Hi all, Terrick here again.
Finished my first tank offuel on th Xrace GT6 - 162 miles on 8.2 gallons of
fuel. Sure makes my VW GTI feel gutless. Have learned the hard way that an
oil pressure line WILL get in the way of the tyre to body clearance and
presently puke oil all over the 9immaculately clean bodywork. Oh well,
what's a TR without a puddle underneath? The weather's been absolutely
miserable which has made the pleasure of owning one of the few tin top TR's
teriffic...still haven't installed the heater yet.
Here's a tip for all those Spitfire/GT6 owners concerned about the puny
wheel studs (3/8" isn't very much of a stud...and even TRF admits
replacement parts have been of dubious quality in the past)
Ford Taurus or Tempo wheel studs of the 12 mm by 1.5 pitch variety fit very
well with a small mod or two. A job best left for the next brake change,
remove the bearing hat (front) and drive flange (rear) from the car. Remove
the wheel studs that exist with a large hammer. Usinga 1/2" drill, ream
outall the stud holes, followed by careful hand filing or light work with a
die grinder. Pull the newly acquired studs through under tension from a new
wheel nut. Replace all assemblies.
WHY DO THIS?!?!? Anyone I know in the racing community uses larger than
stock studs for reliability reasons...especially spridget racers. These
parts are now decades old. They were designed in the days of 60 bhp cars.
Tyres were inferior inroadholding. And, finally, 3/8 studs andnutsare all
but impossible to get.
My quest involved longer (1 3/4") shank bolts for my Revolution alloys.
They simply do not exist. Further, even if they do, the stock stud is very
short and with an alloy wheel with a thicker centre section, there is
insufficient stud length to ensure a good fit to a nut.
This trick is best saved for alloy wheels on a high performance car but it
is certainly a more reliable fittment. TR series cars with 7/16" studs are
less likely to need this procedure perfomedvsince the studs are stronger and
7/16 hardware is still comonly available. However, the stud length of the
Ford bit described above is only just slightly longer and thicker than TR6
stuff - so small TR's with 100 bhp or so may take this as an indicatin from
the factory - even though TR5's did 150 bhp the early TR2's didn't but they
still used the big studs.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with scrapping the above ideas and going
with a fresh set of wire wheels or centre lock minilites!!!!
DVT
Winnipeg
flood danger all but gone
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