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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - 1/4 eliptic wire wheels

Am looking to convert me Mk1 midget to wires - do I need a wire wheel 1/4 axle or what?
thanks
Richard Perry

I'm not sure there were any 1/4 eliptical wire wheel axles made. If there were they must be very rare.

A friend has a Frog with wires but using bolt-on adaptors. Because of this the wheel track is slightly wider, which could be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Rob
MG Moneypit

Ive used wires on a midget half shaft and splined hubs and a frog axle case satisfactorilly. I just bought a scrap midget wire set up using the components restored as required front and back to utilise wires.
If youre anticipating using wires I'm guessing you wont be thrashing it around, wires dont tollerate side loads too well, theyre usually adopted just for the look.
They double the car cleaning and chrome maintenance time, but look great.
Bob
R C Skerritt

There were 1/4 elliptic wire wheel axles on mk1 Midgets and Mk2 Sprites. They are few and far between.

Ton Blankespoor in Holland converts semi-elliptic wire wheel axles to 1/4 elliptic.
Dave O'Neill 2

Bob there were plenty of cars racing ar Goodwood today on wire wheels!
Richard you need a half-elliptic w/wheel setup and mod the brackets on the axle casing to match the 1/4 elliptic one.
davidsmith

Hi Richard

Im just about to offer a wire wheel half elliptic axle for sale if your interested ?

I used a 1/4 elliptic one on the sebring and had the shafts made / shorted d=for the wires cost me £900 all in

Dave's suggested way is the cheapest by far

Regards
Andy
Andy Sebring

I wouldnt do this... the problem is getting them tunned in and balanced... no body does that kind of work anymore and appersntly even motor cycle shops are turning rhe work down

That said... for the money and time you will spend buy a set of dayton wire wheels... they are wires but they bolt on the the solid wheel set ups... they are not cheap but i think its a great short cut and a better set up then the orginal wire wheelsand they do look the part

Dayton wire wheels

Prop
Prop and the

You can get away with wires on a standard axle but you need longer halfshafts than the standard wire wheel half shafts. These are available. If you try to fit the usual shafts in a steel wheel axle (which is wider) there is insufficient engagement in the diff and since it is that end of the shaft which seems to fail, I think that would be asking for trouble.
Graeme Williams

This thread was discussed between 19/03/2017 and 22/03/2017

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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