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Spitfire Question about Spitfire wheels

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IanF

IanF

Jedi Trainee
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JerseyGirl recently purchased a set of Minilite-style wheels for her Spitfire. We're not sure of the manufacturer. They arrived on Tuesday and I test-fitted one last night. I'm not sure they are right.

The bolt pattern is correct and they came with new lug nuts. Both the wheels holes and nuts are cone-shaped, so they should center the wheels on the hub automatically.

However, after I tightened the wheel (sans tire) on the hub and gave it a spin, the wheel appeared off-center. I'm guessing this would create a pretty nasty vibration at speed? So I remounted the OE wheel/tire and gave that a spin... again, a slight bit of off-centerness...

Is this normal? I've mounted many wheels on cars in my life, but I don't recall any problems with the wheel being centered.

I plan to test fit the rest of the wheels tonight as well and cleaning up the hub surface, but I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Because of the tapered lug nut, I don't see how the wheel could be off center. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Are you sure the hub is straight? If your OE wheel appears off centre too, then I'd suspect the hub rather than the wheels. I'd throw a dial gauge against the hub and see if it is wobbling either axially or radially.
 
Maybe you should take the rim to a tire shop and have it put on the balancer to see if the rim actually is off-centred.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Are you sure the hub is straight? If your OE wheel appears off centre too, then I'd suspect the hub rather than the wheels. I'd throw a dial gauge against the hub and see if it is wobbling either axially or radially.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm with Eric here. Sounds as if you've got a wheel bearing or hub or spindle problem (assuming this is on the front of the car). Unusual, but by no means unheard of.
 
I did some more tweaking on it last night and it looks like a hub issue. When I remounted the bare wheel, I was able to rock it in/out by grasping the top and bottom of the wheel. The trunion looks ok - that was actually my reference point when watching the rocking movement from above.

All of the control arm bushings look fairly shot as well, so I'm guessing I'll be rebuilding the entire front suspension soon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Ah so... Another "might-as-well"!

Mickey
 
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