WIRE IWHEEL CARE & REPAIR
by GoMoG
I was once a BIG fan of private forums. However, publicly searchable ones can spread a lot of damage through errant information, especially if their discussion habits are separate posting based rather than collegiate debate style. Each message separately appears in a web search and that causes a lot of problems unnecessarily. :(  I was recently assured, by the forum owner, a fine soul and mogger, that no one believes any advice gleaned from an internet forum, but my Help Inbox suggests the opposite to be true. From time to time, I point out what I believe are deep mistakes to stop damage or distress to my fellow enthusiasts before it happens. I add terms that will have this appear on a public search of the relevant terms.
There was recently a discussion on a forum called Talk Morgan, a good social place for British moggers on the subject of wire wheels. It is not noted by the cogniescente mechanical expertise or technical monitoring, but it does encourage friendships. During a recent discussion, which I took part in, it was stated there by two members, that wire wheels should not be tuned/trued (despite the obvious construction of the spokes made to do so) as the rim bands cannot be replaced. In the experience the many hands-on amateurs with wire wheels (bicycle and motorcycles) and professionals, that is not true (PUN!). Their views would mean that wire wheels will not be suitable for driving after (in my experience) after about 20k miles. This is less than the lifetime of the tyres! Untuned wire wheels will prejudice your car's comportment as the rims will become ever more faulty.

Wire wheels may not be as strong as non-wire wheels but they ARE beautiful, very period and adjustable where many believe solid wheels are less so. On this page, I will try to cover the howtos. Any correction or additions are welcome.
WATCHPOINT: If a professional is hired for a full restoration, distinct from merely tuning the spokes, the cost will be prohibitive. If a full restoration is wanted it is usually better to buy a new wheels, assuming an identical one is still available. If not you are looking at a new set of five (including the spare). However, these tasks can be done for a negligible cost by the owner. 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WIRE WHEEL NIPPLES AND WIRE WHEEL SPOKES

This is where most of us get confused and run from tuning our wheels. When we properly tune wire wheels, we are not tightening spokes. We are tighting nipples! The spoke is untouched. Many amateurs, not understanding the dynamics, breach the rim band and silicone to expose the spoke fitting nestled in the wheel rim indents. The requires a replacements/ repair of the rim band and silicone.

Spoke nipples are set onto a spoke at the rim of a wheel and then are threaded on the inside of the wheel rim to tighten, just like any typical nut and bolt combination. Turning the nipple using the appropriate tool increases or decreases the spoke tension.

TESTING & DIAGNOSIS

This is easily done, even at home.

1. To test the rim itself for anomalies

 a. Jack the car until the subject wheel is just off the ground and can spin. For the rear wheels have the car in neutral and the handbrake off.  Put the handbrake back on when you lower the car.
b. place a box with a pointer on it (a pencil will do) so that the point is 1 cm from the rim edge.
c. Position yourself where you can see the space between the rim and the pointer.
d. Spin the wheel. Does the distance between the rim and pointer change? It shouldn't.

When you find the bad spot, you can stop the wheel and wiggle the spokes in this area to feel for ones that are significantly looser than their neighbors. You’ll probably discover that if the wheel is warped to the right, a spoke or two on the left side will feel looser. The opposite will be true for wobbles to the left.

2. Ping test With the subject wheel off the ground, using a small hammer, a 6" length of 1/4" steel rod or better still a wire wheel tuning fork made for this purpose. Lightly tap each spoke in turn. Most spokes will respond with a ping, good!). If you have dull sound instead...you have found a loose spoke that will prejudice the integrity of the wheel. Such spokes are most often found in the outer section of the wheel.

TUNING THE SPOKES (aka truing the wheel)

This can be done on the car. First deflate the tyres almost fully.

Though one can often have the right spanner that will suit, there are spoke wrenchesfor this job, available from a motorcycle or classic car wire wheel seller. Many types. Just confirm that the one you buy fits your nipples. You are not tightening the spokes, you actually tightening the nipples, which is why there is no need to to make the mistake suggested on Talk Morgan, of breaching the silicone seal and rim band to access the interior spoke fitting. That is only done when replacing a broken spoke. Even then, the rim bank can merely be psuhed aside and returned, after the new spoke is fit, with a little extra silicone.

Truing the wheel is just a matter of turning the errant nipples just the right amount to tighten the loose spokes until they’re as tight as the other spokes on that side of the wheel. A simple way to keep track of the spokes that you’re tensioning is putting a piece of tape on them. That way, you won’t lose track of them when you spin the wheel to check how the wheel is improving.

Remember to turn the spokes in small increments and spin the wheel to check your progress. After a few adjustments, you should find that the wheel is nice and true again. The most common mistakes are turning nipples the wrong direction or turning the wrong nipple. So, remember to double-check that the spoke you're adjusting is on the correct side of the wheel and that you always bring its nipple to the top of the wheel and turn clockwise which changes if you flip the wheel over.

I prefer do my wheels on the car though if you are doing all of them, a good movie and a long drink in front of the  television kills the boredom. After the job, redo the pointer test..you will be surprised.

WATCHPOINT: The silicone seal over the internal spoke fittings (assuming you have them) they cover will often (at least for me) stay in place over the spokes you adjust, but they can also breach the seal. In such cases, one can reapply the silicone over those guilty spokes or, better still, remove all the silicone and the old rim band and replace them.   

SPOKE REPLACEMENT  Damaged or broken spokes can be replaced of course. They are sold separately in all sizes (consult the wheel's manufacturer). Their cost is negligible. However, that will also require a replacement of the rim band and silicone (below) as that seal must be broken to access the fittings that holds the spokes.

RIM BAND REPLACEMENT

Tubed Wire Wheels:

This is not a difficult job. The band is merely there to protect the inner tube. Remove the old one and use a new band made for your wheel rim band, or rim band material or a couple of layers of tuck tape. Silicone is optional.

Tubeless Wire Wheels:

Most MMC wire wheels use in the last few decades use tubeless wire wheels. Tubeless wire wheels use rim bands, nipple plugs or silicone, or all three or a combination of two to keep the tubeless tyres airtight. However, if you have by very bad luck or mistaken comprehension breached these things protections  replacing the band and silocone is also not difficult, merely more tedious as a lot of silicone is needed and there is a waiting time for it to dry. (shrug)

After checking the bead band to see whether it too requires replacement;

1. Remove all the silicone and the remains of the rim bands.

2. Generously apply silicone to the rim as shown in the video linked to above. 

3. I prefer using a rim band made for the wheels size. Install it over the fresh silicone.

4. Smear the excess silicone over the exterior side of the band..adding more if needed to have a complete coating, similar to original you removed.

WATCHPOINT: The savings in properly caring for you wire wheels yourself have become enormous over the years, especially if you send the wheels off to an automobile wire wheel expert as they are often far from you, entailing massive shipping costs, there and back, for your precious rims. The total cost will often be near the costs of a new rim! Motorcycle or bicycle experts are an alternative, more often near at hand and can usually do the job just as well. The latter people will cost much less, but when doing it yourself the cost is negligible. 

WATCHPOINT: Temporary fix in extremis If caught with a flat wire wheel tyre at a time inconvenient to repair it, it is good to know that most tubeless wire wheels can be permanently or at least temporarily be fixed by using duct tape and installing an appropriately sized inner tube, available everywhere. In fact, I have used that fix at one time for more than 30,000 kilometers after forgetting, by the end of that vacation, that I had installed it! I lost no more air. 

TUNING YOUR WIRE WHEELS AND REPLACING SPOKES
by Dennis O'Neil MSCC 7564
When I noticed a clicking noise when pulling away or reversing the Morgan I suspected the normal things to check.

1. He tested each wheel for trueness with a pointer. This can be done one the car.

 2.  Second the wheel nuts were tight. All OK.

3. Third the spring shackles were tight on the springs. All OK.

4. Fourth the propshaft bolts and joints were tight. All OK.

5 Fifth, checked the play in the rear axle which was not too bad for the mileage.

Then my son asked me: "WHEN DID YOU CHECK THE WIRE WHEEL SPOKES". When we did so, we found many slack spokes and a slight buckle in two of the wheels. am very lucky my son is a keen cyclist and builds and rebuilds his wheels when required.

A. He started by tapping each spoke in turn with the car securely jacked up on axle stands. Many were confirmed slack by the sound. The sound should be the same on all spokes. Slack ones will have a dull sound when tapped. Not having a spoke spanner the correct size I obtained one from Lazer tools Part number MS086 this came with a selection of spoke nipple sizes but none the correct size. I chose the nearest size and filed the one which was nearly the correct size so to have a tight sliding fit. Webmaster note. This is a brillant and expensive spoke set. One can spend much less but the spake size must be precisely measured.

B. Then using a simple tool and a cocktail stick he tensioned the slack spokes and trued the buckled wheel ones. Our Morgan had tubeless tyres so the wheel internal spoke nipples had been sealed with rubber mastic in the wheel well. With luck all the spokes were able to be tensioned without need to repair the mastic. On tubed wheels the tyres would have to be removed as the spokes may puncture the tube when adjusted. Protruding ones need to be filed down.

This is not a job for the very faint hearted but with care it can be done at home if you can find a wheel builder cyclist. If not there are people who can do this on the internet but they will require your wheels minus the tyres.

So now the clicking noise has gone. We also found, while tuning the wheels, that both rear wheels had slightly buckled. This was corrected merely during the porcess of tuning the wheels. That is only possible, with non-wire wheels, by using a special rim press.

Webmaster: In my experience wire wheels need re-tuning after 20,000 miles and continue to get much worse after that.
1. The cure can be costless, as it was for Dennis and myself. It is a regular maintenance thing.
2. One can use local professionals in the spoked wheel milieu,whether that be cars, motorcycles or bicycles.
3. You can keep buying expensive new wire wheels very frequently. (sad shrug)
4. You can accept/tolerate the wheels as they deteriorate and the degraded ride that comes with that.