Pin-drive adapter nuts and sockets - Page 2

JayT · 10-28-03, 10:57 PM

My Tesstarossa had kock offs and the torque was some phenomianl amount 300 ft-lbs. There is a company that makes torque renches for knok offs and big hex nuts (some Ferraris). When I get home I look it up and post.

PS The only thing that was a problem was the fear of missing and hitting the body - the lead hamer actually worked well (about th only thing on the car that did).

Hershal Byrd · 10-28-03, 11:13 PM

My wheels have the knocks off that are ALL right hand threads. I have used a lead hammer to tighten and so far I have not had a wheel come loose. I also use safety wire on all the spinners and if any of the wires become tight then I know the knock off is coming loose. Make sure you put some anti seize on those threads before you tighten then, they are a bear to get off if you don't.

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

DaveWharran · 10-29-03, 09:53 PM

I agree Hersh. My car does have LH and RH threaded spinners. The first day I drove it, within 10 miles, one of the spinners was loose. Saftey wiring the spinners through the wheel spokes (BRM) works great. I bought some teflon tubing that protects the spoke of the wheel from the tie wire.

40 Bud · 10-29-03, 10:26 PM

I have pin drives on my car. They use left and right threads and as said by someone earlier, the the arm on top tightens to the back. I use anti sieze on the 6 pins, the knock off faces and the threads. I tighten with a lead hammer or a soft face (nylon)hammer smacked with a 5lb. sledge if the lead one is missing. I safety wire the knock off spinners and have never had a wheel or spinner come loose on the road or rack in over 10 years of driving.

Bigend · 10-30-03, 01:56 PM

I think that safety wiring is an excellent method of adding some security. One of the most common problems with pin drive spinners is that they can seize on after some over enthusiastic tightening with the aforementioned lead hammer, so some sort of anti-seize is esential. If you are using a central hex nut instead of a spinner, it should be torqued to something in the region of 300-350ftlbs using a long handled torque wrench. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

dbache · 11-18-03, 06:39 AM

The easiest way to remember which way a pin drive tightens is to remember this everyday phrase "tight butt" or in UK "tight a@#e" (censored by author) ie tighten to rear of the car. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Lee · 11-18-03, 10:03 AM

OK I am confused. The consensus for the knock ons is that it is a RH thread on the LH side of the car, and a LH thread on the RH side of the car.

Why then are the Ford Granada rear hub nuts a RH thread on the RH side, and LH thread on the LH side??

flatchat(Chris) · 11-19-03, 01:21 AM

Hmmmm. That bit must have been assembled on friday arvos or just plain "made in England"
Just spin the wheel in its normal direction and grab its nuts---they should do up! Cheers
DRB#17
Yellow/Red
302W single underhead cam

**patbarry** · 11-20-03, 10:13 PM

I like the tight ass phrase. In reality, if the drive is tight, it shouldn't losen up simply due to wheel rotation. That is based on no knowledge, just in thinking about it. My guess is that having the nut tighten against wheel rotation is nothing more than an extra safety factor in case the nut was not properly tightened.

DaveWharran · 11-20-03, 10:37 PM

I have RH knockoff nuts on the left side of the car an LH nuts on the right hand side. They should tighten based on wheel rotation. My experience is that it didn't matter how hard you hit them with a hammer, one or two would be loose within 10 miles. I now safety wire mine. Cheap insurance to prevent a wheel coming off.

Peter D · 11-21-03, 02:33 AM

I'll throw a spanner into the spokes (so to speak) !

The standard setup with a DRB (GT40 Australia) is to use '87 Vette hubs/susp/brakes at the front & '88 Vette hubs/spindles/brakes at the rear. All hubs are set up for 5 x lug-nuts & nobody seems to ever have trouble with them coming undone. The problem is the "look" of the things.

Most newer DRB's are using 16" or 17" Simmons FR16/17 wheels & DRB is offering a very nice set of "fake" 3-eared spinners (knock-offs) for these. A threaded boss is mounted through the wheel centre, locked in place by grub-screws, & the spinner winds on from the outside. The nice thing is that there are 2 x LH thread & 2 x RH thread bosses/spinners in the DRB kit, so depending on your beliefs on this issue, you can put them on either side of the car.

Bill Bayard has come up with a "cover plate" concept which hides the lug-nuts (a plate held on by the fake spinner & which just covers the lug-nuts), so in conjunction with the fake spinners, the whole thing looks as original as you can get, but with the advantage that your wheels will not fall off.

The attached pic shows my wheels with the fake knock-offs - they will look much better when I get Bill's cover plates to hide the actual 5 x lug-nut setup.

Food For Thought !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

40 Bud · 11-21-03, 12:56 PM

If you have bolt on wheels with a fake knock off nut or spinner, you can make the wheel bolts less obvious by painting to match the rim center. Its quick, easy and cheap.

**patbarry** · 11-21-03, 09:01 PM

Hey Dave, I used to own a Sunbeam Alpine and that's the way the knock-off's tightened on it also. Mine are currently all threaded the same way, so I shall find out soon enough. I keep meaning to call Trigo and ask for their thoughts, but always forget.

Mark Worthington · 05-07-04, 10:46 AM

I had a local machine shop make me some adapter sockets that will allow me to torque these nuts with a torque wrench. I see this as a better solution than using an open-end or crow-foot wrench. Since there wasn't much difference in cost to make 10 instead of 1, I have a few extra for sale. I'll take a couple pics this weekend and post them in the for sale forum if anyone's interested.

**patbarry** · 05-07-04, 06:08 PM

Hey Mark, I'm interested. I'll be anxious to see what they look like.

Ron Earp · 05-07-04, 07:20 PM

Hey, I need one of those things. How much?

Mark Worthington · 05-07-04, 10:06 PM

Well, they're pretty good but they're not ready for prime time. I had 10 made and I was planning to sell them for $15 each (shipped), but the size of the hex head is a little weird. On eight out of 10 a 22mm is just a smidge too tight and 15/16" is loose, but torqueable. I'm going to take them back to the machinist and tell him he made me a bunch of parts that won't fit a standard socket and that he needs to shave a few thousandths off each one. One of the 10 is perfect at 0.868" between hex sides (fits my 22 mm socket perfectly); the others are more like 0.078-0.080". Hopefully he'll make good on his work and I can send these out in a few weeks, but he may tell me to pound sand. I've decided that I'm not going to send any more machining work to this guy.

I'll update this thread if/when I get these things fixed. Meanwhile, I'll post a couple pics. On the pin-drive-adapter-nut side, they're perfect. This will really make it easy to torque those nuts.

Mark Worthington · 05-07-04, 10:10 PM

Here's another picture. I forgot to say these things are made of 1018 steel.

Brian Kissel · 05-07-04, 11:51 PM

Hello Mark !!
I would also be interested in one of your sockets. Just say the word, and I'll get a money order out to you.
Thank You !!!
Brian