View Single Post
  #49 (permalink)  
Old 05-21-2004, 08:09 AM
What'saCobra? What'saCobra? is offline
CC Member
Visit my Photo Gallery

 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Outside Miami, FL
Cobra Make, Engine: Several
Posts: 949
Not Ranked     
Default

My 2¢:
Alloy nut with alloy rims is OK, but a small risk of ALOxide surface bonding. Bronze or SS is nicer over many years of ownership, but not necessary.

Use of anti seize on threads is OK, but also not necessary. Use very very sparingly, as locking torque keeps it on.

Use safety wire attached in direction of tightness, but you can leave it a tiny bit slack if you like as an indicator to show nut movement if the nut has loosened and tightened the wire. Better to install snug and pluck it for pitch when inspecting. You can hear that it is very high pitch if very tight and be forewarned.

Normally, wire is always attached to keep the nut retained and certainly not in the opposite direction to common sense. But, since the wing nut can move in the off direction perhaps only less than 180 degrees before it is tensioning the wire again (and assuming the wire hasn't broken meanwhile) it will soon be holding the nut on again, having allowed only much less than one complete turn. The wire certainly will keep the nut from turning in anything but a severe accident or direct blow to the wire. (But, during your walk-around pre-flight, will you recognize the reversed wire direction?)

Installing unknown and untested wheels (new or old) on a hub/spindle for the first time should include using blue dye on both mating surfaces, removing the drive pins (if applicable) and slowly turning the wheel against the surface some (with the nut installed but not too tight to prevent movement) to scratch the dye. After removal, examine the dye marks and be assured that there is a full face contact between the surfaces. The importance of this bearing surface is to prevent the wheels from drifting back and forth against the pins (or bolts) excessively with each power application and brake reversal.

The full inner surface of the wheel should show contact and no interference. The hub wear of the dye should match it in annular width, at least. Any less should raise lots of questions in your mind and they should be resolved before acceptance.

A removal tool is mandatory with alloy wing nuts, if you plan on keeping the car for any serious years. Otherwise, they will eventually fatigue and fail, requiring you to make or buy the tool anyway. (Although, if the new wing nuts are 6061 billet, maybe that isn't so?)

Don't deform the threads on an alloy wing nut by overtightening, or you will gall/jam the threads of the nut on the spindle for sure, sooner or later. After snugging up the nut, use two or three good smacks on different wing tines with the lead or dead blow mallet for tightening. Measure the removal torque someday and tell us all about it.

Once upon a time, i forgot to tension the two front wheels at all beyond hand tight, and in those ancient days no one used safety wire on street cars. Didn't want to look like a posuer, y'know. The wheels were alloy sunburst type and i drove perhaps 20 miles or so, down some country lanes at a pretty good cruise/clip.

The right front departed as i slowed for a left turn. i saw it bounce ahead and exit the road on the right shoulder pretty fast. That sucker hit a tree gobsmack in the middle and instantly reversed direction with enthusiasm and passed just barely in front of me, airborn, right to left, as i slowed down and then stopped.

Unfortunately, some dude with his fully loaded family car (that was now passing me) looked pretty surprised as it headed for his windshield. More fortunately, it dropped and hit his RF passenger door instead, thank the Lord. It had lost it's energy and flip-flopped to a stop on the road just ahead of where i had pulled over.

He stopped and i anticipated well-deserved but great grief. He was very very cordial, however. i offered a bit of cash on the spot for the mangled door repair and he happily took it rather quickly and explained that he was a truck driver and ANY accident would be negative for his insurability, even not his fault. He wanted to book out of there bigtime, before the gestapo got wind. We said adieu and i was out $50 (we are talking 1967 here, folks).

I recovered the otherwise undamaged wheel and remounted it, with a few enthusiastic smacks of the brass hammer from the kit. The 427's chassis never touched the road, because the disk diameter kept it and everything else clear.

As i drove away, a copper with his lights flashing zapped by going the other way, back to the site. i gassed it and hung a quick left and took a round-robin tour back home. (Rule of thumb, always turn left, since most everyone turns right to escape, including anyone following, but out of sight. Ever notice how the stores are set up to flow people to the right and the most expensive jewelry and parfumes are to the right?)

i mean, anyway, how many dark green Cobras were on the back roads of NH those days? i had vaporized...

Oh, yeah, i started using safety wire and drilled holes in everything i have ever owned since (including side pipe hangers and associated bolts, but that's another story).
__________________
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
George Washington
Reply With Quote