[TR] Triumphs Digest, Vol 4, Issue 16

[Randall]

> I have also wondered this -- when I think about the short stud and
> double-bevel nut that secure the wire wheel splined adaptor 
> it seems (to my
> engineering-ignorant mind) that the forces at work would be 
> comparable to
> those in play if the same stud & nut were holding a steel 
> wheel in place.

They are; but with that setup, the stud still goes all the way through the
nut.  The nut just isn't as tall as the disc wheel nut (which as I recall
was enlarged very early in TR2 production, to avoid a tendency to pull
through the stamped steel wheel).  The disc wheel nut also has a section
near the tip where it is not threaded inside, while the wire wheel nuts are
threaded all the way through (and supposedly higher quality steel).

> The only difference I can see is that one bevel nut cannot 
> easily loosen
> when the wire wheel is mounted as the hub of the wheel sort 
> of captures the
> nut limiting how much a single nut could undo.

As Dr. John says, I have experimented with that.  They can come plenty loose
to cause serious trouble, and the extra forces working on the other nuts
will loosen them too.  Once several of them are loose, the wheel starts to
move away from the hub, and the nuts can fall out (if the stud doesn't break
first).

Fortunately I realized there was a problem before the wheel parted company
with the car (although just barely).  My father wasn't so lucky when he
repeated the experiment some decades later.  Oddly enough, I believe it was
the same wheel! (LH rear)

-- Randall