So having changed a few wheels yesterday I discovered a horrible bumping and grinding from the front rims.

This was, of course, rusty inner rims grinding on the 'bit that sticks down and has the king pin in.' (yes - my grasp of technical car terminology is that good)

So I changed a few more wheels around with the what I hoped were the bumpy grindy ones at the back and the ok ones at the front. Sadly that wasnt the case so I took the front ones off again and using a hammer, flattened the rusty bits on the inner rim.

In a straight line theres no more grinding, but going hard round a left and corner there's noticable grinding.

Should I worry or will it wear the rust down after a bit or should I change some more wheels around asap?

And at what point should you call it a day for all the wheels you have stacked in the shed/garage/lock-up that have small amounts of rust on. Most of my wheels have a bit of surface rust on, although my old spare was at the point of becoming an Ami-slot

How much rust is dangerous?

if the seams are blown enough that you need to smack 'em down with a hammer i'd think about calling it a day.

Unless something is amiss, I can't understand why it only grinds on corners? Is it hitting the trackrod end? The rim shouldn't get any closer/further from kingpin housing regardless of whether the wheels are turned. But like neil says, you might aswell bin em and get some new ones.

Russell,
deflection of the rim under the side loading generated when cornering (hard)?

It's not a lot, but still enough to close the small gap between a blown wheel rim and the hub carrier...

ken

You'd have to be trying pretty hard to achieve that wouldn't you?

Theres a noticeable amount of play on the right side king pin (which I'm gonna have a go at changing later this month) could that be affecting it?



eek Its about £180 a set isnt it? I suppose I'd be better doing that wouldn't I than messing around with second hand ones and sanding/spraying/etc...

Add in a snidge of wheel bearing play...

Russell,
dunno about that, thought that pulling high G forces in corners might be more your forte than mine...
< http://groups.google.com/group/uk.rec.c ... e19ff8480d >

Even at quite low speeds, fairly high lateral forces can be generated by enthusiastic cornering ( especially on roundabouts?) and all of that force is transmitted through the tyres and wheels into the vehicle structure.
Because of weight transfer, the outer front wheel will always make the greatest contribution to the cornering force.

I've got a jig which I use to true 2CV rims and it doesn't seem to take a great deal of 'push' to persuade them back into line.

ken.

I have a 1963 french built Fourgonnette. I did a complete rebuild, new chassis etc etc. Found a set of 'not rusty' wheels on e-bay. Yep, these rubbed on the track rod ends, so to get it through the Controle Technique, I put a couple of washers between hubs and wheels. Passed the test OK, but when I got back home, I found that the wheels were not sitting on the wheel studs correctly (Ie the wheels were not running true). Studs are undercut a little where the thread stops and the serrated boss starts.

Soloution, I sawed off 1/8 inch off the end of the track rods, and re-drilled the split pin hole then removed the washers.

It has to be said that the car is a 'bitsa' ie bits of this and bits of that, and was rescued after an end of life of a number of years delivering fodder for a couple of horses over a daily cross country treck of 2km. Isn't that what it was designed for ?

Bin 'em and buy some new ones .....only last month I had a slow leak on one of my rear wheels,I took it to my local "back street tyre emporium ... " to get the rim cleaned up.
After cleaning the rim it was still leaking,further investigation showed the inside seam [where they all rust] was leaking.
The "tyreman" advised me to go home and find another wheel so that he could fit the tyre onto it [despite my suggestion of "Just fit a tube then .... "] ....he said "No way,it aint safe".
Fortunately,I had another wheel to transfer the tyre to.
Needless to say,four new wheels are the top of my shopping list for this year.
I might add that the guy at the "tyre emporium" is an old pal,who charges me nuffin but the price of a beer in the pub after doing any tyre-work on any of my cars/bikes.

T.