My 65 Australian MKI

[Willie_B]

Just damn.

[gr8kornholio]

Alas, all hope may not be gone.  There is a guy on ebay australia that appears to have a set of these exact lugs.  My contact at minisport au is looking into it.   9.gif  I offered to purchase them and the rest of my order if he could find out if these were correct and acquire them.  Really only want to pay shipping from Australia once.   ;D

[gr8kornholio]

Minisport AU comes through.  The sales guy was able to get the lug nuts he was out of from the lug nut king on ebay.  He put them on the site and I reloaded my cart with them and the other parts.  They are leaving today and should arrive Tuesday.  Aussie shipping just as fast as UK shipping.  Sad it takes so long to get stuff shipped from this country   ;D

[Willie_B]

Great, one more thing taking care of.

[gr8kornholio]

AAANNND....  Nope.  They fit some holes, but not others, so that's probably not a good sign.  Even if they did fit the holes, they have bigger heads so I couldn't get a socket on all of them due to the spokes.  I googled it, late at work so didn't have much time to look, but can you drill holes on a wheel?  I'm sure you'd have to have some type of centering jig.  But like I said, even then they'd have to put recesses in the spokes. 

Anyone have leads on some conical washers?  flat on one side angled on the other.  Not even sure these will work if my holes are different sizes.  I'm thinking I may just have to give up on these wheels.   50.gif

[MPlayle]

Check at a specialty wheel and tire shop (that deals in lots of the "fancy, custom" wheels) and see if they have some of the hub-centric rings that fit.

That might help center up the wheel and let you continue using the existing lug nuts that fit the holes in the wheels?

[MiniDave]

If they fit some holes and not others, it sounds like you have some wear in the holes - you can have wheels drilled by a machine shop but I think at this point unless you're enamored of these particular wheels I'd be looking for some new ones. Go to JBW, they have tons of different styles for reasonable prices. For that matter they sell wheel/tire packages too if you also need tires.

http://www.johnbrownwheels.com/wheels/

I assume you want 10's?

I have a set of 13's with almost new tires I would sell for what I have in them - $500.

[gr8kornholio]

Yea, I've been looking at some of them.  The wife likes the Dunlop replicas.  Just doesn't like the center cap.  Googled my paint color car and see several pictures of these with that paint color.  The new color, not the burgandy now.

[MiniDave]

You can put a MINI sticker over the JBW logo easy enough......at least then you can eliminate the shaking and drive it.

[BruceK]

Mark, what is the "new" color?   

[gr8kornholio]

The cars original color.  Fiesta Yellow. 

[BruceK]

Nice!  That's a seldom-seen color, so it will be great to have one more Mini in that.    And the photo you found conveniently has the Dunlop wheels too!    Makes it easy to visualize your car in the future.

[gr8kornholio]

Yea, I'm not entirely happy about loosing the original wheels, but if I'm just going to keep chasing the problem and not having good solutions then I'm going to have to.  At least these are period correct and you don't see them on EVERY classic mini. 

Last effort is looking for some conical washers local to dallas.  The hub centric rings I don't think will work, because the mini doesn't have a good defined area around the hub.

[MiniDave]

I don't think hub centric rings will work either, nor do I think the conical washers are going to help - if the holes are out of round or worn funny. I think you either need the holes drilled/milled to an oversize with new lugs or new wheels.....sometimes things just get worn out and have to be repaired or replaced with new......

[gr8kornholio]

Agreed.  I put out a request on the metroplex mini forum and the MIA (minis in action) facebook page for any wheel borrowing to possibly verify it's the wheels.

[MiniDave]

Borrowing some wheels to verify the problem is a good idea.....

[BruceK]

Mark, I should have my car back in a couple of weeks and you can borrow my 12" wheels.

[gr8kornholio]

BIG HUGE THANKS to Luis.  He came by this morning with his mini.  We took it for a spin over 55 since he's pretty sure he hadn't yet.  No vibration.  Yay.  Swapped his fronts onto my fronts and went for another spin.  55... 60..  NO VIBRATION.  Victory.  And no coupler rattle either.  So on the hunt for wheels.  YAY!!!   

Didn't bother with the rears, because I have never taken them off. 

[BruceK]

That's great news!  Glad you were finally able to sort it out.

Are you looking for tire/wheel combinations?   That's often the way to go because of the savings involved and they come fully mounted and balanced with lug nuts.  Plus the fact you don't have to try to convince some tire shop to mount 10" tires on your new wheels. 

[MiniDave]

I agree, getting 10's mounted and balanced properly can be tough.......

[gr8kornholio]

There's a shop in McKinney called Thomason tire.  They balanced the fronts when the vibration was really horrible.  And the tread on mine is still good.  Did find these and looking into them around the web.  Should be able to find someone to drill the holes a little bigger to fit, if I can't find some to fit the current holes.

[Willie_B]

Those inserts look like they are for Cosmic wheels. Are they in the correct 3/8" size?

[BruceK]

... And the tread on mine is still good.

Yeah. No need to get rid of good tires if some place will work with them for mounting.  Does the date code on them mean they are still good?

[gr8kornholio]

They weren't labeled for anything specific, was just going of the given dimensions they would work if I can find someone to drill my wheels.

Here's the link; http://www.raceways.co.uk/Alloy_wheel_steel_insert_standard_size.htm

[MiniDave]

You don't want to fit them in the current holes as they're not round.....I would think you need someone to drill them accurately so you don't continue the issue you have now.

Or just buy some new wheels and be done with it......