Fellow fans,
I hate to buck the trend, but I've personally witnessed a wheel come off a
Healey while in motion twice and it's not fun to look at or experience. What
the engineers or patents or manufacturers say is little comfort when a corner
drops to the ground at speed especially if it's a front corner. You learn a
lot about your reactions under stress when this happens. Now every few times
I take the car out I give all four corners some medium taps just to say I did
and I almost always get a little motion in at least one of them. The stresses
on the system act both when you acclerate and when you brake, so the knockoff
is going to want to unscrew in at least one of those motions.
Like checking your oil and water it just makes sense to rap them every now and
again. While I wouldn't go after the knockoff with a 10lb sledge hammer I
don't particularly care what it looks like. It's purpose in life is to be
pounded and I doubt if anyone has ever beat the ears off one. The intent of
knockoffs is to facilitate removal and replacement of the wheel, not to be
pretty.
I've also read that you are supposed to tighten them with the wheels in the
air, but I only do that for the initial tightening to seat them properly
because more than that seems to shake the daylights out of the suspension. I
can just feel the vibrations going through the drive train and/or steering
mechanics. Kind of like hitting a foot deep pothole at 50 mph. Then, for me,
they go on the ground for the final comforting few raps. I use a 3 pound lead
hammer and yes, even that makes marks on the ears, sorry to all the physicists
out there. I actually think that the concours standards should require dings
on the knockoffs. They weren't stock on my car in the first place but I defy
anyone to use that horrible octagonal wrench on the original equipment without
flipping it into the bushes about 5 times. Or worse, into your face.
Bill Moyer, BJ7 with wheels firmly in place
|