It's been 15 years since I last had to change a wheel by the roadside, but recently I had a new set of tyres fitted on the C4P. Sitting watching the fitters at work I saw them use a huge rubber mallet to thump the wheels after removing the bolts. The tyres were 4 years old, but removed annually during servicing, with the last removal 10 months previously.
Back home a fortnight later I decided to remove the wheels and give everything a good clean up. The wheels would not come off, and only obliged after I had sprayed the spigots with brake cleaner and levered them off with a rubber wrapped wheel brace, poking through to lever against the brake calliper casting.
Once off it was apparent it was the age old problem of aluminium in contact with steel. A vigorous wire brushing of the hub removed a lot of crud. But the question is 'how can you prevent it recurring?'. Greasing the face would not stop electrolysis, and in any case is frowned upon these days - as is greasing wheel bolts. A paint application would inevitably cause the two faces to stick together, and a plastic gasket would be compressible.
I settled for a little WD40.
Like many of you I have a space-saver spare tyre, but without suitable advance preparation I suspect I would never be able to change it at the roadside, if I ever got a puncture.
Back home a fortnight later I decided to remove the wheels and give everything a good clean up. The wheels would not come off, and only obliged after I had sprayed the spigots with brake cleaner and levered them off with a rubber wrapped wheel brace, poking through to lever against the brake calliper casting.
Once off it was apparent it was the age old problem of aluminium in contact with steel. A vigorous wire brushing of the hub removed a lot of crud. But the question is 'how can you prevent it recurring?'. Greasing the face would not stop electrolysis, and in any case is frowned upon these days - as is greasing wheel bolts. A paint application would inevitably cause the two faces to stick together, and a plastic gasket would be compressible.
I settled for a little WD40.
Like many of you I have a space-saver spare tyre, but without suitable advance preparation I suspect I would never be able to change it at the roadside, if I ever got a puncture.