What a stud - bigger is better

Now then, this posting can be read in a serious voice or you can put a Frankie Howerd voice on and insert as much innuendo as you can handle - oooo missus!

It's always been a concern of mine that with the Stag brakes (and some spacers to clear the brake drums) my rear wheel studs were not showing through the nuts. I was not hugely concerned because they are long tube nuts and as such there was a lot of thread to them but I always feel more comfortable seeing the stud in the nut.

It's always been said that Ford studs would fit and after some consultation with the oracles on the Club Triumph Forum (thanks Andy Thompson et al) it turns out it's Ford RS2000 competition studs that are needed. A trawl around eBay and other sires revealed a huge difference in price for what is a fairly cheap component. In the end I got them from these guysMtec Racing Services for a very modest £1.40 each. What you need are Ford Wheel Stud 7/16" UNF 55mm long (there are other lengths available) this means you keep the imperial thread and so can use the same wheel nuts - my nuts are open tube nuts so I don't have to worry about the stud hitting the dome of a domed nut.

I fitted the rears without too much trouble, they are a straight swap - there's a bit of fiddling around to get them in but I managed in the end with thoughts of those Christmas cracker bent metal puzzles that seem impossible until they come apart in your hands with no effort whatsoever!

The fronts were not so easy. OK so there was no dismantling to do and they studs are just long enough to fiddle in but there is a problem that I'd never thought of - the front and rear studs were not the same! The fronts are a bit shorter but more importantly and fatal to my application, is that the shoulder is lower. That means that although the long studs will go in and although I could get the wheels on nuts on, I could not tighten up the nuts. They were bottoming out on the protruding shoulder before the wheel was tight. If I put spacers on the front or turned down the shoulder on a lathe then I might get them on OK.


The photo above shows, from left to right, Front, Rear, Ford.

The answer? Well one answer anyway,stick the Stag rears in thee front and that's what I did. It's not ideal as they aren't as long as I'd like but they are better than the originals.

I forgot to take a picture of the rears but below is a front wheel as was. No sign of a stud in the nut. The nuts, being tube nuts, go right inside the wheel. This means it 's a real pain to refit the wheels as you have to get the stud central whilst supporting the weight of the wheel then fit the nut which is a tight fit in the wheel!
Now here's the view with one ling stud, as you can see it was long but look at the shoulder.
Below is a picture of the wheel over the new studs - originally there would have been no stud showing at all. This is a rear and has wide track Stag suspension and brakes plus spacers to clear the Stag drums. I had to grind off the cast in lettering on the drums to get the KN Gemini wheels to sit right.

and finally below is the finished article, new studs and original tube nuts (with washer) that I have never seen anywhere else and am a bit frightened of losing/wrecking because finding new ones could be a pain!



I also managed to reseal the exhaust silencer and the bendy bit that goes over the driveshaft, this was just a jointing issue and wasn't really a problem just a minor annoyance.

I've got a few other bits and bobs to do in preparation for the International Autoecosse next weekend and Tim Bancroft is coming over for mechanical and moral support. Nothing major just some electrics, cosmetics and audio (no, I'm not fitting a stereo).


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