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I started this a couple of weeks ago but here I go some more.

Four new Coker Radial tires on my 1954 Cavalier.

I have one wheel cover that wants to rotate in the same direction as the wheel normally turns.

It was on the right front and it was the only one that turned until it went far enough to bend the valve stem to the breaking point. Fortunately the flat occurred in the garage.

I figure if one goes on the road it will ruin a tire.

So I swapped the hubcap with the one on the left front and the problem followed the hub cap. It is marked LF inside with marker and I suspect a former owner has had the problem before as there were a couple of gobs of what looked like trim cement in the hubcap.

I have also stretched the teeth so it is very tight to get on and I have to use hard blows with a rubber hammer to seat it.

I suspect the steel radial tires spread the rim more than the old bias ply tires and it walks the hub cap slowly in the direction of rotation.

I have the tire air pressure at 32, the tire shop had it at 40 and Packard says 27.

The radials look like the bias ply,s but the tread is narrower than the over sized tires that were on this car. The over sized had a very wide tread.

I would like to find a super nice like new hubcap to try which I will buy, who is the best source of this?

Jim

Good Morning Jim...I have seen this problem on other cars and one way to stop it, particularly if it is wheel flex, is to get a small bit of bar stock at ACE or some place and then clean off a spot on the wheel and use JB Weld to hold a couple of 2 inch or so pieces on the wheel several clips apart. Once the JB Weld sets up...about 24 hours...those bits of bar stock will keep the hub caps from rotating without doing any real damage to your Packard wheels...You really do have a lovely machine. (Good Luck...Ernie)

The word of the day is Eureka!


Hub cap quit moving.

I used a metal duct like tape I have had around for a few years. Nice and sticky.

This is a two inch tape which I cut into 1 inch strips and after cleaning the rim real good (painted rim) I applied the tape where the wheel cover grips the edge.

The tape I used is Nashaua 181A-P/181B-FX.

Coker also suggested metal valve stems

Jim going crusing