Technical You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel...

Bob,

What kind of flying boat? I flew the Goose, Turbine-Goose, HU-16, SK-43, & PBY5A/6A.

 

Nothing to do with this knock off issue , but a similar event . I was riding a hard tail Harley years ago at speed . If you have ever ridden a hard tail at speed , you will know everything is nothing more than a guess as to where and what is happening . As I approached the 100 mph speed I notice a terrible vibration . I stay in the go faster mode and it leaves . Great ! Only problem is as slow down I go through the vibration thing again just 100x worse . When I finally get stopped and looking the nut backed off the front axle and it was working it’s way out of the wheel and fork . There is a seating shoulder on the axle and it had gotten out enough to be riding on the smaller diameter of the axle shoulder . It took me hours to get enough nerve to root through the saddle bag parts bin to locate a nut and re attach and tighten the axle , then light the wick to travel home . If you think a kicker is a hard start , try it with rubber knees from fear . Just a simple reminder to do a once over check every now and then to be safe . It happens to all of us and will continue to happen , just try to be as safe as possible , I’m afraid we are a dieing breed when we are gone the next generations will sell our stuff for unwanted old junk ! An old wise man (DAD ) once ask me “ Boy if you ain’t got enough time to do it right and safe now , how in Gods name are you going to make time to fix it up later ? “

 

It is a Lake LA-4. The later version was called the Buccaneer.
Bob

 

Brian,
Sorry about your mishap, but glad to hear you are OK and damage was minimal.
Senior year of high school I suffered a similar incident. I had finally mustered the courage to ask out my "dream date", shined up my '55' Chevy, and proceeded with caution to her parents' house. "Be back by midnight, and NO drag racing", her father made that quite clear. So, you're 17 - hot car, hotter girl, and the guys are waiting. You guessed it! Last run of the night I cross the finish line a full car length ahead of my arch enemy (best friend) and the front left wheel departs into the darkness. The harnesses resisted the rapid deceleration and divine intervention prevented the car from following the wheel into the vineyard. The local sheriff arrived - as was his routine, "You boys weren't racing again were you" he said as he poured out the confiscated beer - I never knew if that was a statement or a question.
We retrieved the wheel, but the studs had sheared and there was damage to the front end - I was dead in the water (dirt). Needless to say I missed the curfew. Arriving at her parents' house in my mom's car to find her father waiting on the porch; "The weirdest thing happened", I blurted out, "One of the wheels fell off my car." "Well that's a new one", he replied, "All the other guys told me they ran out of gas."

 

Nice!

 

I forgot to mention that I did have another wheel departure. It was back in 1971 while carrying a camper on my avitar. We were returning to Texas from a holiday where we wandered all the way to Nevada and back. We were on a two lane highway, early in the evening about 2 hours from home, when the back right side of the truck dropped and the wheel rolled past us on the passenger side.
I had no problem controlling the truck, and came to a safe stop at the side of the road. After the long hike to retrieve the wheel, I went back to inspect the carnage. What had happened, was that all six of the bolts had broken, and there was no wear on the wheel, so I could only assume that it was a catastrophic failure which followed the failure of the first bolt.
I always carry my tool box, but never thought I would be caught in the middle of nowhere with no parts or even the hope of getting a tow truck.
I was able to knock out a bolt from each of the remaining wheels, and after hammering out the broken remains, replaced them with the three salvaged bolts. I spent what remained of the night motoring on toward home at a snail's pace, and finally made it home in the morning in a state of total exhaustion.
That was the last straw with that rear end, and I replaced it with a 3/4 ton 4.57 ratio 8 stud rear end. The high ratio was not a problem for the truck because the 396, 4 spd with overdrive came alive with the new combination.
Bob

 

I was driving at dusk on a four lane, divided highway in Alberta some years ago. About a mile away on the oncoming lanes I could see a strange light streak, and over time it got brighter and I could see it was a spectacular spark shower coming from under a towed trailer.
Eventually I saw the vehicle and trailer pass at speed, and could see that the trailer was missing its left hand wheel, resulting in the impressive spark stream as the metal suspension was dragged along.

A short time later, after this rig was gone, I saw a tire and rim land just ahead of my car, coming at me really fast. There was no time for any evasion. The tire must have been airborne just previously, because it bounced up in front of my car, over the hood and disappeared into the countryside. A scary, close call.

 

...I think this is one of those moments...
The E & J's are ok that was close....

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I only have 3 little things to say.

If there are two of you working on a car make sure you don't assume the other guy has tightened the wheel nuts. It is better for them to be checked twice than not at all. That happened to a friend of mine on a nice early Camaro. luckily they heard the wheel rattling before it came off.

On my roadster my trim ring started squeaking. A squeaking trim ring will normally indicate the wheel is flexing. I investigated and two nuts were loose and the others were not very tight. So if your trim rings start making a noise make sure you check the nuts sooner rather than later.

Finally Thor hammers are made literally just around the corner from my house. The reg plate on the gaffers car is 4 AMA.

Mart.