on progress.

 

Roger

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Thanks for the poop, guys.

 

I think that I am probably going to leave it alone, as it is going to be for the spare tire. I have a little concern because the two spokes are only about 70-75 degrees apart. I wish that they were further apart, of course.

 

I got two fairly good responses. One said that other spokes will have to be sacrificed in order to replace these, especially as these are old and have been repainted in. The other said to apply an old-style soldering iron to the nipple in order to loosen it up, of course ruining the new paint job.

 

Right now, I have 58 straight, and tight, spokes. If I go any further, I can only do more harm, thus REDUCING my amount of straight and tight spokes.

 

So, I will plan on using the spare like we use the "donut" tire that comes with the smaller and cheaper American cars. Stay under 50 mph, and limit the mileage as much as possible. Heck, hopefully, I may never have to use it!

 

Any suggestions are welcomed. For example, I just thought of something else when using the spare: stay on smooth pavement!

 

Thanks again. My American friends took issue with my tone. C'est la guerre.

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Thanks again. My American friends took issue with my tone. C'est la guerre.

 

Others may have taken issue but for their own reasons choose to ignore it. ;-)

 

 

Mychael

Edited by Mychael
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Poop !!! another poster I shall not help in future.

 

Roger

 

 

I think in that context "poop" is an Americanism as in "info" or "genned up" if I recall correctly in British slang.

 

Mychael

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Hi Mychael,

really!! not a 'Richard the Third' or a 'Little Brown Bird' then. Why is our common language so different.

 

Roger

 

 

hehehe, The beauty of Australia's pommy background and lots of yank shows on TV. Makes us good all rounders.. lol

 

Mychael

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Wasn't the 'poop' deck a british invention? (genuine question - I never sailed anything bigger than a Moth so I don't know the correct answer.)

The word has quite a bit of versitility. but that's English; Spike made it even more versitile.

 

 

I know if a wave breaks over the stern of your boat you have been "pooped". Personally I'd reckon

if the wave was big enough you'd be more then pooped, you'd something beginning with an "F". lol

 

Mychael

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I think that I am probably going to leave it alone, as it is going to be for the spare tire. I have a little concern because the two spokes are only about 70-75 degrees apart. I wish that they were further apart, of course....

My American friends took issue with my tone. ....

Your tone is fine. And Toad was into pooping as I recall. Anyway, we're used to odd-balls on here :lol:

 

I had five cars with wires. The last was an MGC GT. It was a long time ago.

On those various cars, some of the wheels were sound and some weren't. Some spokes went ping! and some went clunk. The clunking spokes weren't missing but they might as well have been.

 

The short spokes transmit the driving and braking forces. The long spokes are for cornering, I would be less happy with some of those missing. I think you'll be OK using it as a spare. 70 degrees is far enough, if they were together that wouldn't be so bright.

 

The real question of course, how come they were missing in the first place. One for Kojak or Cleusot. :P

 

Ivor

Edited by 88V8
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Oh Geez, sorry guys! I forgot which forum I was posting onto!

 

Poop is an old Navy term, for "information," just like "skinny." What's the poop? What's the skinny on so-and-so? A poop sheet. Etc, etc, etc.

 

That term has stuck with me for over 40 years. In the Navy, we called a sandwich a "sangy." Right after getting out of the Navy, in 1966, I went into a diner with a friend and ordered a "tuna sangy." She looked at me like I was from Mars. Or England, for that matter. So, over a period of about a year, I eventually dropped sangy. But, poop is forever, I'm afraid.

 

As for poop deck, I just assumed that it was a British term, as we brought over all of your sailing nomenclature. The poop deck, if I remember my boot camp lectures, was a partial deck, above the main deck, and aft of the quarterdeck. I could be wrong - don't bet the ranch on my explanation. Are any of you British Navy veterans? You might know.

 

Well, thanks again. Keep 'em runnin'.

 

P.S. Here is the wheel, showing the two missing spokes. Thanks for the poop on the difference between long and short spokes. I never heard that.

Edited by TR3BGeorge
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Hello European Folks,

 

I am pissed, so you will have to make allowances for my attitude.

 

Where I grew up Pissed means drunk as in "Pissed as a Fart" :D

 

Alan

 

Always willing to add to the confusion in the mudpuddle of life :P

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Where I grew up Pissed means drunk as in "Pissed as a Fart" :D

 

Alan

 

Always willing to add to the confusion in the mudpuddle of life :P

 

Alan,

 

Being angry in the States is being "pissed off." Which is why we have a saying, "It is better to be pissed off than pissed on."

 

You gotta love language, although the Brits drive me NUTS!! Every Sunday night, our PBS channel runs a BBC Mystery Theatre. Well, the two detectives are from Ireland or Scotland, and I can't understand a damn word they say! I am hard of hearing, so I have the volume up nearly all the way. I can understand the rest of the British cast, but these two guys drive me nuts. And, of course, they are the main characters, so I miss most of what is going on, until the end of the mystery, when they catch the bad guy.

 

Well, I had a great weekend:

 

MY CHRONIC OVERHEATING PROBLEM? GET READY.......................................................MY ELECTRIC FAN WAS WIRED IN BACKWARDS. Godhelpus.

 

George

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You gotta love language, although the Brits drive me NUTS!! Every Sunday night, our PBS channel runs a BBC Mystery Theatre. Well, the two detectives are from Ireland or Scotland, and I can't understand a damn word they say! I am hard of hearing, so I have the volume up nearly all the way. I can understand the rest of the British cast, but these two guys drive me nuts. And, of course, they are the main characters, so I miss most of what is going on, until the end of the mystery, when they catch the bad guy.

 

We Brits have the same problem understanding some regional accents and dialects. Perhaps you should try turning on subtitles if available, but you'd probably still need Babelfish to translate 'Irish/Scottish/English' to 'American'. :rolleyes:

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