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I reported a few days ago about wheel-hub corrosion found when removing winter wheels. See the link. The existing designs create a water trap and this is a design defect. This never occured with my 95SET wheels that I noticed. I don't know if the 95SET plastic wheel caps were weather tight or if the whee bore design was different.
Today I did something about it.
In each wheel, I drilled 5 5/32" holes from the pockets between the bolt holes, on an angle (around 45 degrees) to intercept the largest diameter section of the hub bore hole. So water that gets in there will be drained by these.
In each hole I inserted 1" long lengths of aluminum tube. This goes in till it touches the larger inside diameter inside the hub bore and sticks out around 1/2" into the pockets. The tubes are bonded in with Gorilla Glue. The tubing was scored with a small tubing cutter 1" from the end. Then that end degreased. A -small- amount of glue on a round tooth pick to prime the drilled hole, the some on the outside of the tube. The tube is fitted into the drilled hole. This was a nice friction fit. When at the right depth, the tube is bent a bit from side to side and it readily breaks away at the scoring. The holes are drilled 'dry' with no cutting oil, so they do not need any degreasing. I used a cobalt coated drill bit from Sears, and a cordless drill.
After gluing in the tubes, flip the wheel up and inspect from outboard side and remove any glue that might have gotten into the inside of the tubes. That glue will take a long time to set up. An epoxy might work well too and set up faster.
The 1/2" length of 5/32" tube that extends into the pockets forms a water trap. If water could get into the pocket from the pub contact area and got trapped in the pocket, a large amount would have to accumulate before water could get into the tubes and back to the hub bore. So these tubes are effective water traps. If that feature was not sought, there would be no need for the tubes.
I will be creating a -very- small groove in the pocket wall hub contact faces (20) to facilitate water getting out. That drainage and that of the tubes will be centrificaly motivated.
So I will report a year from now on how things are after a winter on these modified wheels.
Cost, two 12" tubes at 49 cents each, one drill bit for ?$2.89?, and some glue. Had the mini tubing cutter before.
Brass tube is available in small sizes too, but I wanted aluminum to avoid having a dissimilar metal which can create more corrosion issues.
The work was done on wheels that were not mounted on a vehicle. Doing this to wheels that are on and will be replaced on a vehicle would be better with a 15 to 30 minute epoxy glue. I would not use silicone seal.
posted by 65.68.10...
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