I can’t remove Wire wheels from new hubs - help

[blueskies]

Speaking of applying heat, a little may help more than one thinks. It may not take an oxy-acetylene torch or even a propane torch to make things move.

One of the great tools that I found a few years ago is a digital/lcd DeWalt heat gun, adjustable up to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. (Bought that after the last Chinese-made junk heat gun failed after a short time.) Liberal shots of Lloyds MOOVIT penetrating oil and then judicious use of the heat gun gets the oil bubbling and penetrating into the deep recesses. Bolts that I did not expect to come loose came loose, without damaging anything.

 

[nevets]

When two things that are supposed to go together easily do not, it's usually a signal to STOP and investigate! If, as you say the shop will stand behind their work, then I would take it back to the shop. They own the problem. Any attempts on your part to heat & beat may make matters worse. Just my 2 cents.

 

[CaptRandy]

Disc brakes on front. You may have to pull the front wheel bearing nut in removing disc caliper and using a cotter key remover take the front rotor off then use a press to push out the disc and hub as one unit from the wheel.

 

[LarryK]

You would think a shop in the UK would have tried the hubs before installing, but to force them on is not what I call favoarble. Good luck in getting them off without damage.

 

[John Turney]

Disc brakes on front. You may have to pull the front wheel bearing nut in removing disc caliper and using a cotter key remover take the front rotor off then use a press to push out the disc and hub as one unit from the wheel.

If the cotter pin can be removed, that would be a good solution to remove the hub and use a press. Any further description on how to remove the cotter pin with such limited space?

 

[red57]

If the cotter pin can be removed, that would be a good solution to remove the hub and use a press. Any further description on how to remove the cotter pin with such limited space?

Never tried it but getting the caliper off may be tough too - not a lot of clearance between the caliper and wheel.

I agree with others - the shop put them on and I would have them pull them off (as long as you still have some confidence in their capabilities).

Aside from whatever is wrong/damaged enough to hold the wheel on, and whatever it will take to correct - what would you have done if you had a flat while on a trip?

 

[CaptRandy]

Get a pic with a 90 degree bend to insert in opening. Thin dykes to pull down the cotter key and nip off ends close to nut, push up to allow 90 degree pic in top of key and pull up and outward. This is one of the reasons you should only bend one half of a cotter key when inserting> Bend out toward the bolt and up over front of bolt.

 

[Healey Nut]

Although trying to get the wheel and disc off in one piece would be difficult it can be done . Then you could use a press to pushout the disc and hub extension .
Using a press would be more favourable than gas axes and BFHs .
However if they damaged the splines on the parts forcing the wheel on then your replacing them with new anyways .

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

I’ve had good luck with “dry ice” removing frozen bolts, etc.

I also had a rear wheel hub that was too tight and I couldn’t remove the wheel and my wife suggested regular ice and I put that in the hub and the wheel came off easy.

The hub was brand new from a company no longer in business.

 

[roscoe]

Not to change the subject but I'm curious. When I start a conversation with my wife concerning almost anything I'm doing in the shop, she starts off asking questions I think are pointless, making suggestions I absolutely know won't work and in general questions my mechanical geniusness. As the conversation goes on, she seems to get smarter than me real fast. If she has the patience to stick with it, her suggestions become brilliant and before I know it the task is done and I'm not bleeding or worse. After 46 years I just might not only start to listen to her but, dang I seek her consul out before I dig in sometimes. She also checks in with me in the shop if I mention " jack stands, table saw, cherry picker hoist or any sort of AC electrical work ". She's a keeper, sounds like you have one too.

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

Not to change the subject but I'm curious. When I start a conversation with my wife concerning almost anything I'm doing in the shop, she starts off asking questions I think are pointless, making suggestions I absolutely know won't work and in general questions my mechanical geniusness. As the conversation goes on, she seems to get smarter than me real fast. If she has the patience to stick with it, her suggestions become brilliant and before I know it the task is done and I'm not bleeding or worse. After 46 years I just might not only start to listen to her but, dang I seek her consul out before I dig in sometimes. She also checks in with me in the shop if I mention " jack stands, table saw, cherry picker hoist or any sort of AC electrical work ". She's a keeper, sounds like you have one too.

Good wives are hard to come by! When I restored my BJ8 Healey she picked out the interior and insisted on leather. I was going to go with painted wheels and she insisted on chrome.

 

[pdplot]

Like the monkey said to the elephant "If it don't fit - don't force it".
Just the other day, I couldn't get a new print cartridge into my HP printer. I looked closer. It was an 85A. That printer takes an 05A. (I have two HP printers. The laptop printer takes the 85A). I inserted the new 05A and whaddya know - it slid right in. And how many times have I put the left orthotic into the right shoe and said "It doesn't feel right".
Take that car back to the shop and have them figure it out. That's why you went there in the first place.

 

[fishyboy]

Hi all
Today I got around to trying to remove the two stuck wheels. I used a borrowed puller (from the garage who put the wheels on in the first place) with a small disk of metal covering the hub for the puller to press down on to. The wheel began to move with very little force. I then cleaned up both sets of splines, re-greased and tried to put the wheel back on. Pushing the wheel back on by hand the hub ended up flush with the wheel, whereas normally you can see the first 4-6 threads of the hub. I ran the spinner on to tighten the wheel as much as i dared with the spinner pushing the wheel on further 5-6mm (this what the garage told me they did when fitting the wheels first time round). Needless to say when I tried to get the wheel of once more it would not come off by hand, but came off easily using the puller. I then measured the "spline to spline" diameter of the front and rear hubs and unsurprisingly found the the front hubs were slightly larger by 0.3mm larger than the rear (62.0mm). I spoke to the suppliers who measured a new set of hubs and got pretty much the same readings. They tried putting a new wheel on both front and rear hubs, which went on and off with no problems. Returning to my workshop I took the brand new wheel from the rear and but it on the front, where it slid on easily. Likewise the old (but an unused spare) wheel slid on to the rear with no problem. I repeated this for the other side.

So now I have four wheels on four new hubs and all are easily removed. All I can think is that the old wheels (bought when I lived in the US) were made to higher tolerance (only fitting on the 62.0mm splines, than the new ones (made in China?) which fitted both the 62.0mm rears and 62.3mm fronts.

I would have preferred the new wheels on the rears as I was originally advised (as the drive comes thru the rears) and the older wheels on the front, but now have them the other way around. Will this cause any problems? None of the wheels show any slop when fitted.

Thanks
Phil

 

[steveg]

Phil,
Thank you for the followup. Closure for future users with the same problem.

Wouldn't think you'd have any problems with this setup in non-race driving.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

From what I've heard/read you should always have the best rubber on the rear wheels, even on FWD cars. I think--maybe wrongly--that it's actually the rear wheels that do the steering; the front wheels merely suggest which way the car should turn, it isn't until the rear wheels decide to cooperate that the car turns.

 

[Michael Oritt]

Bob--

I really do try to keep my opinions to myself but that sounds like ca ca.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Twas (half) a joke. But have you ever seen what happens when the rear wheels don't go the direction the fronts do?

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=52

 

[fishyboy]

Hi all,
All four wheels have new tyres.
Phil

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Hi all,
All four wheels have new tyres.
Phil

Sounds like you won't be able to easily rotate them, though.

 

[steveg]

Sounds like you won't be able to easily rotate them, though.

Having your own puller might be a good idea for tire rotations: