BENEFITS & INSTRUCTION
The following will show techincal, useful tips and instructions on how to deal best while handling your spinners.
UNDO the right direction
This question continues to come up, about which direction to tighten or loosen spinner?
FIRST – Follow the spinner’s UNDO arrows
UNDO right side– turn to the front of the car
UNDO left side – turn to the front of the car
To tighten – Turn to the rear on both sides
The reverse threads on the spinner will determine which side of the car they wil fit on.
if your spinners don’t follow the above directions, The hubs may have been installed on the wrong side and is worth looking into
Torque Settings
In my Lotus Elan’s printed manuals, posts a torque setting of 200 to 220 lb/ft. It is the only, and I mean the only torque settings I’ve been able to find by any other manufacturer.
The standard accepted method by all vehicle and wheel manufacturers, is to use a lead hammer to loosen the spinner while the vehicle is still on the ground.
Jack the car up, remove the spinner and the wheel. Replace the wheel and finger tight the spinner, let the jack back down to hold the wheel from spinning on the floor and tighten with a hammer.
Jaguar guys said NO, you need to roll a short distance to get a good seated spinner to the wheel and then re-tighten with a hammer.
A shop owner has always tightened his two-eared spinners with three good whacks with a lead hammer. We tested his 3 good whacks “does it” method. He hit within 3 to 4 pounds of 210 lb/ft of torque each time.
When he used my tool, he said that the added extension bar’s leverage cause the wheel to spin on the floor.
He suggested using a block of wood to stop the wheel from spinning. Rather than carrying a primitive wood block in the car, a wheel chock was added to all my Knockoff tool Kits.
Chock your wheels
My simple solution is to use a wheel chock by jacking the car up just enough so the wheel will turn, place the chock on one side of the tire to loosen and then move the chock to the other side of the tire to tighen the spinners. Then let the jack down for a perfectly seated spinner to wheel. Its that easy!
If you use a breaker bar you can set the breaker bar at a 10:30 position and just push down and 2:30 in the other direction. Otherwise you might be pushing or pulling on the bar and that may be harder to determine what force you are applying.
By always pushing down you can get control of what it takes you to hit your torque settings.
Problems using a hammer. When the spinner’s ears are horizontal It is easy to use a downward hammer swing to control force. If the ears are vertical you have to swing sideways and could glance off and hit the spokes or a fender well.
This Jaguar is a good example where the bodies wheel well is part of the car. Making it hard to get a clean sideways swing without damaging something.
Some cars, like Cobras and GT40s have deep set wheels and would be hard to reach in and get a really good swing with a hammer.
Caution using a torque wrench
If you hear the click on the torque wrench, don’t continue torquing pass the click as it can demage the torque wrench.
Some torque wrenches for sale, say they are ratcheted and reversible but only torqued on one side of the car. That happened to me.
If you use a torque wrench make sure you dial it up as It takes more force to break a spinner loose. Or you can purchase a breaker bar just to loosen them and use a torque wrench to safely tighten. When finished, take the tension off the torque wrench when not in use.
Sizing your spinners
I had many questions on what size tool should I order. MM is not a measurement, its a stock ID number. I finally determined that a 42mm diameter measurement of the spinner’s base, not the ears, is about 3 1/2 inches and the 52mm larger Jaguar size is about 4 inches.
Here are examples of some Jaguar spinners with thicker walls, different ear shapes with higher domes depending who makes them.
My tool’s design compensates for different design variations for a perfect fit in both the 52 and 42 sizes.
If your spinners look like these, my tools will fit both 42mm, 52 mm size spinners.
It also fits early Lotus Elites and early wire wheeled Cobras. It will also fit the straight eared spinners of the 300SL Mercedes.
Pictures are spinners that are not ready for prime time events.
Here is an extreme solution to remove over tighten spinner. This damaged spinner picture was supplied by Cobra-valley.com They also have a superior anti-sieze formula
Some hubs are made longer than normal depending on who made them.
My new design is made deeper to fit those hubs and wheels.
Some have used up to 1,000 ft/lbs of force to break loose over tightened & siezed spinners. When using a hammer, it places all of that high breaking force on just one ear at a time, and can weaken the metal and even break one off.
My tool was tested to over 1,200 ft/lb of torque, and applies equal force to all three ear at one time, spreading the full force evenly. My tool can take a high end impact wrench to break free those stubborn spinners. But only use a torque wrench to tighten.
The only printed torque setting I’ve been able to find is in a Lotus Elan manual of 200 to 220 f/lb. The Hub size of the Halibrand Hubs is about the same as the Lotus Hubs.
Before you use this tool for the first time, try the following suggestions.
If you have recently used your standard hammer swing to tighten your spinners and used anti-seize on them, make a mark on both the wheel and the spinner. Loosen the spinner with my tool and re-tighten with a torque wrench using a setting of 200 to 220 ft/lb of torque. Look to see how close the marks line up. It might need a little higher torque setting on your wheels.
If your spinners are over tightened and seized, use my tool to break them free. Then re-tighten using your hammer the way you normally do. Then re-mark the wheel and spinner again. Loosen the spinner again with my tool, now use a torque wrench to tighten to 200 to 220 ft/lb to see where the new marks line up. From then on you won’t need to worry about damaging your investment.
Contact me for additional information.
1-707-481-6700
The biggest complaint I get is not being able to remove over tighten spinners.
This hammer removal picture was supplied by Cobra-valley.com
