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MGB wire wheel problems

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pappap50

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I am having problems keeping the wire wheels on my MGB tight. They loosen up and make a noise that sounds like a bad universal joint. I can tighten them to make the noise go away, but they become loose and the noise returns. Please advise me on how to fix this.:eek:
 
I'll also mention that you'll get more responses to your questions if you post in the appropriate forum - in this case, the MG side.

:cheers:
Mickey
 
Regretfully, I must concur with Mickey. If either the hub or the wheel splines are damaged when mated the end result will be that both are damaged and tightening the two together will be virtually impossible. Moss has an article titled "Balancing Center Lock Wire Wheel Brakes" that talks to "Check the Splines" that I would suggest you reivew and perform on you vehicle. Here is the link: http://www.mossmotoring.com/balancing-wire-wheels-and-other-center-lock-wheels/
 
Funny Story: when I bought my first MGB back in '81 or so there was a three foot pipe wrench among the "junk in the trunk". I'd never seen a pipe wrench that big before but I added it to my miscellaneous tool collection. Some months later when I got the engine rebuilt (it was full of sand and missing the head when I bought it), I decided to surprise my wife and meet her for lunch in the newly running (but unlicensed, uninsured with dry-rotted white letter tires on spoke wheels) MGB. I picked her up at her office near downtown in Las Vegas and we went to lunch. Lunch was good but she didn't seem to enjoy the ride, especially when the car would instantly change lanes SIDEWAYS if I hit a bump while going around a curve. It was scary as **** but I of course acted like that was no big deal. I didn't want her to get a poor first ... third impression of our new toy. When we got near her office we were going down a hill and the light turned red at the intersection at the bottom of the hill. I smoothly transitioned from "spirited" driving and applied the brakes. Instantly, we heard this loud, raucous, ratchety sound follow by ABSOLUTELY-NO-DECELERATION of any kind. I swerved around the stopped cars and trucks in front of us with my foot hard on the brake pedal pushed all the way to the floor. We flew through the red light at the intersection and amid the symphony of honking horns (not mine, it didn't work as I'd just discovered) we somehow weren't hit and killed by the cross traffic. I got the car stopped a block or two later, mostly by curbing the dry-rotted tires, and when I looked at my wife she had a look on her face that I'm pretty sure mirrored the look on my face. Anyway, long story short: I gave up trying to act like this was no big deal and drove her the last block or so at about 2 miles per hour. I'd discovered that I had some slight amount of braking if I drove no faster and applied the brakes very,very, very gently. Back at her work, having realized what the three foot pipe wrench was for, I drove home, found the wrench and returned to retrieve the car. Later, upon closer inspection and after a few thankful prayers, I discovered only the suggestion of splines on all four wheel hubs. No telling how long they'd been like that but the chewed up octagon wheel nuts and the three foot pipe wrench told me what I needed to do for a COMPLETE-FIX. I never actually replaced those hubs but found that all I had to do was jump up and down on the pipe wrench after taking the wheels off and everything was fine. I don't remember my wife ever riding in the car after that though. I also never replaced the dry-rotted, too-big but oh-so-cool-looking white letter tires ( I did put new tubes in the ones that wouldn't hold air). I drug that little yellow death trap from Las Vegas to Oklahoma (flat-towed on a homemade tow bar behind a Camaro), Massachusetts, New Hampshire and finally to Indiana. I no longer have the same MGB but I still have the same wife ... and the three foot pipe wrench. Fun times!
 
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