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MG MGB Technical - Stuck Wire Wheels

A couple of weeks ago I asked for any advice on "un-sticking" "sticky" wire wheels from a car which hadn't seen a wheel turn in more than ten years. The general consensus seemed to be just to use patience and "keep on wiggling'. Well that advice paid off on two wheels, but a third wheel is only half off, while the fourth one, a rear wheel, won't budge.
I believe more patience and wiggling will eventually overcome the third wheel, but the fourth one is pressed right up against the brake drum, and I haven't even been able to get it to begin to "wiggle".

Is there a puller, or other device that might be employable here, or do I have to resort to "cutting" nuts off the backing plate and removing the axle, c/w the wheel, and then Press the wheel off?

HHHEEELLLPPP!!!

JR
JR Ross

Put a large socket on the inside of the hub, so that it protrudes a small amount past the thread of the hub, i.e. stands proud. Then put on the spinner until it hits the socket, then tap the spinner until it pulls the wheel off the hub.
Tatty

From real life experience:

Helping a friend with a similar problem on his midget, we eventually found that because the splined hubs for wheels were so badly worn, a PO had done a couple of interesting things to "make do" with his wire wheels.

1) PO had used beer cans for thin shim stock to take up the slop in the well worn splines on both the wheel hub and the axle stub. He had just wrapped as many layers as he thought necessary around the axle hub and then apparently beat the wheel on to that hub. Made for a nice tight fit, and then later a nice bit of corrosion.

2) Because the above was not possible with one of the front hubs, the PO had taken the whole front hub assembly off of the car and then welded it to the backside of the wheel hub. He then trusted that to hold and reinstalled the wheel/hub assembly back on the axle spindle and spun on the hubcap. This was the one wheel he had that would just not come off no matter what we did to it.

You might try loosening the hubcaps, and then driving the car very slowly around in tight circles in a safe place. This is pretty common procedure to wiggle the wheels and hubs loose and to break up the packed grease/corrosion inside the splined area.
Bob Muenchausen

MyMGA had been run on the beach, left to sit for about ten years, and then I started in on it. I had two difficult wheels. On the first, I had to resort to using an eight ton three armed gear puller and heat from a propane torch on the wheel hub. It very slowly worked its way out, applying tension with the gear puller and then applying heat. I had to cut away a couple spokes to get the puller in there, but they were easily replaced. On the other wheeel, I wasn't so lucky. The wheel was so corrroded on that the puller broke away pieces of the hub perimeter. I ended up replacing the wheel, but only having to make two longitiudinal cuts with a 3 inch cutting wheel on a die grinder to split the hub. At that point I was able to beat the two halves off with a cold chisel and hammer. The good news: after cleaning up both sides, the splines on the car itself were not in bad shape. Apparently the wheel alloy was the anode in this mess.
R. L Carleen

This thread was discussed on 06/01/2003

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.