P&M

On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:34:50 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:


I presume [knockoff wheel bolts] were banned because wheels were falling off the cars?
I once changed my tire and didn't put it on well I guess, and on a two
hour trip I kept hearing knocking but didn't get out of the car to
look. I thought it was the wheel bearing or something, never having
heard a bad wheel bearing. * When I got where I was going, I looked,
and it was the lug nuts that were loose. *Two of my wheel holes were
oblong and the threads on two or three lug studs were ruined. *I was
able to tighten 4 or 5 nuts, but I had to replace the studs.**

In case it's not obvious, Because the wheel moving on the hub had let
the wheel hit the studs and damage the threads on at least two studs.
The same reason at least two of the bolt holes in the wheel were
oblong.


Now that's when I had to screw up 5 nuts and I still came close to
succeeding.

Close to letting my wheel fall off. Also I think there are a lot more
threads per inch on the those little studs than on what a knockoff
uses. At least for a race car, they just start it on, then hit it
and it spins two or three revolutions and it's tight, right?

*If people like me have only one knockoff, I'm sure some
of them will not tighten it and the wheel will fall off.

**That led to more problems. *Instead of replacing the studs, I got an
old brake drum, with part of the wheel bearing iirc, and just
exchanged them. I knew you weren't supposed to mate two non-mated
halves of a wheel bearing, but I did it anyhow. *I drove around for a
day and it seemed fine. The next day I set off from NYC to Chicago. *I
was just north of Pittsburgh when the rider driving told me she heard
something if she headed straight ahead. *Sure enough, I was melting
the bearing onto the spindle. * Fortunately I had all my old parts in
the trunk and the guy at the dealer was able to put me back togeher
again for 8 dollars. *He had to get his boss to use an acetelyne torch
to remove the bearing from the spindle. *He's was proud that he didn't
ruin the spindle.

"the dealer was able to put me back togeher again for 8 dollars."

$8? What year was that...1922?

No, 1972 or 3, and yeah, it was amazingly cheap. Even more so when you
hear all he did. I thought I was going to have to pay 50, 100, 150 or
more, trying to remember prices then, but he only charged 7 dollars
and change.

I wanted to go back to Chicago for a visit so I put a notice up at
NYU, it probably was, looking for riders. I got two, a girl and a
guy who used to work in a political job for Mayor Daley (which was a
bad thing). We're on Interstate 80, a new road then, that goes
east-west across northern, entirely rural, and partly wilderness Pa.
and we're almost to Ohio. She's driving and she tells me that when she
goes even to the left or right a bit, it's quiet, but when she points
straight ahead, there's a noise. I drive for a bit and she is right!
I pull over and for the wheel I had fiddled with 2 days earlier, the
hub is too hot to touch. I just held my hand near it and I could feel
the warmth. But, aha, there is a ramp only 200 yards ahead of me and
a gas station at the top of the ramp. So I go there. But he tells me,
I can't do it. You'll have to go to the dealer. Well the dealer is
only 3 miles north in a tiny town. Looking at the map, I see it is
Mercer, Pa, just as I recalled from 37 years ago!

I drive in, tell the guy the problem, and the first thing he does is
look at the clock. It's 10 to 5, closing time. Immediately I think
he's going to tell me to come back tomorrow, which means I'll have to
pay for a motel for all 3 of us, probably one room for me and the guy
and another room for the girl, plus I'll have to buy them dinner. If
it were just me, I could have slept in a corn field. The whole reason
I got riders was to save money.

But he doesn't say anything and he starts in on it. After taking off
the tire and the hub/brakedrum iirc, he tells me that the inner race
of the bearing is fused to the spindle (it was so hot). For those who
don't know, the spindle is like the axle, but just the outer 6 inches
of it, and it turns left and right because it's a front wheel. He
doesn't think he can get the bearing off without ruining the spindle,
and he doesn't stock the spindle. Darn, I think, the junk yards are
closing in 5 minutes, I'll have to come back tomorrow after all.

I'll get my boss, he says. The boss comes and lights the acetylene
torch, and goes at it. In less than a minute, iirc, he turns off the
torch and says, "You were lucky. I got it off without ruining the
spindle. I have a bearing in stock and I think you ruined the brake
drum too. Oh, I say, I have my original brake drum in the trunk."
I"m vague here, because I thought he didn't provide any parts, but if
he cut off the original inner race, he must have replaced the bearing.
And he must have pushed out the orificial outer race from the brake
drum, because he's not going to do what I did, use halves of two
different bearings (either both used or one used and one new, either
way they don't match). So he sold me a new wheel bearing. Maybe that
is what made it cost 7.60. I don't remember watching him push the
bearing out or in, but any how, he had me ready to leave by about
5:15, 25 minutes total, and the bill was 7.60. I gave them 10 dollars
and said the rest was for the coffee they made for themselves. I
wanted to yell about how cheap they were. Maybe because it wasn't NYC
or Chicago. But I didn't want to make them feel they weren't charging
enough.

One of them may have left already but I apologize to whoever is there
for keeping them after 5:00 and he says, "It doesnt' matter. I live 5
minutes from here anyhow." And no rush hour traffic in NW Pa.

Later it occurred to me, or maybe he told me, that if I had driven
much farther and it had gotten much hotter, the bearing might have
melted, and then cooled when I parked, and fused into one piece, and I
couldn't even have driven the car. That would have meant a tow
truck, maybe many miles, and more parts and much more money yet.

And yet here I am last year, 36 years later, letting a moderate
medical problem lead to emergency, probably life-at-risk surgery.
It's like I haven't learned a thing.

I must have been misled, because the whole thing only took 45 minutes
and I spent 10 dollars.