Technical I have a wheel center bore question?

The front swap meet wheels on my roadster are slightly bent so I'm gonna replace them. I think I paid $20 for the pair and the seller told me they were off a Chevy Nova. I found these and they look the same and all the dimensions are spot on except for the center bore size. These have a 3-1/8" center bore while my originals have a 2-3/4" center bore. The bolt holes are conical so I think the wheels will center on the lug nuts. Will the larger center bore make a difference, or not?
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wvi-62-463404

 

bigger no. smaller yes.

 

Having a larger center hole is not “ideal”, but it is pretty darn common with hot rods and aftermarket wheels. The difference is very minimal. I wouldn’t worry about it. My roadster is the same way, and it drives really well.

 

They do make concentric spacer rings for this purpose. Check with Google.

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Mostly, hot rods have the wheels centered by the lug nuts. Modern cars use the new fangled hub concentric stuff (so do lots of stock older cars), but it's not really necessary.

 

"hub piloted" its called, most the big trucks are that way for many years now. lotsa weight there, not so much on your car, so the lug nuts will center it just fine like it did for the last century

 

Some say hub centric, some say 'not an issue'. I guess it couldn't hurt to use spacer rings. $10-$15 ain't gonna kill me and it eliminates one possible issue. 3/8" is a pretty sizeable gap on a rotating assembly!

 

Depends on if the hubs were even made to have a wheel centered on them. Lots of hubs were rough cast on the snout (early Ford for example) and shouldn't have a wheel shouldering on it. What do your hubs look like?

 

I only see an issue if the hole is too small (not a problem for you) on the rear and you might have a problem with the axle flange/brakedrum area. The axle flange centers the rear drum, so the wheel pressing on this area might cause trouble.

 

I like having my wheels hub centric.. But I have run lug centric wheels with a center cap and chrome lug nuts without any issue..

I've heard people switching to hub centric and having vibration issues because the hubs were cockeyed..

 

I always felt the hub centric on my Buicks were to carry the weight instesd of the lug bolts doing all the work. Matbe!

Ben

 

If the lug bolts are carrying the weight of the car, they are loose. I would not worry about trying to make them hub centric on an old car, torque the wheel nuts and enjoy


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Aren't the lug nuts held in place by the lug bolts/ wheel studs ? Splitting hairs.....

 

Buicks of HAMB years, and for awhile after, used lug bolts instead of studs and nuts..

Ben

 

Held in place by the studs? -yes, but he's probably referring to the fact that the weight of the car isn't held up by the studs or hub, but rather by the friction created between the wheel and drum/rotor.

 

As pointed out, most early wheel hubs weren't machined with tight tolerances for hub-centric mounting, so using inserts doesn't really help, if the center machining is off even slightly, or rough cast, centering the wheel on the hub might keep the lugs from seating properly and cause vibration or even loosening of the lugs.

 

'56 Ford truck hubs and brakes with (OMG!) wheel adapters! The inside of the tape marks flush with the wheel center bore.
Inside of wheel center bore = 2.80"
Hub measured at tape mark = 2.525"

 

Cast finish to the hub right there. Can't use a centering ring on that.

 

This is exactly what I was getting at, thank you.


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I think the big center hole wheels came into being with the switch to disc brakes on the front. I know it did on Ford, probably others too.

 

Does not matter here the wheel adapter has no hub centering and it appears to have been working.

The change to wheel center holes came with bigger wheel bearings to support higher speeds and heaver front end loads.

 

The Machined area on the hub and on the rear axle flange is called the brake drum "Register". My father worked at" Colorado Brake" in the sixties----seventies. So that meant I worked at "Colorado Brake" if I liked it or not. He was trained by the US AIR FORCE so everything was by the BOOK! Its amazing he didn't pass away from all the Asbestos in that place or all the chemicals used up on the D.E.W. LINE. 1955-62 .Time will tell if my brother or I will ?

 

Hubcentric is a nice addition to positioning the wheel with just conical lug nuts, or bolts. I mean, if you had wheel centers that match your hubs, you wouldn't want to cut in a bigger center hole, right?
Personally, if I had mismatched centers, I would just snug the nuts finger tight and then do the "star pattern" a few pounds of torque at a time until I worked up to full torque spec. I might check the nuts one time more often than a hubcentric setup but that about as religious as I would get.