Today my plan was to remove my summer wheels/tires and install my winter set. The summer wheels have rub centering rings tapped into the bore and they fit very, very tightly onto the wheel hub (i.e. you can't push the wheel on by hand, you need to tighten each nut incrementally to push the wheel all the way against the hub). There are no jacking holes in the wheels so the best way I could find to get the wheel off was to kick one end, then kick the other, etc then add some WD40 to loosen things up and it wiggled right off.

The problem is that the wheel came off, but the hub centering ring stayed on the hub. And it does not want to come off. And my winter wheels will not fit over the hub rings so I had to just put the summer wheel back on until I figure out what to do.

Anyone else had this problem? It almost seemed to me that the hub rings were too tight of a fit to begin with, but in any case it is what it is and now I need to find a way to get them off. Anyone with good advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

 

I was able to get it off with a flathead and hammer... hope that helps.

 

I use a putty knife to work around the perimeter of the ring to get it loose. You have to work it evenly because if it gets crooked, it just grabs tighter on the hub.

 

I used my MAPP gas torch ($15) to heat up the ring and it came right off with a flathead and little to no effort on my part.

 

a. Spray with a lubricant like WD-40.
b. See if you can get some leverage with a pen knife.

 

Unless the rings are plastic.

 

mine were...

 

Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen....I gave up for the day but will try again tomorrow. I tried the flathead screwdriver with hammer technique but the screwdriver blade bent before the ring moved! These are metal rings so the torch idea seems to have some merit.

I think next time I install these things I will put some never-seize between the ring and the hub.

 

That's not good if you can't budge them with a little "prying".

Before you put them back on, definitely take some steel wool and cleanup the area around the hub and rotor face where the ring sits. Mine get's pretty rusty but with plastic rings it's not problem to get them off.

 

wow metal concentric rings.......................

I have plastic rings on the nice wheels and sometimes have to use a putty knife & work my way around the hub. Just in case I bought a spare set on eBay $9.00 with shipping, also made of plastic.

 

Both sets of wheels I have came with metal rings...I just figured that was standard. I will get some plastic rings for the next time I install these wheels.

 

Did you get the rings off & how did you do it??

 

I suggest next time to help things a little, that you power wire wheel all the surfaces and apply anti-sieze

 

Just got done. It is about 30 degrees out and freezing rain so it wasn't pleasant, but all four of the rings were pretty fused on there. I ended up going out and getting a tungsten-carbide cutting/engraving bit for my Dremel and just cut them off. Just picked a spot and cut through and when you get close to the wheel hub the remaining metal was not strong enough to withstand the press fit so the ring cracked and I was able to pry it off easily.

My winter wheels also have hub rings pressed into them, but they are a much looser tolerance so they go right on without a problem. Regardless just for good practice I coated the ID of the rings with petroleum jelly to ward off any bad oxidation.

The other problem I had is that not only where the rings bound to the hubs, but the wheels were so tightly bound to the rings also! I had to kick the wheel at the top, then the bottom, then top, bottom, then side, side, etc. and squirt some WD 40 at the wheel/hub interface just to get the surfaces separated and allow me to wiggle the wheel off. Just a word of warning for anyone using hub rings supplied with PIAA wheels, those ***** are tight. Either use a buttload of never-seize or get different looser-tolerance rings. There is no reason, in my opinion, that these rings need to be that tight. The problem is that I scratched up the lip on one of the wheels which was being really stubborn, due to my kicking. Next time maybe a rubber mallet on the back side of the wheel would work better, but hopefully I can avoid such a tight fit going forward. Oh well, lesson learned, and only one wheel scratched so that's not bad.

 

It almost sounds like somebody gave you the wrong size rings.

 

That crossed my mind, but they didn't seem tight enough to be an entire millimeter too small or anything. It was more like a light press fit (light in industrial terms, like a thousandth of an inch interference or so). At any rate I think I will get plastic rings next time, and I will certainly test fit them onto the hubs before installing for good.

 

anyone know a good online place to get some rings??

 

I broke mine off. I'll buy more when I put the wheels back on.

 

anyone know what size ring fits the z?

 

UPDATE

I looked at the label on the packaging for the hub rings that were supplied to me, and it shows the size as '66' which I assume means 66 millimeters. But if I remember correctly, the hub diameter on the Z is 66.1 millimeters. 0.1 mm doesn't seem like much at first, but in terms of inches that is 0.0039", so I am gathering now that the rings they gave me had inner diameters undersized by 0.0039", which is a very heavy press fit! The rings should be 66.1 mm ID which would be a line-to-line fit (may require light, even prying by putty knife or screwdriver). I'm going to alert the vendro to this, but I won't raise a stink. What's done is done, I just don't want him to sell those rings to any other Z owners!