This is my first question to the list after a couple years of reading the all
the great advice and tech tips. I apologize in advance if the email is
formatted incorrectly.
I have a '74 chrome bumper MGB that I bought five years ago. The car has sat
in the garage most of the time due to a wiring mess created by one of the
previous owners. I finally got around to repairing the wiring and took the car
for a test drive around the block. About half way around, I heard the sound of
a heavy, metal piece fall off. I immediately stopped and discovered the
knock-off nut for the right front wheel was missing. After examining the other
wheels, I saw that the left front knock-off was marked for the right side.
The rear knock-offs were on the correct wheels. It looks like at some point
the front hubs had been removed and then replaced on the wrong sides. My
question is, does this really matter and why? How does the direction of
rotation of the wheel affect the way the knock-off is threaded? The car had
been driven at least a hundred miles in the past couple of years with no
problems. Perhaps the knock-off I lost was simply loose (the others were all
still tight).
I ended up removing one of the knock-offs from the rear and placing it on the
front, and was able to very, very slowly drive the remaining half-block home
(with my son walking along side monitoring the unsecured wheel). I then spent
three hours of the late afternoon (with a metal detector I'd borrowed)
unsuccessfully searching a stretch unmown roadside for the errant knock-off.
Thanks,
Joe Gorman
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