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Title: Danger of wheel failure unless the rims are replaced by stronger ones designed for use with radial tires
Hi to all, If you are running radials on your old original 300 wheels: The following is reprinted from Old Cars Weekly from Sept 21, 2006 and warns of the danger of wheel failure unless the rims are replaced by stronger ones designed for use with radial tires. _______________________________________________________________ Q. Recently, I purchased five new wide whitewall radials from a reputable tire company (one of your advertisers). The car for their intended use is a 1956 Mercury that previously had bias‑ply tires. Although I had the new radials professionally mounted and balanced, the front hubcaps come off while driving, especially the left front on right turns. Can you advise me if I need to replace the wheel rims with a heavier type? Robert W. Blume, Sr., Calverton, N.Y. A. Back in 2003, we had a lively discussion of wheels intended for bias‑ply tires "throwing" hubcaps when mounted with radials. Here are readers' comments from that discussion. "The problem of cars 'throwing hubcaps' is much more serious than rim flex and lost hubcaps. Try losing your life with this problem! Rims for bias-ply tires, radial-ply tires, even disc brake rims are made out of different alloys. Rims for bias-ply tires cannot use radials, and bias and simple radial-ply rims cannot be used for disc brakes. The forces exerted by bias-ply versus radial-ply tires (as well as disc brakes) are different and need rims made specific to each application. When using radial tires on bias-ply rims, the rims over‑flex as they are unable to handle the forces of the radial tires. This over-flexing also means metal fatigue, breakage (most commonly rim bead edge separation), and deadly accidents. Many will disagree, touting their successful usage of radial tires on bias-ply rims, but as a fatal accident investigator, the first place I looked in any older car accident was at the rims. My advice when replacing bias tires with radials is to immediately change the rims. One can tell bias, radial, and disc brake rims by their markings," wrote Sam Egan, general manager, Automotive Information Clearinghouse, La Mesa, Calif. Another reader wrote, "When you install a radial tire on an old rim and the footprint of the tire is wider or equal to the rim bead, the twisting of the sidewall puts undue stress on the lighter and original rim. We put radial tires on our 1956 Ford and had the same problem. We cured the problem when we switched to 1966 Ford rims, which are one inch wider and eight to nine pounds heavier, which makes them stronger than the old rims." Paul Haase of Waterloo, Iowa, also advised replacing the rims. "Then if the wheel discs still slip, they can be held in place a bead of silicone." Sanford Danziger recommended locating a set of alloy rims, which would obviate the hubcap problem. To hold the wheel covers in place, assuming movement is still a problem with the correct rims, Dan Reed says he secured the wheel covers for his 1956 Cadillac with a strap that was secured by one of the lugnuts. He found this idea on a 1958 Oldsmobile. The strap has to be long enough to allow access to the lug nuts. "It won't prevent the wheel cover from coming off, but will keep it from being lost," he wrote. Marilyn Robinson ended the problem of wheel covers flying off their Plymouth Valiant by switching to hubcaps. Terry Wallace of Pensacola, Fla., brushed some of the grit coating used on surf and skateboards onto the rim area that the wheel covers contact. The covers still wanted to walk on the rim, so he added a bead of silicone and has had no further trouble. Bob Brooks of Suffield, Conn., coated the wheel rim contact area on his 1952 Mercury with rubber cement and hasn't thrown a wheel cover since. To hold the full disc, wheel covers on his 1989 Thunderbird, Lou Frueh of Wickliffe, Ky., drilled a hole in the wheel cover 180 degrees from the valve stem, then drilled and tapped a hole in the wheel as near the rim as possible, and bolted on the wheel covers. He disguised the bolt to look like another valve stem. Thomas Murray of San Leandro, Calif., found that a strip of masking tape around the rim holds the wheel covers on his two Kaisers in place. Bob Lewis of Susanville, Calif., uses silicone adhesive sealant to keep the full disc wheel covers on his 1950 Ford club coupe from moving. Gerald White of Altoona, Fla., observed that the brake drum will keep the center of the wheel from flexing, but not the rim, leading us back to Mr. Egan's warning about the danger of wheel failure unless the rims are replaced by stronger ones designed for use with radial tires. ************************************************************* To unsubscribe or set your subscription options,
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