Chip,
I have never seen a disk wheel (MORGAN) crack around the hubcap rivets.
That is very unusual. The usual place for cracking is from the lug nut
holes. This is usually caused by over-tightening the lug nuts. The
loss of a wheel by a couple of competitors led to the MORGAN being
banned from racing for a couple of months in California in the 1950s.
The solution was (is) a safety plate of 3/16 steel between the lug nuts
and the wheel. this distributes the load around the mounting area and
keeps one from inducing cracks by over-tightening the lug nuts. Works
well. MORGANs were re-instated and went on to forge a great competition
history.
All the best,
Gerry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ernest(Chip) Brown [SMTP:ebrown@ms.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 1998 11:59 AM
> To: Graeme Sutherland
> Cc: Steve Moore; morgans@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: disk to wire
>
> The wheel issue is becoming serious for some of us. I have a 57 Plus
> four with
> 16" wheels and have been looking for better than two years for spare
> wheels for
> same. Now I have two of the five wheels with the car that are cracked,
> and
> another which is suspect. All are cracking in the same exact spot:
> There are
> three rivets on each wheel that are designed to hold the hubcap on.
> Around each
> rivet is a flattened section of the wheel crown, designed I suppose so
> the tire
> changer could get a screwdriver underneath to pop off the cap, or
> maybe designed
> to give the hub cap a better "purchase" around the rivet.. About 3/4"
> wide, with
> the rivet in the middle.
>
> On each of the two wheels the crack starts at the edge of this
> flattened
> section, then propagates down to one of the ventilation holes. The
> third wheel
> has a crack at the flattened section, but it hasn't spread yet. One
> crack
> appeared at Pittsburgh GP after a hard Saturday run and made me scrub
> the car
> and come home.
>
-----
>
> Regards to all
>
> Chip Brown
>
>
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