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MG MGA - Knocking Off Knock-Offs

Got to replace a brake wheel clyinder on the right rear wheel. Of course, got to remove the tire and wheel. Really hate beating that poor old ear knock off. Got one of the wrenches but I can almost pick up the entire car with it and the knock off won't budge. Any hints on how to get it loose? I am pulling the way the undo arrow is pointing.
Mike Razor

use a lead hammer, or a rubber mallet. a soft faced dead blow mallet is more expensive, but very good.

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

Mike,

Moss sells a $30 wooden protective knockoff wrench (which one could easily copy in a wood shop) that you slip over the hubs and tap with a hammer or mallet. It extends the leverage arm of the ears considerably, and I've found it quite effective in loosening stuck hubs. See it at http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=37178 . Good luck!

Ken
Ken Korey

Mike,
the protective wrench that Ken mentioned also gives you a bit more leverage so it should be easier to undo your knockoff.

Grant :-)
G Hudson

or a block of wood and a 2lb hammer.
Lindsay Sampford

I use a 4 lb dead blow hammer from Harbour Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-lb-neon-orange-dead-blow-hammer-41800.html
The plastic does cut up after a fair amount of use but at $10.99 you can't complain - still going strong after at least 30 wheel changes ( 2 cars and swapping road and competition tyres).
Mike
Mike Ellsmore

Mike - I use a large rubber mallet (weighs about 4 pounds) which I bought for £2 at an autojumble - a few blows and it starts to turn.
Cam Cunningham

I use the standard Thor hide hammer. You just have to give them a lot of wellie. I have been taking mine on and off this way countless times (probably 6 or 7 times a year for 14 years). The spin-ons still look very good after all that thumping with no sign of damage. Not the end of the world if they have to be replaced sometime.

Steve

Steve Gyles

I used one of these plywood devices and after the third use the plywood started to crush against the spinner. Personally I would steer clear of them unless you only lightly 'knock on' the spinners. This brings up the question of how tight the spinners should be. I think I wind my spinners up quite tight but I have read that if both splined hub and spinner are in good condition they do not need that much tightening. I use a self made lead hammer cast using a scheweppes tonic can.
J H Cole

When my car has it's annual MOT, I often have to tighten the spinners during the test to eliminate any 'play' in the wheels
John Bray

I'm told in the 'old days' owners used to feed in silver paper as the wheel goes on to take up the slack.
J H Cole

No slack, to tight can't get it to budge.
Mike Razor

John, in Yorkshire you would be the ideal person to tighten up the wheels!
Up here we dont say we are going to hammer something, we say we are going to "bray" something!

Mike, are you absolutely certain that you are not trying to tighten the spinners? Its the only reason I can think of that would cause the problem.
( I have done it myself!)

Also I have found from experience that it is really easy to "Bray" (sorry John) the wires instead of the spinners. I hold a piece of thin plywood behind the spinner to stop the hammer/mallet from knocking the paint off the wires.

Finally, if the spinners are made of brass it should be really easy to put some heat onto them to expand them. That should expand them enough to loosen them.
They are not so expensive to replace if the hammering or the heat spoils them.

Colyn

Colyn Firth

Heat will damage the chrome plating...but I suppose that might be a small price to pay if they won't otherwise come off.
Andy Bounsall

Mike, I found that occasionally one or two of the knock offs would be really tight. On one occasion the wooden wrench slipped & almost took the skin of my knuckles. Since then I have purchased a plastic faced dead blow mallet & I get no problems now.

Try a few blows on the spinner the other way; it might just crack the joint.

I always position the ear of the spinner so that I am applying a downwards blow as I have found this to be more effective than horizontal.

Although I have not tried this it maybe worth supporting the wheel on an axle stand so that the tyre is not absorbing the force of the blow.

Good luck!

Richard
R A Evans

Mike as RE says you need to 'crack' the joint, soft hammers don't do this when the spinner is as tight as this. I'm fairly certain a 5lb steel hammer would do it but the chrome may suffer. When this happened to me my lead hammer failed but my copper hammer was solid enough not to absorb the impact but still protect the chrome. Personally I would have the wheel on the ground as this will provide more resistance to the blow than if its able to turn despite the flexible tire.
J H Cole

When you think what a tyre has to go through when you drive down the average road, a few blows to the spinner, distributed evenly throughout the tyre/rim joint, aren't going to make the tyre suffer!

How about heating it with one of those hot air guns? They will get it hot but not hot enough to blue the chrome.

I cheat, I've got disc wheels!

Mike
Mike

Borrowed a plastic hammer 1.5 pounds and had no luck. Got the lead and brass hammer out and after several chrome denting blows it gave and came off.
Mike Razor

Looks like you've got it done-- perhaps at the expense of your knockoffs, but here is a suggestion for the future:

I bought a XKE with wire wheels and tried everything to get them off, without success. I destroyed one of those plywood protection thingies and I banged away with a 4 lb plastic deadblow hammer until it started to flatten the ears on the spinner.

The spinners were perfect and cost about $60 apiece on an XKE, so I didn't want to damage them.

I bought one of these per a suggestion from the jag-lovers.org E-Type mailing list:

http://www.americanhammer.com/products_lead_6.0.html

It worked great! I put some serious dents in the face of the hammer, but since it gave as much as it did the spinners were undamaged and came off after a few substantial blows.

If you use the Contact Us form on the website, you can get the hammer for (I think, memory fades) $35 plus shipping if you mention you saw it on the jag-lovers.org website. Most people get the 4 lb, which is a bit cheaper, but I got tired of fooling around with those danged spinners and I wanted to use the "nuclear option!"

I was impressed with the quality of the hammer (bigger shot on the home page) and it is made in the USA. I think I saw them listed in the Grainger catalog for over $90.

NFI and YMMV.
David Littlefield

For debate purposes only, would they have loosened if you drove the car backwards at high speed for a few miles?
Graham M V

This thread was discussed between 06/07/2011 and 07/07/2011

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