Wood spoke wheels for Model A rear axle?

[rileyracing]

Are there any wood spoke wheels that can bolt to/be modified to fit a Model A rear axle? TT would be perfect, but they appear to be six bolt?

It's for a T type project that I'm contemplating. Don't want to run wires on it if I don't have to.

Thanks!

jk

[redmodelt]

There were some aftermarket wood wheels offered in the Model A era. Good luck on finding any.
The 21" Model A wire wheels would not look that out of place on a T. You can even buy adapters to fit them to the Model T. After all Ford sold 21" wires in 1926/27 and except for the hub size looked like the A's.
Side note: while you can adapt the A front hubs to a T you could not go the other way and the rear axle, between the T and A, have different tapers. Same with hubs from TT truck the taper would be way too large to fit an A axle. The wood spokes need to be a press fit between the hub and felloe so you can't just bolt the wood wheel to an A hub.

[rileyracing]

Right on. Thanks redmodelt! I'll have to do some more figurin'.

[Jack Innes]

I don't know what you are working on but model AA trucks could be equipped with artillery wheels from the factory. Most had variations of steel wheels.

There was one very similar to this near here but it was too rotted to be worth saving.

[rileyracing]

I did not know that, but that is exactly what I was looking for... do A and AA's share the same bolt pattern on the hub?

Thanks for that tip!

jk

[Jack Innes]

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Originally Posted by rileyracing

I did not know that, but that is exactly what I was looking for... do A and AA's share the same bolt pattern on the hub?

Thanks for that tip!

jk

No. The AA has much larger fasteners on a larger diameter pattern.

[rileyracing]

OK, so there would need to be some adaption required.

Still a path to look into- thanks again!

[redmodelt]

Most AA's that were sold with wood wheels were mostly in Canada. Still comes back too not common. Even if you found some you would also need to make sure that they had good rims to mount the tires on. Wood wheels consist of: the hub, spokes, felloe and demountable rim. The rim was not part of the wheel as in, you pulled the rim off the felloe to change the tire.
http://forums.aa-fords.com/viewtopic.php?t=284
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19284

[cas3]

A and T cars have the same axle taper on the rear, and same bearing size on the front i believe. i have had many T farm wagons that had A wheels on them. the trick will be how to get the right brake drum on the wood wheel

[rileyracing]

I'll have do do some looking into that... Thanks for the tip on the taper!

[Jack Innes]

I would suggest that you use heavier wheels than model T car wheels. The T wheels were not designed to take the stress of real brakes & front brakes. The more powerful A engine & the more positive clutch also would be excessive strain.

Something like Dodge Brothers or Chevrolet in the mid to late 20s would be stronger.

To adapt them you would make a false hub - flat disc with the wheel stud pattern & a pipe welded in the center to locate the wheel & fasten the hub cap to. You then could use the wooden wheel & its outer plate held on with either long studs or long stepped nuts to go on the existing studs. The hole in the center of the wheel may need to be opened up to fit the "false hub".
The outer plate may need the holes altered to suit the new bolt pattern.

As explained earlier the wheel would become permanently mounted & the rim is removed to change tires.

Below- T wheel, particularly fragile with oak spokes;

[redmodelt]

I will concede that the tapers may be the same but the diameter at the big and small ends are not, the A car type rear axle is larger at both ends of the taper. While a T hub will fit on an A axle it will not go on as far. Which means an A rear hub would fit on a T axle after you cut the bearing race off and would be more inboard. So you could put T rear wheels on an A axle but would have to work out the brakes and would loose part of the support taper. Maybe disk brakes with a line lock for parking.

[rileyracing]

Interesting you say that- I have a set of hubs from an early '30's Buick, with a couple of spokes left.

They are off an old axle that was on a farm wagon, the spindles were welded straight ahead.

I may try that...

Thanks for the food for thought.

[cas3]

chevys are the same spindle size as aT, dont know about the rears