302army187

my weld drag lites came on my car. and now the frount right rim is about to become a paperweight.



you guys might remember a few mths back, i asked about a "clicking" noise my car made.

ppl told me to inspect the brakes, or under carage for loose parts, or rocks stuck somewhere.




well finally got tired of the car clicking. the best way to describe it, it sounds like a bicycle with a card in the wheel, like kids do, and it gets faster, and louder from 0-50, where its the loudest and fastest at 50, and then dies off a little above that.







well i payed this shop $80 to take the wheels apart and check the berrings, also tie rods, etc.


the genius shop guys where like "uh, your berrings are fine, and your front right tierods bent, but its not causing the noise...... maybe its your rims?!"



so i decided to swing by a local wheel shot "perfomance tires" and have them look at it.

they took off the wheels, threw them on the balencer, and couldent get them to click, so i took them for a test drive, and told them that it takes a while for the clicking to start, because im gussing something has to get hot before it does it.

sure enough it starts clicking.

well get it back to the shop, guy finds only 2 rims in the HOLE store (they must have 1500+ rims) that fit my car, throws some BS tires on em, and we go drive again.

this time we go twice as far as before, and NO CLICKING!


so due to money restraints for the next 2 mths, i dident want to blow the money on a new rim. ($210 for 1 new weld drag lite)



so heres my questions..........


are weld draglites really that bad for the street?
as in if i buy another rim, is it a big chance that this will happen again?

the tierod that was bent, was TO THAT RIM, could that have caused the rim to crack/break?


i dont like 90% of rims ive seen on 5.0s, i hate cobra R rims (well the blacked out ones are ok)

i was thinking id black out my old 10 hole stockers, anyone have some techniques for painting rims that will make the paint last? (was thinking of using 1500* bbq paint)




any help would be great, these weld drag lites are the best looking rims imo for my car, but i dont want the rims to break, and come off the car at 60mph or something nutty.

big ben

if the tie rod was bent that means somthing got whacked at some point if those rims were on it when the tie rod got bent then it is very likley that this caused your problem. you never said what the problem was? i dont beleive that a rim by itself can make a ticking noise withouthitting somthing. i would check right behind the rim and make sure you have room in between the bead lip and the strut (had that problem before)make sure you check this while the cars rollin very slowly on the ground. have your buddy roll it up your driveway while you check, if you have good clearance all the way around take the wheel to midas or somthing and have them pull your tire off and inspect the tire and rim very carfully (im guessing its a broken belt in your tire and you probibly wouldent be able to see it)and have them mount an old tire from outback on it (they pay to have them taken away so im sure they wont mind lending you a tire) try that out cause if it only does it when warmed up i couldent see it being the rim.

302army187

you kinda lost me with a "belt"
you mean something inside the tire is clicking?

theres no visual damage to the rim, or tire, i thought too that maybe the person that owned the car last slamed into a curb or something, and that bent the tie rod and destroyed the rim.


the inside of weld drag lites are hollow (from what the rim shop told me) and something on the inside is prob cracked.


id hate to buy new tires, as these still have 80% tread, but i guess thats a pretty good idea........ i wish i could get audio of the clicking, becase i dont think theses any way at all a tire could make this sound, its a very sharp and loud clicking.....


idk....

mjr46

my welds were sort of doing that and the clips that hold outer pad in place on caliper were lightly scrapping it..check for any marks on yours

uedlose

My wife's car does the same thing some times. This is some of the things I have seen with them make sure your caliper bolts are not hitting the rim they did on my wife's and other customers I have put them on. they make to style bolts one just has a hex head on them like a standard bolt the other has a hex head and a Tork bit hole in the middle. I used the tork head style and ground the hex partround stopped hitting the rim. on a customers car I put them in a lath and machined them thinner but left enough head soIdon't have problems with them rounding off. But the other thing I have seen is the rattle clip or out side pad retainer that clips on the outside of the caliper hit the inside of the rim some times also I beat them flat but I think some timewith the wheels turned very sharp they still some times hit and make it click only does it on a very Sharp turn in parking spots not on the road. I am thinking of taking it off the pad to see if it stops. you might also tire diff. torque on the wheels lugs and see if that helps. I just live with it any more. but if they are hitting any where you will see it very easy when I had my wife's off a few weeks ago you could see where they may still be hitting some times but it may have been old marks. But then again it may be the wheel it self I have had these since new over 9 years and the front have aways done it both of them on 2 diff. cars now. if you look at the wheel the center moves around its like them smash between to outer layers well ours does anyway.

1mean5.0

i put 1/4" wheel spacers on the front and used the right lugs with the correct washers and they started clicking the day after I put them on, then I retourqed them back down and it hasn't done it since. It's been at least 6 months and no clicking

302army187

yea, ive checked almost everything, only seems to scrub the rim on tight turns (ie parking)


idk, more and more, and im thinking of eBaying these things

i love drag lites, i think there the best looking rim for a 5.0, real old school drag look, LOVE IT!


but i do HATE that clicking noise enough to paint my stock 10holes and put them back on the car.

whitch is prob what will happen now

mjr46

if you had an alignment rack to pull it up on ..then you could get under it with weight still on car and inspect for stuff that may be close to rubbing/touching

mustangguy82

they click because they dont get torqued down and the center just flops inside the hollow spokes

mantis118

My draglites click to. My buddys dad who builds race cars told me to put neversieze on the outside of the lugs. I did and it stopped.