I thought that my mind had carefully eliminated the prospect of wire wheels
from my future along with the less practical MGs like the TC. Unfortunately,
in the case of the TC and TD, my mind had a staunch ally in the form of my
wallet that consistently backs up the vote with a quick NSF, whereas iIn the
case of wire wheels there was no second and I fell for a nice little RWA
Midget on eBay that just happened to have wire wheels.
There are good things about it. For one, the Midget in question only had
about 42,000 miles on it and the splines seem to be in fine fettle. The
tires had been replaced about a year ago with a nice set of M+S 145R13 74S
steel belted all season radials that had no mileage on them at all and
appeared to be true and in balance.
On the other hand, I know very little about wire wheels and their foibles.
Yes, I grease the splines. Yes the spokes appear to be in good shape. Yes,
they come off the car readily.
Last night, coming home from the monthly club meeting, I was cruising up Rt
53 at 60-65 mph enjoying the drive (we won't talk about the bump at the edge
of the parking lot that knocked the muffler off) when I heard a rather loud
bang as if I had kicked up a chunk of metal into the side of my car.
Investigation quickly revealed an extremely flat rr tire. I put the spare on
and came home.
Tonight I looked at the flat and found that there was no sign of damage to
the tire, but that the tube had literally blown itself apart. There is a
band around the inner surface of the wheel, but of course it does not do
anything about that outer row of spokes. The tube was a Michelin 145-13 made
in England. Should I assume that the tube was not replaced with the tires
and chuck a new tube at it? In that case I should probably make it a set of
four tubes (five?) and get a little POM. Anything I should be doing along
the way "as long as I have it apart"? What is the current wisdom about
putting tubes and tires on wire wheels?
TIA
David Lieb
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