• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
  • When posting a classified ad, you MUST select a prefix from the drop-down next to the subject line. If you don't you will get an error and your ad will not be posted!
Tips
Tips

New Wiki and Latest

Share this page

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Another great job Frank!
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank-

You need to toot your horn a lot more than just quietly submitting that wiki article. I've seen many mangled adjustable wheels but your write up shows clearly the design weakness that causes them all to fail. And I can't believe you resurrected that wheel as well as you did. I have one of these in the garage right now, but it is missing ALL of the bakelite on the rim - care to give that one a go? :smile:

Randy
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

TR4nut said:
Frank-

You need to toot your horn a lot more than just quietly submitting that wiki article. I've seen many mangled adjustable wheels but your write up shows clearly the design weakness that causes them all to fail. And I can't believe you resurrected that wheel as well as you did. I have one of these in the garage right now, but it is missing ALL of the bakelite on the rim - care to give that one a go? :smile:

Randy
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you have nothing but a steel rim? If so, that would be beyond repair. Maybe a conversation piece? I have another (extra) standard wheel that needs to be restored. If you are interested, PM me.
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank-

I inherited an adjustable wheel that someone (not me, really!) thought they could add a wood rim to it. Didn't work obviously, so they tossed it to me and now I use it as a temporary wheel for moving the frame around. At least I did when the suspension was still attached!

Randy
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

Terrific write-up Frank.

One thing I've noticed about the TR3 wheels over the years...the adjustable wheels always seem to have major degradation of the bakelite rim, whereas the non-adjustable wheels rarely deteriorate except for an occasional crack. My non-adjustable wheel has one small crack, but is otherwise in perfect shape. My buddies TR3 adjustable wheel needed major surgery just as you outlined in your article. I guess the quality of the Bakelite in the two wheels was vastly different.
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank - that is really excellent work. Congrats both on the wheel restoration, and the wiki page.

I had no idea there was a safe way to restore those steering wheels. Thanks!
Tom
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

martx-5 said:
I guess the quality of the Bakelite in the two wheels was vastly different.
Click to expand...

I think its just the way the spokes are attached to the outer rim - not much support there so everything breaks. I've seen several old ones that had that flex issue, the old non-adjustable wheels don't seem to have near the flex issue.
 
Re: New Wiki and up-date

Randy: I agree with your theory. As I stated in the writeup, owners would often use the steering wheel as leverage to extricate themselves from these cars. This Bakelite material just could not handle the repeated stress. A similar problem can be found in Michelotti bodied TR's. In this case using the wheel/column for leverage would result in failure of the steering column support at the firewall. This is a classic thing. I have never seen one of these cars where this piece hasn't either been repaired/replaced or needed the same.
 
Back
Top