4-1=3 or, you picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel :-(

[aogrady]

Even after reading this thread and checking my bolts (on alloys) i forgot to mention alittle story of mine.

After Dubsatthecastle we went on to a week in and around the area, no problems. Drove home and as i left the M5 to drive home i was parked at the traffic lights and a guy next to me is looking over and pointing at my front left wheel. I wind down the window and he says do i know ive only got 4 bolts and 5 holes????
Jumped out and had a quick look and noticed my locking nut had gone walkys. Luckily pulled around the corner to a lay by outside a garage and nipped into the workshop to borrow a wrench (my tools where under the R&R bed and the van was stuffed.)
All the bolts where slightly loose and they had all been tightened to correct tolerance.
First thing that went through my mind was this post...................

Hi Clyde,

I know it's scary isn't it. I changed the wheel on my works van t'other day, and it must have lost a weight, or it's just mud from being the spare under the van, but i have a noticeable shake to the van when doing 50+ and all i can think of is what happen to my bus! My stomach sinks everyime i hit 50+

Keep checking your nuts everyone!

Cheers!

Alistair

 

[slow-lane-Matt]

I had a near miss with this yesterday. Bus suddenly began making strange clanging noise and rear end felt a bit wobbly.

I asked a passer by to look at the rear end to see what was moving - he noticed the wheel was moving in a way it shouldn't be.

Was only 200 yards from home so trotted off to get a socket - didn't bother jacking up the bus as so near to home. Went around tightening
each nut in turn, they all seems to screw in well, turning each one half a turn at a time.

By the time I got home (30 seconds of very slow and careful driving), 2 bolts had come out and the other 3 loose.

The wheels are old and haven't been painted in years.

So - something else to add to regular check list.

....and be warned, the bolts undo incredibly quickly once they become loose - don't be under the impression you will make it to next convenient
stopping place, or that you can get away with not jacking the bus up and doing it properly !

 

[BoggyB]

I've just had a read through this thread and yeah, definitely something to add to the pre flight checklist.

I'm not really too used to driving classic cars yet and I'm still 50/50 on the fun/fear side of things. Now I've got wheels falling off to add to the list of terror along with engine fires and brake failure.

 

[ozziedog]

Checking your nuts before you go off is something you could do with checking your tyre pressures. They need checking too on a fairly frequent basis, and all your lights horn wipers etc. Mine always starts with an oil check, best cold I think , then tyres, fluids. On commercials they have indicators to make checking your nuts easier. Wouldn't be too hard to sort would it ?

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, we need an entrepreneurial early bayer nut case :mrgreen:

 

[Tofufi]

I had a similar problem a month or so ago, my front right wheel (which hadn't been off/looked at in 1000+ miles) began to come loose on a motorway in the middle of Spain. I stopped as there was a vibration coming through the steering, and found all 5 nuts were finger tight. I did wonder if someone had tampered with it in the service station we'd stopped at 5 miles back, but we didn't see anything...

Always worth keeping an eye on

 

[rchest01]

Sounds familiar - end of a long drive Sunday and suddenly there are five nuts rattling in the hubcap and the wheel is at 45 degrees. No damage done but lucky. And yes, powder coated wheels!

 

[ozziedog]

I`m sure I`m right in thinking it`s the powder coating getting hot because of braking and then goes a little bit soft so the nut that was tightened onto the nice hard powder coat is no longer tight and free to rattle as loose as it likes. Steelies do a fair bit of flexing when cornering too, and the harder you corner, the more they flexes, seen a video once, and apparently that`s how we loose hub caps.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Should powder coaters make you aware maybe ?

 

[slow-lane-Matt]

I recently fitted a couple of replacement hubcap clips, using standard rivets. I'm wondering if the relatively
soft aluminium of the rivet heads flattened a bit more under driving load, causing a bit of play between wheel and
drum, which was enough to unbalance the wheel and cause the problem...

 

[ozziedog]

I recently fitted a couple of replacement hubcap clips, using standard rivets. I'm wondering if the relatively
soft aluminium of the rivet heads flattened a bit more under driving load, causing a bit of play between wheel and
drum, which was enough to unbalance the wheel and cause the problem...

Not sure I've seen ally rivets on hub cap clips, I got steel on mine and I'm sure from memory that the replacements are steel when I wanted a couple of clips on but that must be ten years ago or maybe more :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,do I trust my memory though ? :lol: :roll: :lol: