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MG MGB Technical - Wire wheel conversion

Not the usual way round. My car has wire wheels in good condition and considering changing them to Rostyles. While there seems to be a market for buying the parts to convert to wire wheels, what about the other way around?
What happens to all those axles in particular that kept left around when folk buy a wire wheel rear axle?
What would be the option of swopping the necessary parts with someone wanting to go the other way from me?
Transpoting the parts may be an issue but it wouldn't be a problem to have the car on stands for a few weeks while the bits moved around and were removed/fitted?
Neckieman

There should be plenty of steel wheel axles and front hubs around, as long as you have the Salisbury axle, as opposed to the earlier 'banjo' type.

Swapping with someone else would be a nice solution, but how you would find someone to swap with is another matter.

I've also considered changing my car from wires to steels, but I would keep the old parts - just in case.

I quite like the early steel wheels with hubcaps, but I've only managed to locate three of the wider GT rims.
Dave O'Neill 2

Andy Jennings (http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/andyjennings/mgb-parts.htm) is bound to have the parts you need, but what it would cost to transport them to the highlands is anybody's guess. Those axles are HEAVY.

As a Scottish resident and MG owner you should join the MG Car Club because the Caledonian Centre of the club (http://www.mgcaledonian.com/) is extremely active in Scotland. If you contacted the chairman David Reid he could well know of someone much nearer to you that might have the parts. Contact details are on the web site.

I completely understand why you might want to change back. I hate wire wheels with a passion - unreliable, tricky for tyre fitting, and impossible to clean. And if you ever see a frontal shot of a car cornering hard on wires, the bend on the outside wheel is obvious and scary. Only suitable for bicycles and prams in my opinion.
Mike Howlett

"I hate wire wheels with a passion - unreliable, tricky for tyre fitting, and impossible to clean."

In the eye of the beholder. Never had a problem with reliability, or tyre fitting (care needs to be taken with balancing but that applies to Rostyles as well). An hour per wheel for a full clean it is true, but well worth it for me.
Paul Hunt

Wire wheel axles are often in demand because they are narrower, which permits the fitting of wider wheels. Knock-on splined alloys look quite decent to my eyes as well.
Allan Reeling

I am awaiting the heritage certificate to see whether they were fitted from new or somebody fitted them later as a conversion.
At the moment just thinking about changing them to bolt on steel or alloy for maintenance and cleaning reasons only. I use mine to go to work most days and not as a show car or garage queen.
Neckieman

Stud hubs fit wire-wheel axle half-shafts directly, just like at the front. If you have non-standard wheels you can cater for the narrow axle by getting a wheel with less offset than Rostyles. Even standard Rostyles came in two offsets - 77 and later cars seem to have 1/2" wider track which was achieved with the different wheel.
Paul Hunt

Just got the heritage cert through and the car was fitted with wires from new, this isn't really what I had hoped!
Anyway just how much trouble are wires to use? They are certainly a lot more expensive to change when worn out, how long do a set usually last?
I have a basically new set on the car of painted wires, would I be terr selling them on with all the fitting parts now or waiting till they wear out before deciding whether to change or not?
I think they look fantastic, particularly with the two eared spinners I have retrofitted but I do like the reliability of rostyles...........just not sure of just how much trouble, apart from cleaning the wires actually are.
Neckieman

As I mentioned before the other alternative is splined alloys.
Allan Reeling

I fitted a new set 27 years and 60k ago and have no plans to change them. The only problem you can get needing replacement is when you start getting clonks from the hubs, which is when the splines start to wear, but that applies to all centre-lock wheels not just wires. More likely on the rear as they are continually reversing the load, whereas the fronts always have the load in the same direction except when braking in reverse.

The only regular 'trouble' in use is cleaning. Mine are chrome and take an hour per wheel for a full clean and polish, which they get a couple of times a year. Painted will need less than that I'd say. I have had an number of spoke breakages, which is said to be a 'feature' of chrome wires. None for the first few years, then the odd one, then the frequency started increasing. Finding three on one wheel I had that completely respoked in stainless, but the first one of those broke sooner than the first chrome. I worked out a method of changing them myself which doesn't take long, since then I've only had three break and none in the last few years.

As for 'reliability', I'm not sure what you mean, but if it's punctures they are no more liable than any other wheel type.
Paul Hunt

You may find this link useful from the MG Experience website

http://www.mgexp.com/article/wire-to-steel-wheel-convert.html

It looks like the axle problem can be overcome by using longer wheel studs and spacers to accommodate the steel wheels. The front seems straightforward with just a swap of the hubs.

I'm not too sure about some of the engineering techniques used in the video though................

Andy
Andy Robinson

I have read somewhere that post 77 rostyles have a different offset to pre 77 rostyles, is this true and how would I identify them when buying remotely (ie any identifying marks)
I am wondering it I can have the best of both worlds at minimum cost, just change the four hubs and use rostyles of two different offsets, the wider on the rear, without changing the axle. Then its just a couple of hours to change it back if I sell the car.

as for reliability, I mean spoke breakages, keeping them true and balanced etc, the sort ofthing you don't normally worry anout with a steel wheel unless you really smack it of something hard
Neckieman

For the most part, spoke breakage and tuning are symptoms of the chromed wire wheels that seem so popular these days. My original painted Dunlop wire wheels, that came on my '67 B when I purchased it some 44 years ago, required very little maintenance other than periodic cleaning and removal once a year to lubricate the splines. I never suffered a broken spoke with these wheels. In '93, I purchased a set of chrome wire wheels that were made in India, under license from Dunlop. These had a tendency to break spokes on a regular basis. Apparently, this is due to what's called "hydrogen embrittilment" which weakens the spokes during the chroming process. In 2000, I purchased a set of Dayton chrome wire wheels expecting them to be far superior. I was wrong. They suffered from the same problems. The chrome plating process today isn't what it used to be. The important chemicals, that used to be a key part of the chroming process, are banned due to cancer causing substances. I finally purchased a set of Minator splined drive alloy wheels. While they are of excellent quality, if I had it to do over again, I would have gone with plain painted wire wheels like the factory supplied. Just my 2 cents worth. RAY
rjm RAY

Embrittlement is one thing, quality of steel is another and yet another is that the steel will probably have a slightly smaller diameter to allow for the plating thickness. The same applies to the strength of black spanners and sockets compared to their chromed counterparts.
Allan Reeling

Rostyles did have different offsets - 27mm up to 1977 and 22mm thereafter. The can be identified by seeing if the centre of the wheel that takes the finisher protrudes past the line of the rim on the early rim, i.e. the wheel will wobble about when laid down on its outside face, or not. The later wheel has the finisher virtually flush with the line of the rim and will lie flat. A picture of an 'early' wheel is attached.

I've never had any of my wheels go out of true or unbalanced while in use. Only the respoked wheel had to be trued of course, and balancing is required with replacement tyres as with any other wheel type, and the same issues with mounting them correctly apply to Rostyles and V8 allows as much as wires. Apart from the cleaning thing they just aren't a problem to live with.



Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 31/03/2016 and 10/04/2016

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