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Broken Spokes

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tahoe healey

tahoe healey

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I've had a rash of broken chrome/stainless spokes bread in the last few months. The "cap" comes off the hub end of the spokes. I do not drive hard and I avoid pot holes (when I can). I have learned how to replace them at home and I carry at least 4 spares. What is the thought about tuning them a little looser than they came to me? I cannot think of anything else that would cause that.
 
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Re: broken spokes

In theory;
Too low tension gives movement and therefore fatigue in the metal
 
Re: broken spokes

I agree with Big Green. All spokes will break eventually if they see enough miles. Wheels that are trued (all spokes with proper tension) and balanced to minimize vibration will prolong the life of the spokes. I am fortunate to live close enough to Hendrix Wire Wheel that I can get truing and balancing done professionally. Even with that, I occasionally find a broken spoke when washing the wheels. I bought the wheels in 1991 and now have more than 100,000 miles on them.
 
Re: broken spokes

:iagree: With Big Green Too.
 
Re: broken spokes

I agree as well. Remember that the car is "hanging" from the spokes as they pass through 12:00 o'clock and loosening them will create a lot of play as each spoke goes in and out of tension. If anything I would be tightening the spokes but it may be time for you to stop dealing with spokes as they break and have your wheels trued and balanced. FWIW I have had my 60-spoke Daytons on the car for almost 20 years and 70K or so miles without ever breaking a spoke, but every time I have replaced tires (three or four times I believe) I have had the wheels trued, etc. by Alan Hendrix when he mounted the new tires.
 
The car isn't really hanging from the spokes. They are tensioned enough that the compression of the car weight reduces their tensile force, but not below zero. Loosening them WILL cause them to break. (I hope I wrote that clearly.)
 
While S/S spokes look great they do stretch and will do that only so many times until they break. The regular steel ones are slightly better in they are less brittle. We have vintage raced our 100 for years and started out with Dayton s/s and chrome 60 spoked wheels, with time and experience spokes started to break. Then we went to painted heavy duty Dayton 60 spoked wheels, they also eventually stated to break. Now we have 72 heavy duty painted Daytons, but have not raced since the birth of my daughters. Bottom line is the tires today stick better and that puts stress on the rims more so then when they were new. If you really "push" the car, you are going to eventually break spokes its just a matter of time....... Just my experience and 2 cents.......
 
John--

Indulge me and imagine a wire wheel with 8 spokes, configured like the slices in an eight-piece pizza. Assuming the rim did not collapse the car would largely be hanging from the spoke pointing up!

I know we're talking about Healeys and not pizzas but my point was that loosening spokes would make the wheel less of a unit and the down-force of gravity would put more--not less--dynamic strain on the upper-most spoke(s) whether the car is moving or at rest.
 
I have some experience building and truing bicycle wheels, and it seemed that it was accepted that the weight of the bike hangs from the spokes. Those spokes have little strength under compression. Back circa 1963 I took my BT7 (I think that was what it was) to Dayton Wire Wheel to have some broken spokes replaced. A man I believed was the proprietor cut out several broken spokes on my wheels, installing and painting the replacements. I believe these were original Healey (Dunlop?) wheels. This car had a couple of modifications by the PO, who actively drag-raced this car. That may explain the broken spokes. The Dayton Wire Wheel guy told me that the Healey wire wheel design was inherently weak and were failing with the introduction of the 3000 engine. My memory on that may not be correct, but he did opine that the Dayton wheel design was superior. I don't know about that, but I was a newspaper reporter at the time and couldn't afford a new set of wheels. I have a BN7 with 60-spoke chrome wires now, Daytons I believe, and have successfully replaced two or three broken spokes on one of those wheels. While I just snugged the new ones a bit, I had no sense that I was capable of truing a car wire wheel despite my experience with bike wheels. That's probably why Hendrix has such a sterling reputation, specific expertise.
 
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