Wire wheel spinner hammer

[Z320]

I don't know what problem you want to see?

To open I can step on the lever. And to lock my lovely wife steps on the brake pedal.

But most time pulling 300 Nm is the monment the wheel lifts from asphalt ground and starts to slide.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Z320

[Ian Vincent]

6 hours ago, Stephen Chester said:

I have used the wooden tool as supplied by TR SHOP London without any problems. Sure due to the nature of wood, it eventually break up, but how many times do you need to remove the wheels anyway? 

I would definitely recommend it, and for £15 cannot go wrong!

I made my own based upon a photo I took of a TR shop one. I’m on the second one because they do eventually break up but I do give it a bit of a wallop whenever I use it. My tool of choice for hitting it is a 4lb lump hammer.

Rgds Ian

[Keith Wigglesworth]

One issue not mentioned here is whether the wheel should be on the ground or jacked up when you hit the spinner. I was told that you can damage the wheel if you tighten fully with the car on the ground. Any views?

Keith

[harlequin]

I believe that the manual states that the wheel should be tightened with the wheel off the ground 

George 

[Drewmotty]

27 minutes ago, harlequin said:

I believe that the manual states that the wheel should be tightened with the wheel off the ground 

George 

I take up the slack with the wheel off the ground to seat the tapers and then knock it up tight once on the ground. 

[Z320]

Yes, jacked to lock tight, with my wife on the brake, the way you get the wheel on and off.

The photo above was a quick shot to show how to use the tool and „lifting“ from the ground is a last check an an indication for you.

Everything OK here.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Z320

[Z320]

But I tell you the truth:

„hit with a hammer as much as you can on the spinners“ (hubs and wheel bearings) - in my opinion - doesn’t fit with „only lock tight with the wheel off the ground“.

 

[TRier]

Ideally I suppose one wouldn’t be hitting nice spinners with anything, this tool looks very good. Haven’t tried it but I’m going to.

https://shop.limitfabrications.co.uk/?product=spinner-tool

[Ian Vincent]

Everything written above is perfectly sensible but back in the seventies I had a AH3000 with wire wheels and because it was my only car it was used and abused in every possible way including smashing the spinners with a copper headed mallet and frequently driven at 100mph. It survived this treatment for about 10 years until the dreaded tin worm got it.

Rgds Ian

[Don H.]

1 hour ago, TRier said:

Ideally I suppose one wouldn’t be hitting nice spinners with anything, this tool looks very good. Haven’t tried it but I’m going to.

https://shop.limitfabrications.co.uk/?product=spinner-tool

Let us know how it works.  My DeWalt DCF899HB 20V Max 1/2" impact wrench will take off conventional lug nuts from my other vehicles, but it doesn't have any too much torque.  I'm not sure I'd be able to remove a spinner with that tool using the DeWalt.

[John McCormack]

On 2/13/2023 at 8:42 PM, Z320 said:

Bob, maybe, but not tight enough.

Believe me, I made this annoying self test and drove hours without any self tightening.

A couple of year ago a mate who lives near me joined me for a 50km drive to have coffee with Register friends. The first 35kms are in city stop start traffic, the final bit on freeway and winding country road. He had his newly restored TR2 and stopped a couple of times to check his car. After about 30kms he stopped again and asked me to listen to the knock he could hear. I asked him how he had tightened his wire wheels and he said with this light mallet he had as he was told they self-tighten. I knocked them tight with my copper hammer and he never had a problem again.

I've driven about 250,000 miles in my daily driver TR2 over 47 years. Maybe another 10,000 in my other sidescreen TRs. I've tried all manner of methods of tightening wire wheels, and I have never had a wheel tighten itself if it wasn't tightened properly to start with.

Long and extensive experience tells me you should tighten them properly.

Edited February 15, 2023 by John McCormack

[Lebro]

I don't disagree, the "self tighteneing" is more to prevent the wheels falling off in the event of the spinners not being tight.

That is why the right hand side has left hand threads & visa versa. 

Bob.

[Hamish]

When I helped my dad out with his vintage cars over the years ( into my adult hood not just as a kid) including his racing alvis that I got to drive in anger, we used a copper head mallet. some of the ears on the spinners looked a bit battered on the tightening face.  He said they are there to do a job not look like they were done up with a toffee hammer.

he had a preferred finishing touch of rotating  the wheel slowly and giving it one more tightening whack against direction of turn. 
 

with the occasional double check whacks after a few laps practice if racing. 

[SuzanneH]

17 minutes ago, Hamish said:

When I helped my dad out with his vintage cars over the years ( into my adult hood not just as a kid) including his racing alvis that I got to drive in anger, we used a copper head mallet. some of the ears on the spinners looked a bit battered on the tightening face.  He said they are there to do a job not look like they were done up with a toffee hammer.

he had a preferred finishing touch of rotating  the wheel slowly and giving it one more tightening whack against direction of turn. 
 

with the occasional double check whacks after a few laps practice if racing. 

Wise words indeed. Safety is paramount, never mind the polishing.

[john.r.davies]

Who ever heard of any nut becoming tightened in use?   They always become loose.

It's Entropy!   When you tighten a nut, you add energy to the system.    The universe hates concentrated energy and tries to distribute it around equally, so the only way for a nut to tighten is if you expend energy by straining on the spanner.    The System will always loosen the nut.

John

[boxofbits]

16 minutes ago, SuzanneH said:

Wise words indeed. Safety is paramount, never mind the polishing.

I wouldn’t disagree with any of that.

Having worked on cars with wires, I couldn’t live with myself if I’d left them to self tighten.

Like Hamish, give the spinners a good clout with a copper mallet. 

[Z320]

I already thought it would be good to do some studies on the HHGG

to find an likely unlikely explanation for self tightening 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Z320

[Z320]

On 2/15/2023 at 8:57 AM, John McCormack said:

A couple of year ago a mate who lives near me joined me for a 50km drive to have coffee with Register friends. The first 35kms are in city stop start traffic, the final bit on freeway and winding country road. He had his newly restored TR2 and stopped a couple of times to check his car. After about 30kms he stopped again and asked me to listen to the knock he could hear. I asked him how he had tightened his wire wheels and he said with this light mallet he had as he was told they self-tighten. 

This reminds me to my Stammtisch mate Frank.

Years ago he called me from his holiday at the Italien alps, hearing creaking noises from the front axle of his TR by driving narrow curves.

I gave him some advice but the local garage was not able to help him.

Back at Germany we had a look at his TR at my garage but found no fault.

Finally I asked him „are your wire wheels locked tightly?“.

“Slightly, my friend X, you know him, told me they are self tightening“.

Yes I know X, a real „I-know-nothing-but-tell-you-all-about!“-guy. Biggest story teller ever.

I locked all 4 wheels with my tool, each more than 1/4 turn.

Later this day Frank called me „what wonder, the creaking noises disappeared, and also the clonk noises from the rear“, which he did not mention.

With the front wheels not tight the cones must have been rolled on each other caused my the sideward forces by driving narrow curves.

The issue of „not self opening“ by the RH /LH thread on the correct side of the car is „stay locked as it is“ and not „self tightening“.

Otherwise it would not have been possible for him to drive 500 km home with not tight wheel - and arrive with still not tight wheels?

Edited February 16, 2023 by Z320

[ianc]

Marco and others are correct - by putting the mountings and the wheels on the correct side of the car, it is not a case of "self-tightening", but rather "not self-loosening".

From 1963 onwards, my daily driver was a TR2 fitted with wire wheels, and I whacked the spinners tight using the heavy copper-headed mallet from my Uncle's 3-litre Bentley.  The car would cruise at 100mph (legal then) and the wheels never came loose.  When I bought 4VC in 1969 as my daily driver, it was equipped with wire wheels and it had considerably more performance but, as one would expect, the wheels never came loose because I continued to use the copper-headed mallet.

I have the mallet still, but it has had little use since 1971, when I removed 4VC's wire wheels and fitted TR6 steel wheels.  To be honest, he copper head of the mallet could do with a re-build, but that's unlikely to happen now.

Ian Cornish

[Z320]

This reminds me to Gerhard Polt, German / Bavarian comedian.

There is no need to understand German, finally you will see the not surpising end.

The story of self tightening is too sweet.

[SirHector]

On 2/13/2023 at 3:45 PM, Don H. said:

I’ve seen those special sockets used at Goodwood in combination with about a four-foot Snap-on torque wrench.  That’s a *very* nice way to go!

Here's the link to the Triumph specific spinner sockets on the oldtimertools.de website.
https://www.oldtimertools.de/Vehicle-Type/Triumph/

Great piece of kit…….but SO expensive…..any cheaper versions so I don’t have to sell a kidney!

[Z320]

6 hours ago, SirHector said:

Great piece of kit…….but SO expensive…..any cheaper versions so I don’t have to sell a kidney!

The asked money for the spinners tool is worth to give some thoughts on making and selling it.

How much are you willing to pay for it and safe your kidneys?

Edited January 26 by Z320

[Ian Vincent]

2 hours ago, Z320 said:

The asked money for the spinners tool is worth to give some thoughts on making and selling it.

How much are you willing to pay for it and safe your kidneys?

There is a wooden tool available for about £20 from the usual suspects which works well in conjunction with a copper mallet.  I have made my own because they do eventually wear out and it lives with the spare wheel and the copper mallet in the car.  I used to have octagonal spinners and they had their own short spanner which can be used with a bit of scaffold pipe or a mallet.

Rgds Ian

[TR Rob]

Has anybody had experience with one of these ? Do they fit TR3a’s , I would imagine all the two eared spinners are the same……anyone !

Edited January 26 by TR Rob
Spelling

[RogerH]

Hi Rob,

 they are rubbish.

I bought one in the late 90's and had to weld angle iron to it as it kept twisting and bending.

The sharp corners would dig into the ears.

The wooden version is no better.

 

Roger