MTFCA Forum

Slowly, with y'alls help I have been sorting out the little bugs and issues with my old T and by and large it has become a pretty well reliable car. I was out the other day and when turning in a parking lot I noticed a popping noise coming from a rear wheel. When I got home I jacked it up and inspected the offending wheel to find that on this one wheel the tennons have apparently shrunk in the felloe so the felloe can move visibly side to side on the spokes. It isn't much at all, probably not much more than the thickness of a dime, but it is perseptable and audible. I wonder if you could somehow fashion a sleeve to drive down onto the end of the tennon to tighten it up or even drive a hammer handle wedge to swell the end of the tennon. I don't want to just rig something that is not safe and I can certainly replace the spokes if that is the best option but I thought that I would ask the experts.

Time to send your wheels out for new spokes.

Old spokes wheels are like old radiators. Sooner and not later they need to be replaced.

If the tenons through the fellos are healthy, this is how the repair is made: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33590

Not all loose wheels can be repaired safely this way, and you need to establish for yourself what the soundness of the wood is

Time to re-spoke. If you have demountables you should remove the rim and look at the felloes. Your tenons need to fill the hole and be tight. Often the end of the tenon is eroded by years of moisture and stress. You don't want the wheel to come apart at the least opportune time.....
I had some spokes loose like you described. I gave one a couple of solid whacks with a rubber mallet and the tenon sheared right off. It didn't take much as there was only a nub remaining. This is what the tenons should look like. I brush spar varnish on mine to seal the wood against moisture.

How many bad tenons you talking about ? My wife's old '25 Coupe had a couple punky ones on a couple wheels - I drilled out the soft wood down about an inch & a half & drove ribbed joinery pegs down in tight with wood glue - she drove it that way for near 20 years. I wouldn't recommend doing that on ever tenon but a couple, your call.

The original post mentioned loose tenons. Fitting shims with a spoke jack will not cure this. It may make the wheel "tight" again, but there will still be the undersized tenon in the felloe.
I had to rebuild a wheel on Henrietta. I needed a replacement with similar patina so it did not look out of place on the car. The only one suitable in my stash was a front wheel, so I had a hub to change.
We owners of Canadian cars are blessed with spokes having tapers front to rear on the hub end of the spokes, so disassembly and reassembly does not require a press. The spokes can be driven off the hub, a bit at a time until they are free.
I devised my own shims to tighten the spokes and tighten the tenons. I punched a set of discs from some thin sheet metal taken from a four gallon oil drum. Then the centres were marked and a slitting disc on a Dremel tool was used to cut two suits in the centre. A punch was used to bend the centre cut sections up so the shim could be driven over the tenons. Thus, the spokes were both shimmed to tighten them at the hub and the tenons were shimmed to tighten them in the felloe.
They are invisible on inspection. The wheels are tight and her original patina has been preserved. Would I do it again on a car which is driven more and at greater speeds? That would depend on how sound the spokes were on the donor wheel. Many are just too far gone.

On a different thought, do any of the rebuilders offer rebuilding wheels with the double taper spkes like the Canadian wheels? It would make it far easier for you to rebuild your own wheels.
Allan from down under.

If I have a wood felloe wheel that needs rebuilding, I send the metal parts to a pro (Noah Stutzman) who has the proper equipment, knowledge, and years of experience. If I have a steel felloe wheel that needs new spokes, I assemble it myself with a Regan press. It ain't rocket surgery.

https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG108.html