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Being a bright Sunday morn, I thought I'd try trial fitting my newly acquired Freestyle alloy wheels to the front hubs of my 90 with an early axle. So I've fitted the first one. It was a little tight on the hub but I measured the depth of the hub/drive flange and the flat on the inside of the alloy and all seemed clear.

So I fitted the nuts and wound them in until the wheel was flush on the hub :) Splendid, thought I, OK the dust cap pokes out the middle but it looks OK :) let's get it off and have a look at the inside of the wheel. So I removed the nuts and went to remove the wheel but it had taken a particularly uncooperative attitude and now refuses to come off the hub. Doh !

Bit of a sticky one, this :(

Any one had this problem ? How did you get the wheel off ?

Mo

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Hi there Mo

Ive a 1990 defender with Tornado wheels on it (more less the same as a Free style) Thay had to be specialy adapted to fit on the landy and the same as yours my dust cap pokes thro the hole. Exactly the same as you what pigs to remove when there on there realy on. Its ussaly a case of a big bit of wood on the back and a dam big hammer and a couple of big wacks but at times realy do take some geting off ussaly a case of a lot of swearing and mega frustration. Hope that helps all I can sugest

Paul

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Guest diesel_jim
Thanks chaps, problem resolved with a fence post and a sledge hammer :) It was actually jammed on the hub itself, it cleared the drive flange, a little fettling with the grinder called for methinks ;)

Mo

I've got a die grinder here with a rather agressive 1/2" diameter cutting/grinding bit... ideal for taking out lumps of aluminium if you've got compressor and want to borrow it Mo?

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Thanks Jim,

No need though, I have from die grinder to 9" grinder, I think I can make one of those do the trick ;)

I was going to clear the hub rather than the wheel so any of the wheels will go on, is this a wise path to tread ?

Mo

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Turbo, I thought it centred on the studs .

Steve, yup, I'm going to go gently as there not much in it.

Mo

No it definitely centres on the hub for an alloy. If you loosen the nuts on a vehicle with alloys that fit properly :P you can spin the wheel in the axis of rotation with the nuts still in the holes and there is quite a bit of movement because the nuts aren't tight in the holes and don't have a chamfer to locate them, the clamping force is flat against flat. It follows from that, that if you buzz out the middle too much (or off centre) with a grinder, it could move off centre and cause the mother of all wheel wobbles. You might get away with it but I wouldn't guarantee it! I guess the only way to do it properly would be to put the wheel on a lathe and turn out the centre to the required amount so it is perfectly even, but I guess a lot of people manage it by being very careful with the grinder :)

as an aside, it makes the theory of needing to balance 4x4 wheels using a machine which centres on the studs a load of bllx for alloys too :rolleyes: true for a modular maybe (which does locate on the studs) but not a genuine alloy!

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Hmmm, food for thought there Stephen. Then it would seem sensible to rework the hub to suit by hand since being steel it'll be harder to work and so take more work for it all to go horribly wrong :) Also I only have to rework two hubs instead of five rims.

Mo

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I was under the impression that axles with the deeper rubber centre caps that stick through the middle of an alloy were the incompatible ones with the interfering drive members. I appreciate in your case this isn't true but as an engineer I'd be reticent to file chunks off such an important assembly.

Do your wheel studs have the straight line stamped into the end face to show the hub is suitable for alloys? Not teaching grannies about egg sucking here and I'm aware that some aftermarket wheels in the same pattern don't have these issues, but they're your wheels and all but I'd rather not see you dead...

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The studs with the groove in the end are, AFAIK, just marked as such to show they are longer than the other ones - they are fitted to all vehicles now.

At the risk of looking like you have crashed through a Scrap Iron showroom window, wheel spacers would be another option, but they are bloody expensive.

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Thanks Stephen, I think I'll pass on the spacers ;)

I recall that this hub is actually an old hub that I got from Digger many moons ago. I'll check the hub on the other side in the light of this as thats the original.

Would there be a problem with fitting Later Disco front hubs ?

Mo

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