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Disc wheels for Austin Healey BN7

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LuckyLuke

LuckyLuke

Senior Member
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That's it!!!!! I cannot stand the vibration anymore. Brand new tires, balanced with proper adaptor and than big vibration at 70 mph and above.

My options:

1. Dunlop disc wheels: Does anyone know who still makes the legendary Dunlop disc wheels for jaguar?

2. Original Steel wheels: what all do I have to convert to mount original steels disc wheels – does anyone know about some left over parts?

3. Dayton Wire Wheels: Since I’m not a fan of spoke wheels anyways they would need to pretty nice to use this option. Does anyone have experience with the Aluminum dish / stainless spoke Dayton wire wheels?

4. Fixing my Tr6 wire wheels: Does anyone have experience with adjusting wire wheels on the car in order to take some of the misalignment out?

Thanks for your help
 
The rear brake drums themselves can be a large source of unbalance. Some were machined with the center mount surface not concentric with the outer part of the drum. The drums themselves can be separately balanced, often with considerable improvement.

A lot of parts have to be changed to convert from spoked to disc wheels.

I don't think you will have much luck trying to adjust spoked wheels on the car.

I would at least talk to the folks at Hendrix.
https://www.hendrixwirewheel.com/index.shtml
D
 
Naw Dave, most top wheel people set up the wheel on the car. If a particular wheel gives em a lot of trouble they simply change it out. All balancing done by Borrani is done on the car. Rear wheels are balanced on the front then checked inplace on the rear.--Fwiw-Keoke
 
Lucky Luke -

Wire wheels need to be periodically trued, and should be done by an expert (if tured properly by an expert, they can last 10+ years without adjustment). Had my BJ8 (72 spoke) and BN1 (48 spoke) both properly trued and I don't have a shake or shimmy at any speed. Have your wheels trued by Hendrix.

You should also consider double checking your front shock absorbers. If they are shot, the front wheel will start bouncing up and down while on the freeway, causing the vibration you are talking about... it may feel like vibration but it's really just the wheel bouncing up and down because the shocks are no good. Trust me, this fixes the problem more than half the time. This is an easy fix.

Finally, have your rear drums checked for balance as Dave suggests, although I have never had a problem with this.
 
Alan,
I certainly second your suggestion on the front shocks. A bad shock will let the front wheel bounce like crazy.
D

Keoke,
I was referring to truing the spokes on the car, not balancing. Not exactly easy with the tire still mounted. EH?
D
 
I remember when I decided to swap to disc wheels...

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But for me, it was worth the effort:

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Randy,
Very cool custom hubs.
I took a cheaper way out and cut the splines off BJ8 hubs and had a set of steel bolt pattern adapters made. I once had a set of off the shelf aluminium bolt pattern adapters which worked ok, but didn't really look strong enough.
If Lucky Luke wants to convert to BJ8 brakes, he can get do like I did.
 
Thanks for all the great input

All shocks are new and the wheels are defiantly out of round.
Auto cross and time/orientation race of 400 miles a day twice a year does not help the spoke wheels. I drive the vintage Excelsior tires 640X15 that have the stiffest sidewalls among the vintage tires and they are not very forgiving in regards to bad wheels.

Does anyone have experience with the following Jaguar wheels on an Austin:

https://www.classic-jaguar-racing.co.uk/gallery.php?cat=10

Rolf
 
The jaguar boys are right proud of their wheels. Why not just go with a set of panasports? They come in splined as well as bolt on.
 
The Panasports or Minilite are OK but a little to modern. Maybe if I get digital dashboard.... just kidding.

I talked to the Dayton wheel guys and they offer an upgraded spoke wheel with a machined hub and a thicker spoke. Maybe that will work for a while.
 
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