Hello all,
I have a problem that has plagued me for the past week and must relate in
its entirety to best present the situation. My series IV, that had been in
storage for about 10 years before I got it, has wire wheels (grumble,
grumble). They would be very pretty when cleaned up, but have been nothing
but trouble. The problem, as usual, is with the rear wheels. On one side
there is a knock, which I have come to expect as simply a signal of age and
worn hub splines. However, a few days after I got the car on the road, I
started off and heard a whirring/grinding noise from the rear of the car. I
immediately thought in horror that the differential had run dry and was
grinding in protest. I drove the car back to my house and later that day
checked the diff. and wheel bearings, but found nothing. The problem seemed
to have gone away, so I went about other problems and probably put at least
200 miles on the car. Lesson 1 - problems never truly disappear.
Then yesterday, while taking a look at the wheel bearings in the rear, I
came to a horrible discovery. The knockoff on one side of the rear was
extremely tight, and when I got it off, I found that the splines on the hub
had completely worn down. The wheel had no grip on the hub without the
knock-off fully tightened. I had a feeling that this would not be fixed
without a new hub, but I put my better spare tire/wheel on and cleaned and
greased the hub splines. The car once again made the whirring noise and when
I returned to the house a few minutes ago, I found the knock-off on solid
again.
My most burning question: I know that something has to be done about this,
but is the car safe to drive in the meantime? I know little about the
physics of the wire wheels that was so heavily discussed earlier, but the
knock-off should loosen under braking power, correct? However, given that I
had put so many miles on it in this condition, I am hesitant to fix the
problem until I can more properly afford to.
Question two: What option would you go for in fixing this problem? I would
be very interested in some used bolt-ons (alloys?) and hubs or two
wire-wheel rear hubs and two decent wheels.
Phew, sorry about the length of that rant. Thanks again for any suggestions
that you may have.
- Andrew Gregg
viber(at)onix.net
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