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Tightening spokes on wire wheels

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Related to the other post, now that I have the 30+ year old tires off the TR4a wire rims there are a couple of spokes that don't make the same "thunk" sound as all the others.
 
Picture of the spoke ends inside the inner wheel;

DSCN4325.jpg
 
Picts look like rims good. Very little experience with big wheels but having built bike wheels with a hand full of spokes I know you can't just do one spoke and make it true, gotta chase it around. With tires off put em on and spin to see how straight they are. The spokes on my wheels were all frozen but pretty true. I left them alone and did not free. Since have broken a couple spokes and just replaced. If close just replace the "thonks" since they are probably bad anyway. If not true make a mailbox post holder, oh yea, California guy, probably haven't seen that.
 
Should not be a difficult job. Just keep the rim round and centered about the hub. And make sure it runs true to perpendicular and does not wobble as it turns. Also make sure it maintains the proper offset. And that the spokes are all the same tension and not too tight that they snap. Other than that it should not be too bad of a job.
I was lucky with the two sets of wires I ran, 15" and 13" for about 100,000 miles. Other cleaning and painting the only problem I had was one coming off unexpectedly.
I know, some will say it is not that difficult. I say it is one of the relatively few things on our cars that should be done by a professional. My reason is that they have a great effect on how the car drives and there is a safety factor.
 
I haven't done car rims but did a lot of bike rims. The concepts is still the same.

Lets say you have one spoke that is loose. Sometimes you can just tighten that one and get away with it. But most of the time you have to then tighten 1-3 spokes on either side of it to even it out. So you tight the middle a full turn, the next one takes 3/4 turn the next one takes 1/2 turn and so on. Now you have some other issues to think about. Did tightening these spokes take it out of round on the other side of the rim. Did the rim get pulled over to the right or left at that spot now as well. Sometimes you have to loosen spokes on the other side of the rim or tighten right side spokes and loosen left side spokes.

What ever you do remember you get an opposite reaction on right or left and opposite side of the rim. It helps to have the rim on something that will spin so you can see up and down and right and left movement of the rim as it spins.

Is this an easy job, yes and no. Once you have done it enough and got the hang of it and have the right stand to spin the wheels on then yes it is easy but until then it has become a lost art.
 
A board and nail will do just as well. Put the wheel on the car and make something
Geo, I like your tire machine but want to keep clutter down as you seem to have done in spotless pict. In the interest of clutter was just about to order tire irons and get dirty on floor, too old for that also but did they work ok?
 
Geo Hahn said:
Seems like one of these could be adapted to the purpose:

https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=98488
Click to expand...
Didn't try it, but I think it would take a lot of adapting. The supplied cones look too small to me to fit even a splined adapter, let alone the holes in the wheel. And the inside of the outer end of the wheel isn't necessarily true to the wheel, so you should really use a concave cone to grip the correct part of the hub.

What I'd do is the same thing I did to check rotors for true: mount a spare vertical link in the bench vise. Then add a hub (true the hub), and a splined adapter (true the adaptor).

But what I probably will do is just take them to a shop and let someone else do it!
https://www.hendrixwirewheel.com/serv_tour.html
 
Are there any shops in SoCal that do these any more even? Haven't found any in Orange County yet Randall...open for ideas.
 
Haven't talked to him in a few years, but you could try:
Valley Wire Wheel Service
Wheel Restoration, Wheels
14731 Lull St
Van Nuys, CA 91405
Tel: 818-765-3258 Fax: 818-765-8358

He seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business when I bought my Stag wheels from him, back in 2004. I got to see him making some spokes for an old Cadillac wheel, with a special machine that cold-rolled the threads & formed the head.

Or you could call these folks in La Mirada, and see if they will work on British wheels:
https://www.roadsterwirewheel.com/rehab.html

And it's not all that far up to British Wire Wheel in Fresno:
https://www.britishwirewheel.com/index.htm
They (as well as Hendrix in NC) will do business by mail order as well.

Or ask at Britalia in Fullerton. They might have the equipment, but more likely they'll just know where to go.
1121 East Elm Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92831-5023
(714) 879-7531
 
You know what nobody has mentioned is the fact that if you have a spoke that goes thunk or one that needs tightening is going to be a real problem unless the nipples are loose and my experience with 40 year old wire wheels is that they are not going to be loose. Those dudes break real easy. In talking to Hendrix they say to use heat. If you send the wheel to them they are not going to spend any time fussing with them , they just replace them, that means three or four spokes to replace one that goes thunk.
Just some ponderable thoughts, Tinkerman
 
Just called them, nice folks, as you say TD. $125 per wheel plus parts. He told me: A.Not to use heat. B.If you have one that has a frozen nipple that means replacement. I would try PB Blaster or Kroil before I got the bolt cutters out. Remember that general speaking, you have to remove two other spokes beside the one you are replacing. Spoke and nipple for painted wheels $2.25 each set plus shipping.

Good Luck, Tinkerman
 
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