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MG TD TF 1500 - Wire Wheel Conversion questions

Hey everyone,

I finally have my wire wheel conversion kit in hand. Tires should be mounted early next week. I have started fitting the components together and have a couple questions.

1. The kit came with grease retainers. A semi circular metal piece with rubber at the peak. LaVerne Downey told me they go in the front wheels to prevent grease from coming out of the cotter key holes. As I have no reason not to believe that, I was wondering your thoughts on these. He did not seem to think they were needed. I wonder why not on the back wheels?

2. I have been told and read that sometimes you have to shim the hubs so the brake drums do not drag on the backing plate. It sounds like this is not always the case. Thoughts please.

3. I really like the look of the new brake drum. I assume it will rust if I do not treat it. I was just thinking about a clear coat to maintain the same look. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Any other suggestions are welcome. Hoping to have things together at the end of the week. Thanks in advance.

Rich
www.52mgtd.com






Rich King TD 8732

I also had one more thing. The spare tire holder holds the spare tire out from the gas tank much further then the original steel wheel. What are the modifications made to this to adapter to fix this? That will be one of the last things I do, but I think it will bug me.

Thanks,
Rich
Rich King TD 8732

You will need to have a mod to the carrier. I believe a TC hub would work as well. May be hard to find?
Also, the long knock off. Several suppliers of that.
This is my TD 1953 spare carrier./

And there is no grease in the rear axle hub. So the seal is not required on the rear wheels.





Rod Jones

Rich, the spare carrier deal can be a problem. I don't know what Moss is supplying but I'd like to see a picture of it on your rack. I have seen some kits that simply supply a wire wheel hub and a knock off and from there you are on your own. When I converted my TF to wire wheels Moss had a lug not listed in their parts that was to be welded into the existing rack which would give a factory position of the wheel. It was expensive and so is the knockoff that gets used with it. Also it was a no going back to steel wheels deal as well as it required that I remove the original flange that held the steel wheel to the rack. Several years ago I worked on a TF that had wire wheels put on it but they hadn't addressed the spare rack It had been supplied with a splined hub. I tried to see if I could just bolt it to the rack but that wasn't going to work. The license plate position on a TF cause more issues. In the end to get a decent position I had to cut the splined hub down and weld it to the rack. It would have been much better if I could have gotten the owner to try and purchase the weld in hub and the special knock off for it. The position shown here is what it took to make it work on this car. Rods holder looks to be from a TC and would be the way to go if you could find one and are willing to weld it up to a TD rack. It will also require the high dollar knock off.





L E D LaVerne

We just welded a hub, I think from a Triumph TR2, onto a spare rack after cutting off the disc top. That way we could get it to the correct height.

From here we just used a regular knockoff and I put on a radiator medallion to top it off.

I still have the original rack, all the brake drums and wheels/caps if I ever wanted to swap back. Probably never going to happen in my lifetime, but the next owner can decide on that.




Christopher Couper

Just to be clear I did this modification about 10 years ago and since I can't remember what I had for breakfast today you'll have to bear with me.

I found this drawing that I believe is the original spare tire hub that I had a Machine Shop modify as shown. I used it to mount the Moss wire wheel conversion spare tire and it has worked just fine for many years.
Mort

Mort Resnicoff

Here is the mount provided with the kit from Moss. It is well made but why they made it so tall is beyond me. I think what Mort posted is probably what I am looking for. Moss is proud of this part. It is not listed in the book but you can purchase it for $300 direct from them.




Rich King TD 8732

so obviously no tire is mounted and I will be running a tire cover but there will be a pretty big gap compared to the stock steel wheels. I know picky, but that is just what I do.




Rich King TD 8732

This thread was discussed between 29/05/2022 and 30/05/2022

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