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correct mating of wheel to hub


monsterchub

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Hi All, I recently done a trackday and decided to swap my standard caterham wheels with tread tyres & replaced with wheller steel wheels with zz's tyres for more grip. The sprigots in the wheel centres were oversize so when tightened all the load was taken purly on the bolts as they didnt seat properley. I was told that this was unsafe to drive in anger. What are anybodys thoughts?

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I'm not sure the answer you've been given is correct. As I understand it the wheels are fixed by the friction against the face of the hub created by the clamping load of the bolts. The spigot is there to aid centering and location while fitting. 

That's why it's important to have the mating faces clean and unpainted etc. and the correct torque.

As you found OP, spigots are rarely the tight fit they'd need to be if they were primarily designed to take the load and until fairly recently some cars, notably French brands, still had closed centre wheels which didn't mount on spigots at all.

How does this work if this isn't the case: 

https://goo.gl/images/XWWTCW

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By the way it's possible to buy spacers to fit between the rim and the smaller hub spigot. There are a number of suppliers and a wide range of sizes in both metal and plastic (which seems to imply they're not load bearing) but the plastic ones can suffer from heat if used on track, I understand.  

So no need to ditch your rims, OP. 

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If the spigot and wheel hub were sized and toleranced for correct engineering practice load bearing fits, you'd never get the wheel off after a short while of use due to corrosion etc.

Had a Lancia estate 30 years ago with no centre spigots - getting the spare wheel on at 1am in the middle of no where somewhere between Buxton and Chesterfield without a torch was great fun - Lancia used bolts, rather than studs, so plently of choice of how to position the wheel and not get a bolt in  . . .

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