Inliners International Forums General Discussion Truck Talk Death Wheels

Here is a link to a thread I started on the HAMB. I put it there because I can post pictures from my desktop. It is about the wheel that fell off of my '53 pickup and what caused it. Death Wheels

I saw your post about this over on the HAMB this morning. Glad you're ok. My eye doctor had a similar thing happen to him on a later model 90's Chevy truck that he put some drop spindles on the front. After about 3 or 4 years he had just slowed down from a freeway blast of over 100 MPH for about 10 minutes and decided to take an exit for a bathroom break. He wheeled into a convenience store and did his business. He came back out to leave and backed up about 5 feet and the snout on the drivers side spindle broke. You just don't know how close many of us have come to situations like that and were unaware.

I've had a few close ones this is just the most recent one and ai thought it might help someone else.

You are a couple lucky Guy's. Glad you found the problem. Too bad it took you so Long.

YEAH!!! We always ground or cut those rivets off the first time we did a brake job on those old trucks. After that, you could check the front brakes when you rotated tires without having to pull and pack bearings.

Later GM, (and some other manufacturers) replaced the rivets with tinnerman nuts, the little sheet metal rings with tabs sticking up.

Now you tell me!

Are those the wheels with 4 hubcap nubs used with disc brakes?

I answered this earlier this afternoon but evidently it didn't stick around.
Yes I think these wheels came at the same time as front disc brakes in 1971. I bought mu '70 Blazer new but the dealership had added 16.5 wheels. It has drum brakes but it has been a long time since I had a front wheel off to see if it has the 3 rivets. It has the same drums as my '53 pickup.

Old thread and I missed it on the Hamb but I've had to knock rivets of on both the 6 lug wheels and on the 54 Car drums to fit later wheels on.
Those Tinnerman nuts aren't any better when you put aluminum wheels on a rig. Had a couple of customers whine because I left those things off when I finished a brake job years ago. Told the that they were only there to keep the drums from falling off when the axles were shipped new.

I always just break the tinnerman nuts off with a pair of pliers!1 You told those folks the truth!! And YEAH!! Those little things will eat the aluminum wheels UP if you don't have them correctly tightened!!

I finally got the '53 back on the road Friday in time for a local show yesterday. A different set of wheels all around, new studs and nuts on the front. Also new front springs, hardware and new brake shoes. I put new tires on the rear and still need to put on new shoes on the rear and change the lowering blocks. The new springs although a lowering set are not as low as the old ones but way better springs. Now the rear is too low and needs to be raised a little. While I was doing this the throttle cabe broke and I had to repair that too. For some reason it is running a lot better maybe the cable was out of adjustment.