Knock Off Wheel Safety Wire

[Hrdayz]

Safety wire is a must for me. I got my cobra less than a year ago and taught myself how to do the wheels spinners. It's cheap insurance in my opinion.

[Bernica]

For anyone that has done over say 130mph in these cars, enough gremlins start getting into your head. Like tires, brakes, wheels, windshield etc. Wiring the wheels is just one less gremlin, at least for me!

[Snake2998]

Originally Posted by Bernica

For anyone that has done over say 130mph in these cars, enough gremlins start getting into your head. Like tires, brakes, wheels, windshield etc. Wiring the wheels is just one less gremlin, at least for me!

I have this image in my mind of spinner loosening off on the front wheels and the wheel moving away from the drive pins and suddenly you are at speed with no brakes or brakes on only one side. Not a good time to discover the problem when you are braking heavily.

Also the car steering from loose rear wheels.

[hawk 325]

I have the K/O's from vintage wheels, they came with safety pins that are installed after the spinner is installed. They will prevent the spinner and wheel from leaving the hub but I like the looks of the safety wire over the safety pin and like obsessive said, the amount of torque that is applied to the rear axle I am not sure if the safety pin would stay in place.

[Tim7139]

I use wire, figure, why not, it's easy, looks cool, makes for a reasonable redundancy.
I am generally surprised by how many folks notice it, frankly.

[super]

Hi

Safety wiring is also a must for me.

But for me the wire is more like an indicator. I wire with a small “eye” in it to see if the tension on the wire increases (in such a case the small “eye” would shut). A decrease of the tension could also be easily checked if you try to bend the wire.

In addition to the wire I also use a safety clip.

see: http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/s...g/ppuser/53959

That's what I do.

Cheers
Werner

[Bob Lacey]

Hawk

Our clips are a fail safe device for peace of mind ! however we still recommend safety wire -

see link below for full information.

https://vintagewheelsus.com/wheeladm...on=new_product

Bob Vintage Wheels

[JBCOBRA]

I take a Sharpie pen and make 2 dots. One on the wheel and one on the spinner. It is a great quick visual

[lippy]

It looks very cool but it's no substitute for inspection/tightening.

[mrmustang]

Better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.


Safety wire on a knock off is meant to show you when a knock off has loosened, it is not meant to actually keep it tight.

[DanEC]

Vintage also offers a safety clip that inserts in pre-drilled holes in the hub to prevent the spinner from backing completely off and losing a wheel. I installed them also, but if a KO does loosen it would probably still gall the hub and pins even if it all stays together - so I wire them also.

[CompClassics]

Personally I do not use safety wire on my Cobra. It absolutely will not prevent the knock off from loosening and coming off unless the vehicle is stopped imediately, the wire will break. On my Cobra I use two points of reference to check the condition of my knock offs, I put a paint dot on the knock off that lines up with the wheels valve stem. As you do your walk around of the vehicle before driving you can easily see if the two are out of alignment indicating something is wrong.
That being said I do use it on my clients Cobras as a visual aid when they do a walk around before driving the car. The way I use the safety wire as a visual aid is that I put enough slack in the wire so that it creates a bow from the point that it attaches to the wheel and the point at which it attaches to the knock off, rather than a straight line as you would do with typically safety wired hardware. By doing this my client can tell if the knock off is loose or if everything is ok, a loose knock off safety wire will have a straight appearance because the wire is be stretched during the loosening process and has the bow no longer preset. A bowed appearance will indicate the knock off is tight.

[Danr55]

We have a guy in our club who will testify that these cars are tough to drive, not to mention embarassing, with only three wheels... Safety wire is a must unless you have lock rings on your hubs.

[ACHiPo]

I use safety wire. I've seen/heard the arguments that the wire would break. That seems unlikely--there's not much force on them, just the vibration-induced shaking things loose. Plus, if pilots rely on it to keep their engines and other parts together, it's good enough for me.

[Ron61]

I use safety wire but I put mine on so it will loosen up if the spinner starts to back off. Then before and after each run I go around and tug on the safety wire a little to see if it is still tight. I don't depend on it to keep a spinner on so that is why I did mine backwards to what most people do.

Ron

[kevins2]

Originally Posted by Ron61

I use safety wire but I put mine on so it will loosen up if the spinner starts to back off. Then before and after each run I go around and tug on the safety wire a little to see if it is still tight. I don't depend on it to keep a spinner on so that is why I did mine backwards to what most people do.

Ron

The tug test should work either way. If you install it to tighten if the spinner loosens and the wire strums like a guitar string, the spinner loosened.

[Ron61]

Kevins,

It does work either way. But this way if I ever have to tighten them it is easier for me to feel the wire and see that it is back to where it was along with the dots.

Ron

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by kevins2

The tug test should work either way. If you install it to tighten if the spinner loosens and the wire strums like a guitar string, the spinner loosened.

Yes, just short of tight, you know your own feel, and if one changes, it will stand out. No need for the wire to be tight.

Gary

[Danr55]

Hey guys just a hint don't rely solely on safety wire. I had a little event the other day on a run up to Jake's corner slow down on the freeway to make a right hand turn got 50 yards down the road and the right rear tire fell off. luckily I was only doing about 5 miles an hour after making the turn. I got out of the car the rear fender was resting on the top of the tire and keeping the car from falling all the way to the ground. I went back up the road a ways and picked up the spinner and the safety wire was still attached to the spinner but had broken off at the wheel. I'm still trying to figure out how rubbing on an aluminum wheel broke a stainless steel safety wire. So the investigation continues but just a word to the wise if you have the ability to use clips or half pins in your wheels, use them.

[patrickt]

Dan, how long had that spinner been on that wheel? IOW, when was the last time you pulled the wheel for one reason or another?