Backwords pin drive wheels

[jwd]

This topic has been beaten to death on many forums.
Here are some quotes from John Hinckley (an engineer that worked for GM on the Corvette and Chrysler as the Viper plant manager) on a Corvette forum. Corvette never saftey wired their knock-offs.


"There is no relative movement between the wheel and the adapter, whether under acceleration or braking - that's what the drive pins are for (unless the drive pin holes in the wheel are "egged-out"). It really makes no difference at all which side of the car the RH or LH-threaded adapters are mounted on.

"It's amazing how much misinformation exists out there from folks who simply don't understand the design of the interface between the adapter and the wheel (including the fact that there are ten different ways to index the wheel on the adapter, and five of them will result in the wheel falling off).

The kinetic energy in the rotating spinner is insignificant compared to the clamping force generated in the tapered interface between the wheel and the spinner, and the "safety pins" are a band-aid that only existed in the later-generation reproduction adapters and spinners; original KO's didn't have them (and didn't need them if the wheels were properly installed).

Anybody remember when Mopars had RH-threaded lug nuts/studs on the driver's side and LH-threaded lug nuts/studs on the passenger side for umpteen years, and Chrysler engineers swore on their mothers' graves that if they were all RH threads the passenger side wheels would fall off and kill everyone? That theory faded away and they very quietly went to RH threads on both sides like every other manufacturer on the planet, and behold, the passenger side wheels didn't fall off. Imagine that."