BrettG

I'll gladly sell the urethane knock off wrench I have....... PM me if interested.

4440stevesvette

As hard as you can for as long as you can. Then use a sharpie and mark the tip of each individual spinner and the point of the rim that that marked spinner ear is pointing too. Everytime you climb out of the car, walk around it and check the locations of each mark, on each wheel. Make it a practice to do this and you will be in good shape.

65hihp

I like the features that make a 60s car a 60s car.
This is one of them.. I used to like my 8 track, too.
Wish I still had it.

If I want to drive and only think about talking on the phone, without giving a thought to the car, I take the Lexus.

The 65 corvette is driving like it used to be. And knock off wheels are a part of that. Follow the directions, Use the hammer, you got no problems.

rayvaflav

I love the real knock-off wheels on my '66 and I couldn't imagine having anything else on it. I think I'll go beat the crap out of that spinner right now !

Ray

65hihp

yeah Ray, whump it a couple licks for me too.

Everytime I drive my 11:1 compression, death trap car I wish Ralph Nader, algore, Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand (and Kerrmudgeon) and all the libs you can name could see me enjoying my hopelessly dangerous and totally politically incorrect all American sports car.

I love everything about it, and all it stands for. The car is all about freedom from govt regulation and oppression.
God Bless America (oh, and happy Thanksgiving)

Godholio

Quoting this in case anyone misses it. I was surprised how well it worked, I expected it to take a couple of tries to get the cap out. Nope, it was a piece of cake.

PinkVetteLady

hmmm.. I think I found a stocking stuffer for the old man. He always complains when he has to try to get his caps out. I'll add that to my next order to you. Thanks

63Corvette

I concur!!! Beat the **** out of them, and then safety wire them! If safety wire is the way to go for a race car, then it's good enough for me.......and it looks cool too

K2

Once more for the good of the order.

Ok here's something for you to stew on.

Most knock offs have a tapered face on at the spinner/wheel interface. I believe mine are 45 degrees. If, just for argument sake you have an improperly installed wheel and just as an example you develope 1/64th" of axial clearance between the wheel and the nut because the wheel wasn't tightened or installed correctly. This clearance allows the wheel to **** and you end up with point contact between the wheel and the nut on the bottom side of the spinner nut. 1/64" =.01562". Multiply by 2 because 1/64 axial translates into 1/32" vertical clearance because of the 45 degree taper. If for example the minor diameter of the nut taper is 2 1/2" then the circumference at that point is 2.5 x pi or 7.854" Now because of the loosened wheel nut and resultant point contact on the spinner the effective internal contact circle in the wheel is 2.5" +1/32" or 2.512". 2.512" x pi = 7.952". The interface of the two surfaces in this condition have different circumferences and the wheel now drives the spinner in the same direction but at a faster speed (rpm). 7.952" - 7.854" = .098" now multiply that times 100 revolutions of the wheel and it is 9.814". The circumference of the 2 1/2" spindle is 7.854" and 9.814 divided by 7.854= 1.25. This means that in 100 turns of the wheel the nut has loosened and additonal 1.25 turns. (actually considerably more, read on) Now if the thread pitch of the spindle is 12 TPI the 1.25 turns equates to .0833 x 1.25= .104" of additional axial play due to the further loosening of the spinner driven by wheel rotation. This additional .104 axial play translates into .208" of vertical play which when added to the previous play =.239" of vertical play. Which when added to the 2.5" of original contact circle of the tight wheel, translates into a new contact circle of 2.740" when multiplied by pi = a new circumference of 8.606". Now 8.606" wheel contact surface circumference minus the nut contact circle circumference of 7.854" yields a difference of .752" per revolution of the wheel. Multiply this by 100 revolutions of the wheel and it produces 75.24". When divided by the spindle circumference of 7.854 it = 9.5803 turns of the nut in the same direction as the wheel. Now assume a tire diameter of 27" x pi = 84.8232" per revolution x 200 revolutions = 16,964.64" or 1413 feet or .27 miles. You started out with a wheel with only 1/64th " of looseness and in about a 1/4 mile the wheel is ready to fall off. In reality it will happen a lot faster than that as my example assumed that the gap increased the same amount for each revolution of the wheel when in actuality it would increase geometrically with each revolution.

The point of the example is that the spinner nut must preload the wheel with enough force to maintain a substantial preload between the spinner face and the wheel face under all driving conditions. Worn drive pins or holes which allow excess movement, as well as improper wheel orientation when mounting are the greatest contributors to the catastrophic failures as shown in the pictures.

From my example you will also notice that the traditional mounting convention of tightening opposite wheel rotation is just that, tradition!. If even the slightest looseness develops between the wheel / spinner interface, the wheel will drive the spinner off faster than you can say Oh S---!. It will most certainly not try to tighten itself. In fact if the spinners were installed opposite convention to tightening with wheel rotation they would be more likely to stay on the car although they would still destroy the wheel if slack develops. Bottom line is that the spinner tightening direction is of no consequence if the wheels are to spec and the spinners are tightened correctly and sufficiently.

So what ever you do if you have knock offs, inspect the drive pins and drive holes for wear, clean the mounting faces before installation, orient them properly on hub and make sure they are securely tight. I still like the safety wires as they are both a visual and mechanical aid to insure nothing has moved.

So you see there is actually quite a bit of engineering involved. Now go have another beer and contemplate which way you want to install yours spinners.



I've posted this before but It bears repeating here again. The convention of putting left hand thread adapters on passenger side and right hand thread adapters on the drivers side as mentioned in almost all mounting instructions is absolutely wrong. The inertia of the spinner to an accelerating or decelerating wheel is insignificant. If everything is properly tightened it makes no difference but it make a significant difference if any looseness develops due to improper mounting. As soon as any looseness develops the rotation of the wheel against the spinner will drive the spinner at a faster rotation than the wheel and will spin it off before you even feel anything has happened. If you just think of the mechanics of what is happening it should become obvious to you. Here is what happens when even the slightest slack develops between the spinner and the wheel's tapered face. Since the interface between the spinner and the wheel is tapered as soon as any perceptible slack develops the wheel ***** slightly from the weight of the car and you now have point contact between wheel tapered face and the spinner tapered face instead of full circumferencial contact. Because of the tapered face geometry the circumference of the contact point on the wheel is larger than the circumference of the contact point on the spinner and as the wheel turns it actually drives the spinner in the same direction but at a faster rate (acts like a planetary gear where the outer gear turns slower than the inner gear. As you can now plainly imagine as soon as the spinner starts to turn more clearance is introduced and the wheel ***** even further which makes the spinner spin off at an even faster rate. The conventional information regarding knock off wheel mounting is exactly wrong and dangerous. If you mount them opposite of convention the wheel may become loose if improperly mounted but the spinner will not spin off unless you are driving in reverse. If you don't believe this just jack up your car loosen a spinner slightly, let it back down and then push it forward after marking the spinner and the wheel and see what happens. The spinner will rotate faster than the wheel rotation and will in short order drive the spinner right off if you keep pushing it.

I used to take it for granted that the "experts" knew what they were talking about until I started thinking about what was actually happening. If the wheels are mounted by someone who tightens them correctly you will not have a problem either way but I now always mount with right thread on right side and left thread on drivers side and this way I know at least I will never have a catastophic wheel loss while driving in the event that a problem develops.

65hihp

63Corvette

Let me add to this that when Derek Bell was being interviewed and was shown a video of a centerlok nut flying off of his 962 at speed. His response was "Oh, they all did that, and did it all the time."
Therefore, Safety Wire is almost mandatory if your car is a driver, or other than a trailer queen.

rgs

So what about the Chrysler/Dodge products of the same era that had left handed lug bolts on one side and right handed on the other?

JohnZ

It took them a while to determine that it wasn't necessary, and was a waste of money; all that matters is the clamping force developed in the joint.

soppeng

All of this has been said, but I'll offer my opinion:

1. When I purchased my 65 coupe several years back, one of the knock off tools was in the car. While some may have had good experience with the tool, my observation and experience was that you could not get the wheel nearly as tight with the wrench as with the hammer using the recommended number of blows. Any mechanical advantage with increased level arm provided by the wrench is mitagated by slight deformation of the non-metallic insert. I found you could not remove a wheel tightened properly with a hammer by using the KO wrench.

2. It will probably be a coincidence if the KO pin/dowel holes align propely when the wheel is tightened, meaning that you are either pinning a wheel that is not as tight as it should be or you are tightening the wheel to a point it will be hard to remove. My car is a driver (at least once every week for past 8 years) and I have not experienced a wheel coming loose, and use no pins.

3. Don't trust that someone else has installed knock offs correctly.

Kerrmudgeon

Love to see the look on your face as one of your rear wheels passes you on the freeway!
____________________

65hihp

Great! I've added KERRMUDGEON to my list
of lib names! But don't hold your breath
waiting for that to happen.

rayvaflav

Those are the exact stories that need to be published !

midyearvette

i would love to see you strap 'BABS' in the pass. seat and go from a dead dig to powershifts into all 4 gears at full song out the pipes.....she would probably record a new rendition of PEEOPLE!!....

65hihp

Oh yeah, the woman might just come over to our side if she could get a therapy session in a vette. Better yet would be to strap her into a 435 hp BB mega-carbon footprint e-ticket ride. She would probably feel a sensation she hasn't felt in years,,,,,

gilbybarr

I got the direct bolt ons from Virginia Vette. Didnt want to ever have one come off on the road.....yikes!