I apologize before hand for asking this question and I know this has been covered 101 times. I'm picking up a model A tomorrow. I looked at it today and put a deposit on it. It has 16" ford wires on what I can tell are ford hydraulic brakes. As I've been researching, I've read spacers are needed to make this combination work. Are there any exceptions to the rule? The owner ***ures me there are no spacers installed or needed. I'm thinking about this while anxiously waiting to pick the car up tomorrow. Otherwise, if the car were here, I'd take the wheel off and do some measuring.
You need a 1/4" spacer to support the inside of the wheel where it meets the drum. They can be run without them but over time the wheel centers are prone to cracking around the lug holes.
That's what I thought. I'm just getting impatient and wanted to know. Anyone have a suggestion on where to pick them up or maybe an alliance vendor who makes them?
They just don't fit right on the later juice drums..without this spacer...all the load is on the lugs..
I'm thinking there was a good little article in Car Kulture Delux or Ol' Skool Rods about this very subject. They cut open a wire wheel rim to demonstrate how they do not mate up perfectly with the later drums so an adapter of some sort is called for. The new style drums do not have the flat spots in the correct position on their face to support the wire wheels. Something like that anyway. Can't seem to find it but I'll keep looking. And by the way, post up a few pics of your new ride!
I ended up getting them from Tardel. Thanks for the replies. I posted a pic up in the banger thread but, here it is again.
The '28 to '35 drums had a raised area and is not flat like the later hydraulic drums. At first this was a ring and later cast raised areas. The '28-'35 wire wheels were designed for this drum contour and you will have problems if you run the later flat drums. Charlie Stephens
The Jalopy Journal
