# I second car was a Sunbean Alpine in 1960

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [September 29, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333 "2009-09-29T21:32:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mabug1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mabug1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mabug1)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333/1 "2009-09-29T21:32:27Z")

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I had spin off wheels with spoks, I had a local garage do a front brake job on the car, and when I drove down the road, the left front wheel would fly off the car and go in front of me,when I applied the brake. No one believed me, until they saw it happen. Did they put the brakes on backwards or on the wrong wheel??

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**Author:** ![UncleTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9a140/32.png) [@UncleTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/UncleTurbo)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333/2 "2009-09-29T21:42:12Z")

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I assume you had racing style “knock off” hubs on the wheels. These were to allow quick tire changes in racing. If they were not tightened properly the wheel could easily come off the car. They probably were on correctly just not tightened enough. An easy mistake if the shop didn’t deal with this type of wheel routinely and I’m sure they didn’t.

I never had a car the these hubs but the “knock off” was done with a mallet, and you needed to knock them on too.

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**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333/3 "2009-09-30T00:15:32Z")

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That was 50 years ago. Why are you bringing it up now?

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**Author:** ![mcparadise](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mcparadise/32/32_2.png) [@mcparadise](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mcparadise)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333/4 "2009-09-30T03:44:43Z")

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Then didn’t tighten the “knock-off” spinner correctly, that’s all. The spinner was the only thing holding the wire wheel on.

I used to go around with the lead hammer (supplied with my Alpine) once a week or so and make sure all of the knock-offs were tight.

Once you tightened the knock-off correctly the wheel should have stayed tight.

Or are you saying this happened repeatedly?

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**Author:** ![Caddyman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/caddyman/32/23_2.png) [@Caddyman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Caddyman)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/i-second-car-was-a-sunbean-alpine-in-1960/37333/5 "2009-09-30T05:34:22Z")

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British spoke wheels with knock-off hubs were JUNK, period. In many cases, the very fine teeth in the hubs and wheels would get a little rusty and shear off when you hit the brakes. The hub would stop turning but the wheel would not…On the left side of the car, this calamity would get worse as the spinning wheel spun off the knock-off “nut” that was holding it on. So after suffering brake failure, your wheel would fly off…What fun!