Keith Kaplan wrote:
> ...and I nearly revealed my youth and lack of knowledge of old English
> cars by asking "what's a knock-off hub hammer?"
>
> So why didn't knock off nuts have flats for a wrench to go on them? Is
> the air wrench a more modern invention than I realize? Surely it's not
> faster to spin a nut on by hand and finish with a hammer than to run it
> on with an air gun. When the air gun isn't available (like for roadside
> repairs) a long enough lever can do it, right?
The early (up until the mid '60s) wire wheels on "foreign" (British) sports
cars
had a single large nut holding the wheels on to the axles. The ones on one side
of the car turned one way, and the others just the opposite. To remove them,
there were "wings" that stuck out from the sides of the nut about two inches,
and a couple of shots with the included lead hammer were all it took to loosen
them. Using this system, you could change a tire in about two minutes flat,
assuming that your strange little British jack worked properly... These
wonderful devices attracted the attention of the safety freaks who decreed that
the little "wings" were hazardous to someone somehow (I never did figure out
why), so the Brits changed to a giant hex nut and supplied a big "ring spanner"
that you would whack with the same hammer. When wire wheels went the way of
take-apart soft tops and 6 volt electrics (mostly due to cost, I suspect), the
lead hammers were no longer included in the tool kit that came with the car.
Brings back memories of my old AC Bristol and the PO who installed the front
hubs on the wrong sides. But that is a story for another day...
Mike
>
> keithka
> whose diesel shuts off just fine now, thanks to a new motor attached to
> the fuel shutoff valve (and Scarff Isuzu's helpful parts guy)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Sloane [mailto:msloane@att.net]
>
> MG or other SU
> equipped car when it died, tap the pump with the knock-off hub hammer,
> have the
> engine come to life, and drive off. :-) Ah, the "good old days".
>
>
--
________________________________________________________________
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
(msloane@att.net)
<http://www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those
who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Theodor Seuss Geisel, "Dr. Seuss"
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