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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Early riveted ventilated wheel question

I run my Sprite on the early ventilated disc wheels as I prefer the look.

I've just acquired some spares and most are the earlier riveted type.

A couple of questions:

i) Is it a myth that the riveted ones are weak. Does anyone really know of a failure? I shall be using them for spirited road use, autosolo tops maybe.

ii) Can anyone think of a reason why it would not be a good idea to run a weld along the back of each area where the centre meets the rim to reinforce the join.

Thanks.
Jeremy Cogman

Hard to say for fact jeremy...im aware of the rumor

I think for street you will be fine as is, but id be like you and alittle hesitant for racing purposes

The direction id be tempted to follow if it were me, id get some 70s era kidney/slot/mag wheels with some nice sticky racing rubber and keep that back for racing only puposes and use the vented rivited wheels with touring rubber for daily use...that would give alot of good life to your racing sticky rubber which dosnt hold up very well in day to day driving for obvious reasons

id be tempted to weld the back seam also but use a pro because of the risk of warpage

Just my opinion


Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Not talking about pop rivetted though are we. I think they are somewhat more substantial than that, and I've never heard of any splitting in two.

But then again, this about mini wheels. See top picture and caption.

http://www.wheeldictionary.net/10a.html
Lawrence Slater

Did Sprites have riveted wheels?

I know that A35s did, and I also know of one 'specialist' who bought A35 wheels by the truckload and had holes drilled in them.

A35 rims were only 3" wide.
Dave O'Neill 2

It is not the rivets. See photo. And it is not only circuit use. It has something to do with better grip of the diagonal tires and the age of the wheels (just like the driver). If you drive calm, use slippery diagonal tires or use a dolly it will not happen so easily.
I first tried to stop it by heating 4 of the wheels red hot ( I had 12 wheels) to make them softer. It did not help. Ik drive daily spritely with minilites and have 4 riveted ones for concours.
Flip

Flip Brühl

Yep, I agree with Flip, Its the holes for the brake adjustment that causes failure. The later unventilated wheels were ok as they have no brake adjustment holes.

In the book 'Tuning BMC Sports Cars' by Mike Garton, he recommends the later wheel for spirited or competition driving. The use of modern grippier radials over the original cross plies adds to the problem.

I use Revolutions for the odd track day keeping the original wheels for touring etc
Bob Beaumont

Flip,

I agree as Bob says the brake adjuster holes seem to be the starting point. It's possible that the issue is with a sharp as punched edge being a stress concentrator leading to the cracks so if you had an uncracked set then putting a smooth radius on the edges of those holes may solve the problem or at least mean they take far longer to form.
David Billington

Thanks for your input folks.

So is the consensus that the rivets are not the problem it's the brake adjuster holes?
Jeremy Cogman

Indeed yes. I have seen a number of riveted wheels over the years and they have been fine. The cracks originate from the brake adjuster holes. I guess the other point is to ensure the wheel nuts are correctly torqued up.
Bob Beaumont

This thread was discussed between 23/06/2015 and 26/06/2015

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