HELP! BJ8 Wire Wheel/Tire Decision

[David_K]

My father and I are in the last month of finishing up our early '65 BJ8. A friend who has a MGC gave us a set of 15x5.5" 72 spoke chrome wheels from Motor Wheel Specialist. https://www.mwsint.com/

They are in great shape with only a handful of spokes needing replacement due to the chrome flaking. There is no rust on these wheels except for some superficial surface rust that will be polished off.

My question is are these wheels exceptable wheels to run on the BJ8 Healey? How would you rate them among Dunlop and Dayton? They fit on the car great, but the front is about 1/2" outside the fender when looking down from the top.

Now for tires. We don't have the budget to spend the money for period correct Michelin X or Dunlop radials. I'm heavily leaning towards the Vredestein Sprint tires. Is 185/70 the best choice for the competition wire wheels?

The car will be driven to shows and not be a concourse winner. Our planned shakedown run will be an exciting 1100 mile round trip to the Euro Auto Festival in Greer, SC in October. Austin Healey is the feature marque this year!!

Cheers

 

[David_K]

No one wants to voice an opinion? I think we'll go with a 165 series tire for the classic look.

 

[Keoke]

No one wants to voice an opinion? I think we'll go with a 165 series tire for the classic look.

Well it may look Classic but you are going to bounce all over the road.----Keoke-- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

[David_K]

Care to indulge me why?

 

[healeynut]

David -

You don't want to run 165s on a 5.5" rim because that means your tread will be narrower than your rim width. This poses several problems, most seriously that you can get bead seperation under heavy cornering, causing the tire to come off the wheel if you are going fast enough.

a 72 spoke 5.5" rim is a standard upgrade for Healeys, many of us have these wheels on our cars. I have them on my BJ8 which you can see on my website:

https://www.seigrist.com/cars.html

The only tires available that are sized correctly for that wheel and your BJ8 and are widely available are the Veredestien 185/70 R15s.

Generally speaking I am not a fan of the Dunlop wheels provided by MWS (that's what I have on my BJ8). At one point, between 4 of these exact same chrome 72s, I probably had 60 broken spokes after two years of use. The entire lot had to be taken off and sent to BWW for complete rebuild and relacing with SS spokes. The only wire wheels worth buying anymore are the Daytons and that's what's on my BN1.

That being said I'm sure the Dunlops you have will be fine for the time being, give them a good run in, if you are lucky they won't cause you too much trouble.

Cheers!

 

[Michael Oritt]

David--

Consider sending your wheels to Alan Hendrix at Hendrix Wire Wheels and ask him about going over them while mounting a set of the Vredesteins. Alan knows a good bit about wheels and will treat you right.

 

[Randy Forbes]

No advice to offer on the wheels, but good luck at the Euro Festival.

We were just there last weekend, with a thousand of our closest friends; the BMW Roadster Homecoming is always held over Labor Day Weekend.

I'd like to go back with the Healey, for obvious reasons, but the logistics are against me.

 

[Ed_K]

David,

I have also had a similar experience as Alan with a set of 60 spoke CHROME Dunlap wire wheels. I put a 30 year old brand new set of wheels on my 65. They looked great. I had heard a few loud bangs over 6 months while driving but I assumed that I had picked up a stone from the road and threw it up into the body. On a day before a Healey club event, I washed my car and noticed that some of the wheel spokes were broken right where they go into the rim. And a few of them right were they go into the hub ! After only 5000 miles, I had 13-14 broken spokes on each rear wheel ! One front wheel had two broken. Hendrix could replace just the broken spokes with new for $ 10.00 each plus un mounting/ mounting the tires and re balancing them. I could then look forward to doing this over and over until they all broke and were eventually replaced and of course, I would always have been worried about the wheels flying apart.
I would recommend that you get some Dayton wire wheels or you will end up spending more money in the long run plus you won't be able to relax when doing any " spirited " driving.
Ed

 

[Dave Russell]

Hi David,
I would not use chromed spokes on any driver. Modern chromed wire wheels use polished stainless spokes. The cost of replacing all of your spokes might be pretty high.

Any steel material that is chromed is subject to "Hydrogen embrittlement". This happens because the chroming process drives Hydrogen molecules into the steel. The steel can be "passivated", Hydrogen removed, by baking the chromed part at a prescribed temperature & period. Something like 400 degrees F & 40 minutes. This process drives the hydrogen out of the metal, but it must be done within about 15 minutes of the chroming process.

It appears that few chrome spoke manufacturers were willing to go through this extra processing, or didn't know the difference, & most of the spokes were brittle & subject to breaking. Thus the switch to polished stainless.
D

 

[healeynut]

Dave Russell -

Yet again, another mystery solved. Thanks for that post.

Now I know why the Chrome Dunlops I have broke spokes faster than an italian bike racer trying to get ahead in the tour de france.

I had always wondered why the painted spoke wheels were much stronger than the chromes, now I know.

I had my dunlop wheels completely relaced with stainless steel spokes. Wasn't cheap but the best money I ever spent.

 

[Keoke]

Well yeah Dave. But MWS's in house all SS wheels use chrome plated SS spokes. Why ! Kuz they can plate 72 spokes at one time but you can only polish one spoke at a time. If you want polished SS spokes it costs a significant bit extra a wheel if the vendor will even do it and MWS is resiting the idea.---Keoke.

 

[Dave Russell]

I didn't say that no manufacturers make good chrome spokes. just that in the past & maybe still, a lot of them don't take the extra steps to passivate chrome over steel plating. You can't really tell if they are plated correctly by a casual inspection. Many race organizations won't accept chrome parts in safety critical locations.

Not to say that a few "good guys" like maybe MSW don't do it correctly. Polished stainless does have a slightly different color & for the perfectionist, chromed & properly post treated might be a good way to go.
D