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J

jhva

Freshman Member
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Gents,

I took my car out the other day for a quick spin and heard a god awful sound when pulling into a parking spot (hard right turn). Sounded like something fell off the front end. Crawled under the car and the durn tierod had dug a nice groove into the inside of the wheel. The wheels are 14x6 Superlites. I don't understand why these wheels aren't working even with the smaller tierod. I'm guessing I need to grind them down a bit. I'm also wondering if I made an expensive error buying the 14 x 6's and not a more stock wire wheel. I have new splined hubs and the wheels are splined. Any suggestions welcomed.

On another issue the I used the Eastwood plier tool to roll the rear fender lip but it's hard to do without screwing up the paint on the fender even with running a hair dyer on the paint for a few minutes to soften it from cracking. I think I have read that it is not advisable to raise the rear end of the car up a bit but it would solve a lot of my clearance issues if I could do that. Any comments welcomed.

thanks,

John in VA
1971 MGB
2007 URAL Tourist
2001 BMW R1200C
1975 CL360K1
 
Other than exchange the rims for proper offset or converting from knockoff to bolt on's there may not be much you can do. I'm not familiar with any spacers that will work on splined shafts.

As far as height, didn't bother British Leyland any to raise them up off the ground to meet bumper height restrictions regardless of affect on suspension geometry.
 
I've a set of spacers that has a huge center hole...wouldn't they go around a splined hub?
 
As long as the nut catches enough thread and keeps the wheel centered on the hub that would work. I just said I hadn't seen any. I do think I would prefer that the spacers be tapered the same as back side of the wheel, which should be easy enogh for any small machine shop working with aluminum.
 
That might be the answer....have a local machine shop cut a set for you.
 
WHOA! Do not try to space out a splined wheel!!! Doing so will prevent the wheel from gripping the mating surface and the splines will strip out in spectacular fashion. This could easily result in the wheel(s) flying off of the car! The wheel MUST be allowed to slide fully onto the hub and against the chamfer.

As for raising the car, BL did this in the later models because they didn't have the money to redesign the car properly to meet US headlight and bumper safety standards. But, the handling of the cars suffered terribly as a result. Today, most people with later cars lower them back down to the earlier ride height to regain the handling MGBs were designed for.

The proper way to go about this is to change the wheels, unless the manufacturer has a recommended way to change the spacing between the wheel and the splined centerpiece.
 
I couldn't agree with Steve any more if I tried.
What I don't understand is why you only got interference with the rod end when you turned into the parking lot. Was there clearance when you mounted the wheels?
 
Well, I learned something else new today! Guess life's still worth living.

Was there a difference in the height of the 2 surfaces? The street & the parking lot?
 
There was clearance on the inside of the wheel and the rod ends. Thanks for the info on not putting spacers on the splined front hubs etc. May have to eat the new wheels and get narrower ones at some point. Sux cuz these are brand new.

john
 
Just a thought, have you properly set the end float on the hub bearings? Ordinarily there would be little chance of a wheel rubbing a tie rod end just from loose bearing tolerance, but it sounds like you're extremely close to begin with so it's actually a possibility.

My MGC with 8"-wide rims has only 1/16" clearance to the tie rod end but no rubbing so long as the bearing assemblies are shimmed correctly so the wheel can't "wobble" around on the spindle.
 
Worst case scenario, you can (but maybe not should) heat the steering arms and bend them away from the wheel. You then MUST GOTTA ETC have them heat treated and magnifluxed. Heating them WILL weaken them, but a proper heat treating will restore the strength, and magniflux will check for hidden cracks. I don't have a B to look at right now, but don't the arms bolt to the kingpin assemblies? If so, shims under each bolt, with longer by the shim thickness grade 8 bolts should also cure the problem, with a new toe set to compensate.
 
I'd go with shims between the arm and hub carrier before I'd heat/bend/temper the arm. Steve's bearing check suggestion would make good sense, too.
 
Maybe a little space can be gained shimming the hub outward, but be careful of how much land teh bearings end up on.

Jesse, yes, teh steering arms bolt to the swivel assembly in a horizontal fashion so adding shims there would increase distance from tire/wheel - but then same total amount needs to be removed from distance between tie rods on rack. Look at how much thread is showing now, use no more than half-reserving balance for toe-in alignment. 1/4" per side should be easy to obtain in this fashion.
 
I had a similar problem with a BGT and 6" wires. Note where on the tie rod end you're experiencing a clearance problem and use a grinder to remove a very small amount at a time. Remount the wheel and test. Regrind if necessary. This should buy you the clearance you need without compromising the tie rod end.
 
Ummm... th' tie-rods have threads. If the interference is "just" touching, 1/16" to 1/8" spacers between the two bolts per side of the steering arms would give some clearance, toe-in can be adjusted. Only "down-side" is ya might loose a bit of lock-to-lock travel in th' steering (turn radius a bit reduced).
 
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