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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Space saver steel w/centre lock

I've been trying to convince makers of alloy wheels to produce a 15x 4 1/2" space saver,with splines, all to no avail. Its time now to look at a steel space saver with centre lock splines, such as on the Twin Cam.(the Twin Cam wheels are like gold, and you wouldn't dare to butcher one of those just for the centre!) Does anyone know if there were any other British or otherwise vehicles produced with splines on steel disc wheels?..my thinking is that the centres could be transferred to steel wheels such as the Saab, which has been mentioned on other threads. Any comments?
Gary Lock

Twin cam wheels are not splined, they are peg drive.
I have seen homemade autocross wheels, splined centers welded into (wide) steel rims - easy. (A lot of rules now say "no wire wheels"). No reason you couldn't weld them into skinny rims. Lots of used splined centers about.

FRM
FR Millmore

Thanks FRM..yes, sorry about the TC wheel, not thinking. You mention "lots of splined centres about"..where? If you could put me in touch with someone, even in the USA?

Thanks
Gary
Gary Lock

Gary,

Looks like these guys may well do the spline centre you need:

http://www.realmengineering.com/dunlop%20style%20wheels.html

Let us know how you get on.

Neil
Neil McGurk

If you sent me your snail mail address I will send you a tech document that showes how to have them made up. It was engineered by a member of my car club. I will now fax a copy of this to Barney Gaylord for inclusion on his website(if he feels it is correct).
Gordon Harrison

Always wondered about the point of a space-saver spare. What do you do with the full size road wheel when you have a flat and a full boot / trunk?

If the boot is never full, why the need for a space-saver spare?

I can understand in the case of the long-distance guys, where space is at a premium, but even here wouldn't a can or two of the foam stuff and a couple of spare tubes take even less space and be a lot less hassle?

dominic clancy

Gary-
Dead wire wheels!

FRM
FR Millmore

I agree with Dominic. Much less room taken up with the "Fix-a-Flat" foam sealer. It's a great item to have in the winter, when snow is deep.
Mike Parker

I can understand the need for a space saver, especially when camping. The cans don't work on a catastrophic tube failure (had two of those) and changing a tube at the roadside can be inconvenient to say the least. The downside is that the passenger shares his space with a wheel if you are fully loaded when it happens.

OK, this is a rare set of circumstances for most people, but it might be convenient (not to have a full size spare) for me on at least two occasions a year!
Neil McGurk

Dominic, yes, its really for us long distance guys (3,000 k's just to attend a National Meeting, and thats only one way!).
I've tried the spare tyre on boot rack, but for some reason the weight of the tyre makes the boot lid move around, and you end up with chips on the edges where it rubs on the body.
The other reason is I use alloys (5 1/2" on one car, and 6" on the Honda S2000 engined one), and that makes it a little hard to carry a similar size wheel. A temporary steel with splines would make all the difference.
Neil, I've asked Realm to see if they can help.Thanks.

Look forward to receiving those details Gordon (email sent).

Gary
Gary Lock

Spare-in-a-can might work sometimes, but you cannot rely on it to travel with no spare tire. Some flats are not repairable by any means. I had one with a rail road spike in the tire. Another with a big gash in the sidewall caused by grazing the corner of a 2x4 board lying in the road. I think this accounts for half of the flats I've had on my MGA (bolt on wheels and tubless tires) in the past 200,000 miles.

Anyone venturing out with no spare had better carry a cell phone and auto club card, and be prepared to accept an inconvenient delay at any time without notice. Only other solution might be run-flat tires, very expensive and maybe not available in sizes for MGs.

Dominic has a good point. If the boot is so full that you need a space saver spare, what would you do with the full size tire after changing the flat? Maybe put the full size tire in the boot and temporarily pile some of the personal possessions onto the passenger. That might be worth the risk and inconvenience on the rare occasion when needed.

I tend to travel into some rather out of the way places. I don't think I would like to be stuck traveling very far on an undersized tire. My vote is to carry a full size spare at all times and find space elsewhere when needed (luggage rack or trailer). Perhaps for a couple trips a year in well populated areas it might be worth the risk to slip in a space saver spare and hope the odds are with you so you never need to use it.
Barney Gaylord

I agree with Barney,would hate to have to travel any long distance, especially at speed, with an undersized shoe. Not withstanding the rarity of flats today - I've had one in 30 years - I took pains to take a pretty well matched spare on my latest 9000 mile excursion. Made a lump in the Mazda boot, being OS. Priorities = take less crap! And foam or whatever's in those cans would not have fixed the one flat, and anyone who ever had to fix a tire/wheel that had that wretched crap in it will tell you not to use it!

FRM
FR Millmore

I always carry a stock wheel with a 155 tire. The tire fits easily through the hole in the front of the trunk. I run 165 tires, the difference between the 2 sizes is negligible in an emergency. On the cars with out tubes carry a tire plug kit.
R J Brown

Thanks to Gordon, I have details of the wire wheel splined hub adapted (welded) to a space saver steel steel. Since this article was written with details and pictures for MGB 14-inch wheels, I have posted it on the web site for Chicagoland MG Club here:
http://chicagolandmgclub.com/techtips/mgb/ss_spare.html
I also posted a cross reference link to it from my MGA web page here:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/wheels/wl202.htm

I must say it appears to require some fancy machining and skilled welding. Since the WW hub is larger on both ends than in the middle, it requires a split ring weld adapter. Parts must be fixtured for good alignment, and The welding must be done carefully to avoid distorting the splined hub.

I don't know how wide that steel wheel was or the size of the ss tire. Since original 48-spoke wire wheels are only 4" wide (for MGA) or 4-1/2" (for MGB), this appears to be more an issue with size of tire rather than width of wheel. You can mount a T125/70-15 space saver tire on the stock MGA wire wheel, and it gets pretty small.
Barney Gaylord

This thread was discussed between 26/09/2009 and 29/09/2009

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