I have a set of 15" ET (wannabe American Racing Torque Thrust) Uni-lug wheels I want to put on the wife's '55 T-Bird. The issue is that the remaining washers in the wheels are different than what I can find now. Old washer is on the left, new one on the right. Wheel pics may help ID the issue, the center caps read "Super" Old square edge washer new round edge washer 1.397 tall 1.375 tall 1.140 wide 1.125 wide .196 thick 1.180 thick The new round edge washers wiggle around in the milled out ovals in the wheels. They are not necessarily "new", they are used but appear to cheaper and newer. It seems pretty clear that if I run the new round edge washers the wheels will not be true. Does anyone know if the old square edge dimension washers are available? I looked on the search and didn't turn anything up that deals with this issue. Thanks, BobW
i had the same problem. i took the uni-lug wheels to a machinist who welded the holes up, and redrilled them, problem solved. dan
You probably already know this but, those washers will not work on a T-bird. The washers pictured are for a Chevrolet or 5 on 4 3/4" bolt pattern. The ones you need are offset with the hole all the way to one end. With the holes all pointing to the farthest inside position (5 on 4 1/2") you should be able to use the new style washers as long as you use the new E.T. lugs also (60 degree conical seat with a 1/4" shank). EDIT: Whoops, I forgot to mention, the new lugs you need are 1/2" tread pitch (Ford products) and not 7/16" that would be used with the centered washers (G.M. products)
Yep, I knew I had non-Ford washers in the pic, the wheels came with some centered washers. I have a few of the offset ones too. So you are saying that the slop will just be on the outside, away from the center, and the inner part closest to the hub will not have slop, the result being it'll fit right? BobW
Yea Bob, I think if you torque the lugs all down evenly, you should be fine! All brands of early uni lug style wheels are not exactly perfect, in other words....she might shimmy a bit when you get over 100 m.p.h.!!!
If anyone can help you this guy can,email your pics to [email protected] Raul Gonzalez Ph is (909)376-8011 Good Luck!
put them in your swap meet sell pile and turn around and slowly walk away her t -bird deserves better than that non unilug 5 spokes are pretty common remember offset and the center hub hole size will be cruical on a bird as other sizes are affected by tie rod rub and skirt clearance ... been there done that ! good luck
No worries. These good folks can supply what you need: Prestige Wheel Accessories http://www.prestigewheel.com/ The owner is a veteran hot rodder who will understand what you're talking about. I suggest you call them at (800) 854-6770 or (714) 540-2100. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
Those old stories of my high school classmate's 65 Chevy with unilugs that seemed to want to pass him as he drove down the road on a routine basis keep running through my head. Funny, I haven't thought of that in years.
I know that Uni-lugs are not everybody's favorite set-up. They sure did make a lot of them, I neve knew anyone that had trouble, but I know some did. I like the looks of this set of wheels, and it kind of goes with her survivor bird's looks. It has about 10 coats of paint on it, some primer on the front, etc., and has a 289 that was supposed to have been put in back in the '60's or early '70's. These wheels are of the period, and in excellent shape. As far as skirt clearance goes, it doesn't have the skirts. Two years ago I could have bought a '55 T-Bird at a swap in KC for $10K, not running, with a small block Ford in it, both tops, good body, and (sit down) a great old set of Halibrand magnesium wheels! I just didn't have the money. The wheels and the tops were worth most of what he wanted for the car. I got word from Terry the Torque Thrust guru that the bigger washers are probably Keystone, the smaller ones are correct. www.torquethrustcentral.com I think there are better wheels out there, but I own these so will probably use them until something better turns up. Thanks for the input! BobW
There's nothing wrong with that washer system. If the washer hole in the wheel isn't wallowed out then you're good to go. The washer should fit tight all the way around. Any good tire and wheel shop should be able to get the offset ones that fit for 5 on 4.5 or 5 on 5. Discount Tire used to have them. I've put a few hundres thousand miles on uni-lug ET's. Never had a wheel loosen up, much less exit the car. Charlie
Charlie, the larger Keystone? washers fit snug. The ones that are supposed to be right wiggle back and forth in the hole from hub to rim. Now I have two opinions, one says it will pull up tight with the loose ones, one says snug from the get go. I have to say snug fit seems like a good idea, but if they were made to draw up tight, I suppose that would be good too. Charlie, what syle washers were yours compared to what I have shown? I have too much information or not enough information....I won't be ordering the washers yet! Any other thoughts on this, guys?
My washers look like the one on the right in your picture. I haven't any experience with the other washers. They should fit tight as you tighten up the lug nut. The proper ET lug nuts have a bit of shank to engage more of the stud below the taper. On occasion I have found an ET wheel or two with some aluminum shaved off the side of the washer hole and deposited down in the bottom radius. That should be cleaned out for a better fit. A little mismatch on fit in one hole won't cause any real difficulty as the lug nuts tend to "center" the wheel. Charlie
You can resurrect some mag wheels by drilling out the original lug hole and installing a sleeve. Obviously you don't want to go too big and compromise strength. A typical mag lug hole is a couple of thousandths over 11/16" ID. Typical mag lug nut shanks are 11/16" OD with differing shank lengths depending on the wheel hub thickness. Make 10-20 sleeves, whatever required and a couple of spare sleeves wouldn't hurt. Sleeve length depends on the thickness of the wheel hub. Make them .020 or so short so that the wheel gets pulled onto the brake drum/disc rotor properly and is not being held off by an overly long sleeve. Use steel or aluminum for the sleeves, whatever's handy. Sleeve OD to fit the original lug hole after it's drilled out. More than likely you're dealing with 1/2-20 threads (Ford, Mopar and others, Chevys are 7/16-NF) so that dictates the ID of the sleeve. Using a jig or rotary table drill the wheels to the correct pattern circle/size. Use a mill end cutter for the drilling because a regular twist drill will get pulled off center depending on whether the wheel is Uni-Lug or damaged. It's probably a good idea to use Red Loctite or JB Weld to keep the sleeve in place. Although, the ones little brother knocked out were a thousandths or two oversize and were pressed in. Steel if I remember right. Use a thick mag wheel washer - like Centerline sells - and a flat bottom lug nut. Little brother cut the shank off the mag lugnut and cleaned it up up flat on a lathe. Cut a small chamfer on the outer edge of the hex so the lugnut doesn't dig into the washer. The lugnuts he used were through-drilled as required by most racing organizations. He ran these wheels with some big slicks on his drag racing Henry J down into the nines and may still be running them now that the car is running low eights. Never had a problem.
Agreed. What I see with some used mags is that an overly thin 'mag' wheel washer that is too soft tends to "cone-in" and crush the sides of the lugnut hole into a 45 degree chamfer. Along with that they lose lugnut torque over a short period of time. I've had very good luck with the thick (3/16") Centerline washers. Especially so with the oval bored Uni-Lugs that don't use an offset washer.
In an emergency or simply due to need, the hardened steel flat washers from the hardware store can be pressed into duty for mag wheels. Had to do it yesterday. If you get the 5/8" washer it's usually .120 thick and quite strong. The 5/8" washers hole is just right for the 11/16" mag lugnut shank. Without going into all the details and cuz I didn't have any 1.250 steel on hand to make some thick washers I ended up using a couple of the abovementioned washers. They did require the OD turned down to fit into my hubcap to mag wheel adapter, but that didn't take long. It took longer to make the mandrel than it did in machining the washers. Gettin' quite a collection of mandrels, but seldom do I have the one I need. Use carbide cutting tools cuz the washer steel is tough. Since the washers from the hardware store that I used were actually grade 8's they machined down ok. They were bronze in color. Take note that a genuine hardened washer may be found at a real parts house or a machinist supply house. True hardened washers are oxidized blue - glossy most times - and you may have difficulty turning them down if required. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dunno if you ever noticed that in a box of flat washers for general use there are many different thicknesses. Handy most times, but to me an amazing bit of no quality control as to the gage of sheet metal they're popping them out of. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Along these same lines, take note of the thickness of the thick Centerline - whether gennie or othewise - washers and try to get em all the same thickness. Some of the newer ones I see are fairly varied from one washer to the next as far as thickness goes. The big swap meets usually have a vendor that carries all the weird washers as well as the on-center thick washers. Last set of off-shore thick washers I bought were quite consistent in thickness . . . but I gave em to a friend a couple months back. Course I only carried them around for three years and like always, sell it or give it away and you'll need it....
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