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Spline hubs to Lug Nut type
- Thread starter SwamperCa
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Steve_S
Yoda
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Hi Swamper, on the front all you have to do is change the hubs and related hardware. Out back is another matter. The "correct" way, and probably the easiest overall, is to swap the entire axle. People have swapped just axle shafts but there is a 1/5-2" difference between the wire and bolt-on axle housings, so there are issues to overcome. You will also need to swap the hand brake cable, as it is a different length.
Hap Waldrop
Yoda
Offline
I did the swap with using the original spoke wheel rear end housing and in the end I think it offer some advantages. First off it's ton easier, than swapping a rear end housing and secondly, you can tune your wheel spacers to make life with wider tires and wheel more easily.
Basicly, it just as hub swap (bolt on hubs replacing splined hubs) both for the front and rear. For the front, you simply just switch the rotor over to the bolt on hub, and thats about it, other than tending to your bearings and seals, which is normal matainanence for either hubs. The rear it's bascily the same, but as Steve mentioned the spoke wheel tube axle rear housing is narrower, so you need to do two things to make it work, use some wheel spacers in the rear, about 3/8" to 1/2" on each side to space the rear tires back outboard, and use longer wheel studs, most use mid 80's to mid 90's Corvette and Camaro wheel studs, which are a metric 12mm 1.5 stud, but they go into the MGB hubs with zero mods as if they were designed for a MGB hubs (perfect fit to say the least), most all of the racers use these GM Vette/Camaro wheel studs for their race cars on MGBs on their racing MGBs needing longer wheel studs. At the end of the day I ended using spacers I had left over from the Huffaker MGB, they were exactly 4x4.5" bolt pattern and 1/8" thick, so I was able to tune the amount of spacer I needed, the 1/2" set up worked fine, until I threw the car really hard in a corner, and realize I was barely rubbing the tires on the fender lip, so I remove one 1/8" spacer on each side of the rear, which put me at .375" or 3/8" of spacer and for my car that was the perfect amount of spacing for my 195/60/15 tires and 6" wheels. I consider this the best thing I ever done to my car, and I had the best spoke wheel set up anyone could ask for, nearly new hubs and chrome Dayton tubless spoke wheels, but I've never been a fan of spoke wheels. If you source everything you need, a set of 4 bolt on tube axle hubs, the longer wheels studs (Jeff at Advance Distributors has the ARP part number for the correct wheel studs you'll need, shoot him a email) and the spacers Winner Circle, www.sprideget.com has the best spacers in my opinion), you can do this job in one afternoon, it's a easy deal I promise you, and at the end of the day it is tuneable, which is not the case of just getting a bolt on tube axle housing. For the life of me, I don't know why anyone with tube axle MGB with spoke wheels would do this job any other way, IMHO, it not a compromise over changing the rear housing, it's a better way to do it. You'll hear some who have worries over using wheel spacers, but I have a SCCA racing background where it was very common for most of us to run as much as 1" of wheel spacer at each corner to get ot legal allowable track, while we are pushing 2Gs in the corner and never had a issue with it, and we're talking hundreds of racers, not just handful of guys, and I think that is realabilty test enough
I really like the idea of being able to space the wheels and tire where I wanted them, not where a bolt on rear tube axle housing dictates they be, tuneable, thats the key to this conversion, and just to pick on my buddy Steve a wee bit, that is the "correct" way for me
This conversion is becoming hugely popular with MGB owners, I sell alot of wheels, and so I get to talk to alot of you, and I can tell you firsthand, I've sent out alot of 12mm lug nuts these days to MGB owners with wheel orders. Also, it not a bad idea to use the 12mm wheel studs on the front hubs as well, most of you street guys use chrome closed end lug nuts, and probably don't realize with alloy wheels, you getting less thread engagement with alloy wheels so using the longer 12mm studs up front cures this issue and give you the same lug nuts for all 4 corners, don't waste your time looking for 1/2"-20 longer wheels studs, there's not one out there with the right diameter and correct knurl size and knurl length, and head design, I know this too well, as I used 1/2-20 studs and had to do mods to my hubs and the stud to make them work, and have since installed Moser and ARP 12mm 1.5 Camaro/Vette wheel studs in MGB hubs and wanted to kick myslef for not going this way as well, it's a perfect fit for the MGB hubs.
Hope this helps, if you ave any questions, give me shout at the shop.
Basicly, it just as hub swap (bolt on hubs replacing splined hubs) both for the front and rear. For the front, you simply just switch the rotor over to the bolt on hub, and thats about it, other than tending to your bearings and seals, which is normal matainanence for either hubs. The rear it's bascily the same, but as Steve mentioned the spoke wheel tube axle rear housing is narrower, so you need to do two things to make it work, use some wheel spacers in the rear, about 3/8" to 1/2" on each side to space the rear tires back outboard, and use longer wheel studs, most use mid 80's to mid 90's Corvette and Camaro wheel studs, which are a metric 12mm 1.5 stud, but they go into the MGB hubs with zero mods as if they were designed for a MGB hubs (perfect fit to say the least), most all of the racers use these GM Vette/Camaro wheel studs for their race cars on MGBs on their racing MGBs needing longer wheel studs. At the end of the day I ended using spacers I had left over from the Huffaker MGB, they were exactly 4x4.5" bolt pattern and 1/8" thick, so I was able to tune the amount of spacer I needed, the 1/2" set up worked fine, until I threw the car really hard in a corner, and realize I was barely rubbing the tires on the fender lip, so I remove one 1/8" spacer on each side of the rear, which put me at .375" or 3/8" of spacer and for my car that was the perfect amount of spacing for my 195/60/15 tires and 6" wheels. I consider this the best thing I ever done to my car, and I had the best spoke wheel set up anyone could ask for, nearly new hubs and chrome Dayton tubless spoke wheels, but I've never been a fan of spoke wheels. If you source everything you need, a set of 4 bolt on tube axle hubs, the longer wheels studs (Jeff at Advance Distributors has the ARP part number for the correct wheel studs you'll need, shoot him a email) and the spacers Winner Circle, www.sprideget.com has the best spacers in my opinion), you can do this job in one afternoon, it's a easy deal I promise you, and at the end of the day it is tuneable, which is not the case of just getting a bolt on tube axle housing. For the life of me, I don't know why anyone with tube axle MGB with spoke wheels would do this job any other way, IMHO, it not a compromise over changing the rear housing, it's a better way to do it. You'll hear some who have worries over using wheel spacers, but I have a SCCA racing background where it was very common for most of us to run as much as 1" of wheel spacer at each corner to get ot legal allowable track, while we are pushing 2Gs in the corner and never had a issue with it, and we're talking hundreds of racers, not just handful of guys, and I think that is realabilty test enough
I really like the idea of being able to space the wheels and tire where I wanted them, not where a bolt on rear tube axle housing dictates they be, tuneable, thats the key to this conversion, and just to pick on my buddy Steve a wee bit, that is the "correct" way for me This conversion is becoming hugely popular with MGB owners, I sell alot of wheels, and so I get to talk to alot of you, and I can tell you firsthand, I've sent out alot of 12mm lug nuts these days to MGB owners with wheel orders. Also, it not a bad idea to use the 12mm wheel studs on the front hubs as well, most of you street guys use chrome closed end lug nuts, and probably don't realize with alloy wheels, you getting less thread engagement with alloy wheels so using the longer 12mm studs up front cures this issue and give you the same lug nuts for all 4 corners, don't waste your time looking for 1/2"-20 longer wheels studs, there's not one out there with the right diameter and correct knurl size and knurl length, and head design, I know this too well, as I used 1/2-20 studs and had to do mods to my hubs and the stud to make them work, and have since installed Moser and ARP 12mm 1.5 Camaro/Vette wheel studs in MGB hubs and wanted to kick myslef for not going this way as well, it's a perfect fit for the MGB hubs.
Hope this helps, if you ave any questions, give me shout at the shop.