Hi All,
Phil and I have been looking at alternatives to the traditional wheel spiners for pin drive wheels. This is a concern for Classic Revival cars equiped with pin drives since the shallow dish on the wheels puts the spinner out in the breeze. While in my opinion this looks cool we were both a bit worried how the authorities will view the Ben Hurr style wheels.
The solution is a set of Hex Nuts that Phil managed to source through Finish line in the US. These are a neat tidy looking setup without the thrashing wings of the spinner.
The next challenge was how do you get them on and off? The nuts measure 70mm accross the flats and that's a pretty big socket. There are comercially available 70mm sockets but they are expensive. They are also 3/4" or 1" drive so you also need to buy a bar or torque wrench to fit the socket. The other issue is that the sockets are steel and they will mark the surface of the alloy hex nut.
I had some 6061 billet alloy in the right size so I machined up a socket to fit. This was a bit of a challenge since I'd never machined an internal hex before. I looked at the design of some good quality sockets and made a 6 point flat drive socket. This means it applies the pressure to the flats of the nut rather than the corners so there is less chance of marking or rounding the nut. The 6061 aluminium socket while strong is still softer than the anodised surface of the hex nut. So far it desn't leave any marks on the surface of the nut.
driving the socket turned out to be pretty easy. I made up a bar to run through the side of the socket. This had an added advantage since it keeps the point of leverage close to the nut so there is less chance of it skewing sideways and marking the nut. The bar is about 5' long but I'll make a shorter 2 piece one so it can be carried in the boot.
You can put plenty of torque on the nut and I believe they normally run at about 450 foot/pound. To do that reasonably accurately just weigh yourself on some scales and then work out how far from the pivot you need to apply all your weight to achieve the right torque. Mark the bar and then stand on that point when tightening it.
That's one more distraction out of the way, now I better get stuck back into the wiring and other stuff.
Cheers
Check out Phil's Nuts
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