Fitting Road Wheels, Derek's modified wheel nut

Hi All

Every now and again a little gem that really helps creeps on to this site. Derek W posted the original idea and I tried it and found it so usefull that it deserves to be here with the self help files. Anyone who tries to line up an XM wheel with the bolt holes will like me find it a very frustrating process that really needs 3 hands. Once the first bolt is in all is easy. Derek's idea was to machine off the head of a wheel bolt and use it as a stud to hang the wheel on making it dead easy to insert the first bolt as all 5 bolt holes line up. I made up my stud by using an angle grinder to cut the head off a wheel bolt. As the cutting disk was a thin one I also cut a slot across the cut end of the bolt so I could unscrew it with a screwdriver once the wheel had some of the bolts in. Derek's lathe turned bolt will no doubt be longer and project enough from the wheel to unscrew with just gripping in the fingers.

Thats an excellent idea Xmexc, Derek.

You know how annoying it is trying to hold the weight of the wheel and line up the bolt holes while the whole lot merrily rotates.... and just when you get it all lined up, the bloody wheel falls off again before you have a chance to get a bolt in !

Great idea, we'll all have to make one of these little hanging devices.


Ciarán

If you do make one out of a piece of threaded bar please be careful that you put a "stop" on it so that it cannot screw in too far. A friend has a couple he made for his Xantia and one day he screwed them in too far on a rear hub. The hub rotated and the extra length of thread smashed the side out of an ABS sensor. $270 later...

He has now burred the thread at an appropriate depth.

Hi All,

I found that although the stud worked fine with the alloy wheels, for some reason I was never able to get it to work with steel wheels.

Yesterday I had both back wheels off the estate, tried the stud again with no success, then hit on an even better idea which will work with all wheels.

Set the hub so that one hole is at the top (TDC). I used a long shaft screwdriver, O/A length 10" with a 6" long 5/16" diam. shaft and 7/16" blade but a steel bar up to 0.45" diameter will do. Slide the shaft through the top bolt hole of the wheel, then into the top hole in the hub. lift the handle or outer end and the wheel slides down onto the hub. With the leverage it's then easy to support the wheel in position whillst you start a couple of wheel bolts.

I could not believe how easy it was, the extra bonus for me in my advancing years is that it can all be done standing up. (It's not the getting down - gravity will do that for you - it's the getting up afterwards!)

Derek

Theres also another trick, if you DO NOT have Exclusive S2 Hole Less Centres Starfish alloys that is..

On the speedline alloys, if you remove the centre cap you can see the Bolt hole structure, through the middle, and there fore line it up over the boly hole, then when you insert the bolt its in the correct place!

BUT, thats a better idea of Derek W..

Great stuff!

Rgds
citroenxm

Sounds like something someone at Citroen should have thought of years ago.

Oh, hang on, they did. The second series DS had this feature (that is the five stud wheels not the earlier centre type). The crank handle extension/torque lever can be feed through a smallish square hole in the centre of the wheel and then used as a lever to lift the wheel and guide it home.

Good to see the idea is still practical though.

Yes Craig, but that doesn't line up the bolt holes as my method does.

Derek

This post has been edited by DerekW on January 20, 2008 07:03 pm

i used to be a tyre fitter for ats here in the uk........refitting rims to their hubs in alighnment is a practised knack. once done severel hundered times its easy........just thought ide crack that little joke and anoy people......he he he.

A few years later and I am browsing this brilliant site and I come across this useful thread,many thanks to the above contributors,I will now go an look in the garage for that huge screwdriver I have hardly ever had a use for.
Never again when I am reluctantly working on my car on some matter I have neglected,causing me to remove the wheels,shall I secretly dread hanging the buggers back on the car.It's no fun especially in our ever changing weather to be struggling to get the damn wheel bolts in while trying to keep the heavy wheels where you need them.
Many thanks.Gary

You can also buy a "Quick Align" tool on EBAY £8.95

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Alloy-Wheel-...=item35de966ec9

HTH