FOUR WHEELS ON MY . . .
Page 74
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The Hawk's reference to "loose and errant truck wheels" (CM September 20) smacks of MIRA trackside talk with no knowledge of the incident other than "A Volvo F1,6 shed its rear wheels on the Ml."
News of such a debacle at the BTAC fuel trials would obviously prompt varied and indignant views but did anyone, I repeat anyone, investigate the matter and find a reason?
Fact is that engineering and for that matter other sciences are constantly bedevilled by the human element. In this case, despite instructions to the contrary, the mating surfaces of the wheels and hubs were heavily coated with paint which we all know destroys the clamp effect of spigot mounted wheels with resultant wheel movement and loosening of nuts to the point when the wheel will detach itself from the hub.
Spigot mountings are by no means new although Whitbreads' own painting instructions still contain the following paragraph. "Spigot hubs, brake drum faces and wheel faces must not be painted."
Surely it is less than fair to infer that spigot-mounted wheels 'fall off' for no apparent reason for in this particular case there can be no doubt whatever as to the cause.
Perhaps we should review the old analogy "if your manual watch stops because you forgot to wind it, who do you blame?" Obviously the watchmaker.
E Emms Harpenden, Herts