4/4 wheels

For those interested in competing 4 cylinder Morgans

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Chris Dady
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:12 pm

4/4 wheels

Post by Chris Dady »

In a bit of a dilemma, I can only run up to 5" to be historically correct for my series V, but Minilites start at 5.5". I will try an ad for some steel wheels, as I need another set, although I am told these will need to be strengthened for racing. Are there any alternative suggestions :?:
Barry Sumner
Posts: 354
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:01 pm

Re: 4/4 wheels

Post by Barry Sumner »

Hi Chris
Sounds an interesting project and it would be good to see a 4/4 out in historic racing again.
As to wheels the standard Dunlop Morgan steel wheels are useless for anything other than road use, (speaking from experience) for they have no strength in the design, and the steel used was a low grade one, so they bend, split etc. and even strengthening only works to a degree plus of course in standard width they are only 4” wide - dont use is my advice!
Options - Steel
If you want to stay with steel disc type wheels then the option has to be VW Beetle which in standard format is 4½” wide the problem though is that the offset is wrong by about 18mm so you would need to space them or have the rim & centre separated and re-welded to the required offset (which is what I have had done with all our wheels, though when I did it you could still buy the rims new in wider widths i.e 5½”)
As to weights the standard Morgan wheel weighs in at 6kg whereas the std VW 4½” wheel weighs in at 7.2kg (told you it was better quality)
You can buy on e-bay std 4 ½ “ VW wheels for not a lot of money, give me a PM and I will let you know of a possible welder who could redo the offset for you
If you do use VW wheels do use the latter Morgan wheel nuts as they have a far better lead in chamfer on them

As to Ali wheels all of the VW wheel derivatives (4 x 130mm) seem to be in 5 ½“, however Image Wheels do a couple of styles that may be of interest to you and I understand they can do almost any width and hide the split rim bolts if you wish, in what they call the classic style I think.
The cast 3 piece RM 1 is in the Minlite style or the Billet 46 looks remarkably like the std Morgan steel wheel and even has the correct number of holes.
Depending upon the style of Ali wheel then you might save between ½ to 1 kg per wheel, though some come in heavier? So its worth doing some checking to make sure that you keep the wheel weights to an absolute minimum.
Hope this helps, if you need any further information let me know
Barry
Jim Mountain
Posts: 530
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:18 pm

Re: 4/4 wheels

Post by Jim Mountain »

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Last edited by Jim Mountain on Tue Jul 24, 2012 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chris Dady
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:12 pm

Re: 4/4 wheels

Post by Chris Dady »

Many thanks indeed!
Chris
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