Old American wheel problem

I was checking the fit of my 10x15 American 200S wheels on the rear of my 55 F100 and realized that the lug holes are a smaller diameter than the pair of 8x15's that I have for the front. The 10x15's are 1969 or 70 vintage and the 8x 15's are probably 1973 or 74 vintage.



The 8x15 wheels use a lug nut that has a shank diameter of about .685 or roughly 11/16"



The 10x15 wheels appear to have a hole drilled at about .630 or roughly 5/8".



My question is whether this is a machine shop fix or does someone have a tip that will allow me to enlarge the holes without screwing up the tolerance of the holes or the bolt circle center line.

This modification does not strike me as a "grab a drill and punch five bigger holes" type of job.

These older American wheels seem to be a little harder to find in good condition and I don't want to screw these up.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Drew

 

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but why not just buy correct lug nuts for the 10s?

 

Sounds like the easyist solution.

 

That does indeed seem like a small hole, but in the early days of shank lug type mags I used to see lots of strange stuff. A .680" lug is pretty standard and I would not be afraid at all the take an 11/16" bit in a drill press and open these up, in fact I have. Remeber that with the existing hole the bit will pretty much center itself.
My Off Road Race truck used 11/16" Studs and we used to take American Racing Outlaws that were drilled for 1/2 and open them up all the time. We never had a problem doing this and it took a lot more pounding than a street Truck ever will (unless you plan on going off 50+ foot jumps as well)

 

I don't think you will find .630" shank lugs these days - Summit doesn't list them. neither does American

 

I'd like to run the same lug nuts all around. Also in looking around, initially I don't find the correct lug nuts with a shank size that fits the 10" wheels.

Drew

 

Run the bit slow, IN a drill press, you'll be OK.

 

Same thing goes on with some of the old Torq Thrust wheels. Machinist buddy of mine that is way smarter than me got the correct size reamer for the O.D. of the new lug nut then ground a pilot on the on the reamer to the I.D. of the to small hole, that way the pilot "follows" the to small hole and keeps it all nice and centered when the reaming/drilling thing happens.
Good luck, John

 

If not confident drilling by hand, any good machinist can put them on their bridgeport, index them for the proper bolt circle and open them up for the matching lug nut shank size. I'd have no seconds thoughts on drilling them out on my drill press. Good looking wheels .

 

Never use a drill to do this unless you can clamp the wheel down in a drill press and even then you will oversize the hole. Buy a "CHUCKING REAMER"
It uses 8 cutting flutes as aposed to the drills 2 and the ream cuts by pressure applied to it wereas the if the wrong amount of pressure applied will cause the drill to grab and either spin the wheel or drill out of your hands. The ream is also self centering --a drill is not.

The ream will set you back about $30

 

This is the correct way to do this, a drill will not "follow center "accurately

 

I've just now gotten around to working on this problem with these wheels. I got a friend who is a retired machinist that is willing to open these holes up to the larger size, but he wants to know what the clearance should be between the shank of the lug nut and the hole. I've checked some of my old wheels but I don't come up with a very accurate size. They've been put on and taken off too many times. It may not be that critical but I would appreciate some feedback.

Thanks
Drew

 

Leave the wheels original. Machine the shank of the bolts is what I would do. After all there is 6 side of the head that 3 of will chuck up very well on a lathe.

 

Johnny Gee you are right chuck the lug in a three jaw chuck and use a live center in the tail stock and turn down the lugs to the correct diameter. Jim.T.

 

Turning the lug down is at least not commiting to something you can not recover from.
However, three jaw chuck accuracy is not as good as one might want.

I drilled holes in a wheel and had to make a special drill press to do it. If you find one with enough distance between the chuck and the column, you will be fine. Drills self-align fairly well but a reamer does a better job, especially one with a nice pilot on it.

dennis

 

When I re-pattern a set of wheels I drill 11/16th,as that is the common/std shank size these days. Following with a 11/16 reamer will give you a nice round hole.

 

I had the same problem with my 200s. i just have to different sets of lug nuts one for front and one for back

 

While you have a small valid point. There are machinest and 3 jaw lathes that can handle it. The Le Blonde I use at work has and adjustable chuck and I check it often.

 

Dennis I have trued the chuck by chucking a ground disk in the back of the chuck and boring the replaceable jaws true. These lug nuts aren't + - .00001
Just my opinion.

 

http://www.jegs.com/i/Detroit-Wheels/306/5395-5/10002/-1?parentProductId=756707

I have the exact same problem! I found these for my application; I am putting old S200s on an S10, so these metric lug nuts are correct. You can see they do have the correct 5/8" shank. The cone seat doesn't scare me, since I believe the newer wheels use conical seats (yes/no?).

I cannot find these in 7/16 or 1/2 thread unfortunately. I'd bore the lug holes out.