At 12:24 PM 1/10/06, Bill Metcalf wrote:
>"Freeing rusted wire wheels front and rear, can you give me any advice?"

Remove knockoff. Apply lots of penetrating oil, and let it soak.

Replace knockoff, but leave it one full turn loose. Drive the car around in figure 8's, tight left and right turns. Push it fast enough to make the tires squeal a little. If you're lucky the rusted splines should break loose.

If that doesn't work you need to get a little more aggressive. Try a little higher speed in wider turns, and look for some rough pavement.

That usually works, but not always. If that doesn't work you may have to resort to the blue wrench. Apply lots of heat and pull hard with a three legged sprocket puller.

If it doesn't come off with heat and a strong puller tool, it's time to cut it off. Cut all of the spokes as close as practical to the hub to get the rim and spokes out of the way. Use a thin abrasive cut-off wheel in a high speed hand grinder to slice through the wheel hub in a mostly straight line from inner to outer edges. Try to cut through the shell without cutting much into the male splines, if you intend to save the axle hub. After cutting a slot through the hub, split it with a cold chisel and pry it away from the splines. I have seen a few so bad that they had to be cut into 3 or 4 pieces for removal.

Find additional comments on removing stuck wire wheels from Tom Strauss on the Moss Motors MGA forum here:
www.mossmotors.com/forum/forums/thread/8036.aspx>
(Forum deleted from Moss web site).