Pardon me as I am still catching up on my digest reading (and I lost the
original
question as well as the one response I saw). If this has been already beaten
to
death, my apologies.
It was asked whether there was a fairly easy way to go back and forth between
wire
wheels and disc wheels on a TR3. One answer was that 1/4" spacers might be
used
between the wire wheel adapter and hub.
Although I knew a TR3 owner who (painfully) swapped back and forth between wire
wheels
and disc wheels twice a year on his daily driver, 1/4" spacers should work
well. You
would use the longer (disc wheel) studs, and the spacer would be used when
fitting the
wire wheel adapters, effectively "shortening" the studs.
Generally speaking, the number of threads of the short (wire wheel) stud is not
sufficient to safely hold the disc wheel lug nuts on. If I recall, it was
about 7 or
8 threads.
I have used spacers on my former racecar TR3B, keeping the long studs while
running 72
spoke wires. I felt safe enough doing this, since similar spacers had been
used by
the PO when racing, to widen the track 1/2". Studs on my racecar are a little
longer
than stock.
Unless running very wide (and tall) tires, the increase in track should not be
a
problem with fender clearance.
The width of spacer _may_ be something different than 1/4"; the amount of stud
protruding needs to be short enough to not touch the backside of the wire wheel.
Nearly 20 years ago, when I first converted my other TR3B to wires, Start Your
Engines
out of Maryland suggested cutting the studs "at a 45 degree angle" to preserve
some
threads if you wanted to go back to disc wheels. Although I attempted to do
this, I
kept encountering problems with the studs hitting the back of the wire wheels.
Suffolk, VA
kedwards@norfolk.infi.net
or
keithedwards@hotmail.com
(2) 1962 TR3Bs (both converted to wire wheels, one back to ARE mags)
(2) 1967 TR4As (both originally had wire wheels, now one has discs)
(1) 1954 Austin-Healey 100 (always has had wires)
(1) 1954 Austin Princess Vanden Plas limo (always has had "truck" wheels)
|