<VV> Re: Good way to stop spinnered hubcaps from rattling.

[Steven J. Serenska]

Matt:

>Have spinnered hubcaps for a 1965 and the spokes
>> rattle like mad. I have tightened etc.  Any ideas on
>> how to solve.  Maybe some clear putty like compound ?
>
Bruce Webster gave some good advice in his post.  I'll try to add a 
little more.

I have disassembled and reassembled a few sets of these covers and was 
always impressed by how tightly everything held together.  I would 
suggest that you take 3 of them off and run with just one.  If you cycle 
through all of them this way, it will let you figure out if you've got 
one that's making all the racket.

Once you've found the problem hubcap(s), as Bruce said, take the whole 
thing apart.  This is also an opportunity to turn any spokes with curb 
scratches to the inside in order to improve the overall appearance.  You 
might even want to mask off the center and rim and spray the rest with 
flat black paint if anything has started to peel.  If you reassemble the 
rim and the spokes and tighten chrome inner part and then the spinner 
cap all the way down, there should be no rattles. 

When reassembling, don't forget that there's a little metal tab on the 
inside of cap under the spinner.  Use this to orient the first long 
spoke you place in there.  If you do this, all the others will line up 
correctly.  It's a good idea to memorize how the spokes are positioned 
relative to this tab before your take any of them apart.

Finally, I suppose if you did *still* have a rattle, you might stuff a 
rag or a piece of styrofoam or something else under the spinner cap on 
top of the spokes .  This would hold them in that much more tightly 
against the rest of the cap.  I'd be surprised if you needed to do this 
though.

HTH.

Steven J. Serenska