KNOCK OFFS

[thunder]

a month ago i bought this 1964 coupe with knock off's.some friends of mine have said that they can loosen up,that i should invest in a rubber mallet to keep them tight.do they need a good whack once a week?every 100 miles?
i have alot of experience with cars none with knockoffs.just thought i would
ask the experts here and see what they thought!
thanks in advance

 

[MsSchroder]

Thunder,
I don't have an answer about the knock offs, but Welcome to the CAC.

Tammy

 

[thunder]

thank you.glad to be a part of this great forum.

 

[Tom Bryant]

I would also like to welcome you to the CAC.

Sounds like a real nice car. Checking those knock offs to be sure they are tight should become a ritual with you. At least every time you head out for a drive. Chevrolet supplied a lead hammer that would impart a significant force to the nut when struck. I'm not sure you could do the same with a rubber mallet. I would lean toward one of those shot filled dead blow hammers that are covered in plastic. We use those at work on transfer hose couplings and you really get a lot of blow without the bounce.

I'm sure some of the other guys will chime in with their weapon of choice also. Enjoy your car.

I just noticed that this was in the new member into forum. I'll move it to the C1-C2 Forum so more will notice your question.


Tom

 

[soppeng]

I would suggest that you remove the spinners, clean the threads off and coat with anti-seize. Then take a lead hammer and tighten the spinners with 7 blows as hard as you can safely hit the spinner. Any large lead hammer will work, you don't have to buy the reproduction Corvette hammer. You hear a lot about them coming loose. Mark the spinner and the cone with a Sharpie to check for them coming loose. Some have had a problem. I haven't in 3 years and drive my 65 farely often. Good luck.

 

[thunder]

I would suggest that you remove the spinners, clean the threads off and coat with anti-seize. Then take a lead hammer and tighten the spinners with 7 blows as hard as you can safely hit the spinner. Any large lead hammer will work, you don't have to buy the reproduction Corvette hammer. You hear a lot about them coming loose. Mark the spinner and the cone with a Sharpie to check for them coming loose. Some have had a problem. I haven't in 3 years and drive my 65 fare
ly often. Good luck.[/quote

in 3 years how often do you use the hammer?after every time you drive it?

 

[vintagecorvette]

Are your wheels repo or original? If repo, check and see if they have the safety pins installed.

I bought a lead hammer at Harbor Freight Tools and it works great. I check my wheels often and usually give them a wack before I head out on a long drive. Never can be too safe.

By the way a rubber hammer will do squat. It will just bounce back at you and it will not knock the spinner tighter.

oWEN

 

[alps66]

Welcome to the CAC. I'm no expert on much of anything that comes up on this forum, but I've learned a lot by following the various threads. These guys are the best!
A word of caution before you go smacking the daylights out of the spinners to tighten them. You need to check whether your wheels are the original Kelsey Hayes wheels (probably not - big $$$) or repops (Western Wheel). The KH wheels simply thread on to the hub, while the repops are positioned with an aluminum pin which mates with semi circular holes on the spinner and the hub that must be aligned. With the KH wheels, you simply tighten the spinners to your satisfaction, then tighten them some more... and then some more. You basically do the same with the repops, until the mating holes align. But NEVER back off to align the holes. Always tighten until the next holes are lined up. As noted above, it’s a good idea to key the position of the spinner and hub with a marker, and check before every ride, especially on newly tightened wheels. Once you have several hundred miles on the wheels, you probably don’t have to be quite that careful, but that’s a judgment call.
There are a lot of differing opinions on what kind of hammer to use to secure the spinners, ranging from rubber mallets, dead blow hammers and regular sledge hammers (while protecting the spinners). I personally would opt for the heaviest lead hammer you can swing without running the risk of damaging the wheelwell (or your rotator cuff). The lead is softer than the spinners and won’t mar the finish. I recently ordered a 6# hammer from American Hammer for about $30. It’s a whole lot cheaper than ruining an expensive (and lighter) stock hammer. American also offers a replacement policy that allows you to return the handle of a mangled hammer and have it recast for a nominal fee.
Good luck, and enjoy the ride!
Cheers!

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

a month ago i bought this 1964 coupe with knock off's.some friends of mine have said that they can loosen up,that i should invest in a rubber mallet to keep them tight.do they need a good whack once a week?every 100 miles?
i have alot of experience with cars none with knockoffs.just thought i would
ask the experts here and see what they thought!
thanks in advance

Here'a a PDF that should answer all your questions....

http://www.geocities.com/daulquad/kowheel.pdf

 

[Kid_Again]

Can't argure with VNV's .pdf because it was written by lawyers, for lawyers...good advice


Here's my .02 -> i coated the threads on both sides of the spinner with antisieze grease, they were easier to remove and never loosened if installed properly...rather than using pins (either aluminum or SS), i used roll pins which are one HELL of a lot easier to get out of the hole


...my own personal opinion is that lead hammers are only OK, i used a BIG ASS mallet whacking on an old piece of tire....MUCH easier.....if you have yet to remove the KOs for the first time, it WILL take a while because the previous owner probably beat the crap out of the spinner to get it on and then it galled into place...patience, patience

Welcome and good luck with the car!

 

[hoosierdaddy]

No knowledge of know off's here either, but welcome to CORVETTE ACTION CENTER. I am sure someone out there has the answers that you are looking for. 1964, second year for the hidden head lights that have become the Corvette trade mark for a lot of years; now they have went away and I am sad :cry But maybe it will grow on me as time goes on. . . :confused

Bill

 

[thunder]

Here'a a PDF that should answer all your questions....

http://www.geocities.com/daulquad/kowheel.pdf

i downloaded the pdf file and read it.if you whack the spinners 7 times everytime i go to drive the car,the "knockoff pin"inside the spinner looks
to me that it would damage the pin or the hsg.if the assembly is tightened
around it?

 

[soppeng]

You don't want to be hitting the spinners with the pins in place. If you shear off one of the pins, you'll really have a problem getting the KO's off. If you use the pins, you'll need to remove the cap to check that they are still in place. Monitoring some alignment marks that you put on the spinner and cone will give some confidence that everything is OK. I don't use the pins, so I go around the car and check every couple of times that I drive it. Putting the spinners on with the 7 hard blows with the lead hammer has kept me from having problems, but you never know. Just keep a routine check, whichever method you use.

 

[thunder]

You don't want to be hitting the spinners with the pins in place. If you shear off one of the pins, you'll really have a problem getting the KO's off. If you use the pins, you'll need to remove the cap to check that they are still in place. Monitoring some alignment marks that you put on the spinner and cone will give some confidence that everything is OK. I don't use the pins, so I go around the car and check every couple of times that I drive it. Putting the spinners on with the 7 hard blows with the lead hammer has kept me from having problems, but you never know. Just keep a routine check, whichever method you use.

so each time you have to pull the cap off and pull the pin out then hit the spinner 7 times and reinstall pin.these are original chevy corvette koffs
not aftermarket.how often do you go thru this routine?

 

[PTighe]

This tool is the easiest way to tighten or take off the knock off spinners without damage. It is urethane lined to prevent damage to the chrome on the spinners. It comes with a lead hammer. It's pricey too, Corvette Central has them for $267.00. PT

 

[thunder]

This tool is the easiest way to tighten or take off the knock off spinners without damage. It is urethane lined to prevent damage to the chrome on the spinners. It comes with a lead hammer. It's pricey too, Corvette Central has them for $267.00. PT

that looks like the way to go!probadly overkill but what would it cost me to replace genuine gm knockoffs?

 

[alps66]

If these are, in fact, original Kelsey Hayes knockoffs, they shouldn't have the pins. To the best of my knowledge (which at times is limited, as I suffer from CRS...), only the repops had the pins. :confused

 

[thunder]

If these are, in fact, original Kelsey Hayes knockoffs, they shouldn't have the pins. To the best of my knowledge (which at times is limited, as I suffer from CRS...), only the repops had the pins. :confused

thanks for the info!i am the third owner of this car.the guy i bought it from guy who is a ncrs member and was upfront on everything on the car.i will checkto see if there are pins.

 

[IH2LOSE]

I have a 66 with reproduction K,O,s with pins. I have never used the saftey pins.

The most important thing to know is they are directional and have to have the correct one on the correct side of the car.

I have heard some horror stories from KO,S coming off.

I can tell you personally I have never had a problem with mine. Had them on and off the car probably a hundred times.

What I do is spin them on by hand with the car up in the air,I then whack them with a lead hammer 2 or 3 times to kind of set them thenI set the car back on the ground and give them a couple more hard whacks, I often give mine a hit just to double check and i have never found them loose.

A couple years back ran into a new C2 owner and he was asking me how to deal with the knock offs. I took out my hammer and showed him how to WHACK it. the man was speachless, I then said if he is not hitting his as hard they could be loose. I went to his car and sure enough each time I wacked it the spinner moved. his were loose from the previous owner. and this guy was love tapping them because he was afraid of swinging the hammer.

Good luck and welcome to our forumn.

I learned how to deal with mine from another vette owner who showed me the differance beween hitting them on and whacking them on.

If you get a chance let us know about your car and ictures are always welcome

 

[thunder]

I have a 66 with reproduction K,O,s with pins. I have never used the saftey pins.

The most important thing to know is they are directional and have to have the correct one on the correct side of the car.

I have heard some horror stories from KO,S coming off.

I can tell you personally I have never had a problem with mine. Had them on and off the car probably a hundred times.

What I do is spin them on by hand with the car up in the air,I then whack them with a lead hammer 2 or 3 times to kind of set them thenI set the car back on the ground and give them a couple more hard whacks, I often give mine a hit just to double check and i have never found them loose.

A couple years back ran into a new C2 owner and he was asking me how to deal with the knock offs. I took out my hammer and showed him how to WHACK it. the man was speachless, I then said if he is not hitting his as hard they could be loose. I went to his car and sure enough each time I wacked it the spinner moved. his were loose from the previous owner. and this guy was love tapping them because he was afraid of swinging the hammer.

Good luck and welcome to our forumn.

I learned how to deal with mine from another vette owner who showed me the differance beween hitting them on and whacking them on.

If you get a chance let us know about your car and ictures are always welcome

yeah i do not need them coming off!that is why am am asking all i can on the subject so i know the right way to treat them.