Hub Spline wheel dissassembly

Good day J.P. Sarti,

I was curious how you removed your centre spline from your rims? From what my tire place told me, one must remove the chrome centre cover to get to the mounting nuts? I ask this, because the tire place cannot balance the tires with the spline attached.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Sam

 

Good day J.P. Sarti,

Thanks for the info! I will try to locate another tire place. The current tire place did say that they tried various cones, but have been unable to securely mount the assembly. However, I will place a few more calls and see if I can find another place.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Sam

 

I've had no trouble removing these- they aren't a very tight press at all. Just work gently around the edge pulling them up and you can work them off- I removed some using only fingernails! Sometimes you'll need to tap the flange carefully around its circumference before reassembly to get a tight fit. Not a good idea to mask around them, plus corrosion underneath is a common problem so you want to check the hubs.

 

It's easy to remove the trim rings. I use a "spoon" which is a common tool for working on drum brakes. You just slide it in behind the trim ring, and sorta position the spoon tip near the outer diameter area of the trim ring, and gently pry upwards. You may have to pry upwards in several places, but the trim ring will easily pop out. The key is to pry upwards as close to the trim rings outer edge as possible. To re-insert the rings back into the wheel, just position it over the wheel opening, and push evenly....not side to side....and it will pop back into place. The key here is to spread the load evenly over the largest area possible as you push on the trim ring. The spline-hub is bolted to the wheel with 5 bolts with nylock nuts, and a retainer ring. Very easy to take apart and re-assemble. Once the bolts are removed you may have to gently tap the spline-hub out of the wheel, use a piece of wood or similar, don't hit the spline-hub directly.

Hint: Sometimes the trim rings can make noises after they have been removed and re-installed. Some people put a few dabs of silicone sealer or other gasket stuff on several of the trim ring retaining "fingers" so it's a bit more snug of a fit. Just let the silicone set up before installing the trim ring. It doesn't take much, maybe 3 small dabs equally spaced around the perimeter of the ring. Or you could put the dabs of silicon directly on the wheel in the pocket where the trim ring snaps into place.