Thirteen - 1967 Spitfire MKIII Specific Tasks and Procedures

     The stud on the right is the damaged one I removed from Thirteen's rear
hub that was holding the wire wheel adapter on.  I used one of the studs removed from the hub (left above) to replace the damaged one pictured. (right above)

     Now supposedly the wire wheel studs are suppose to be shorter than stock metal disk wheel studs.  If you look closely you can see the threads are not quite the same. The square shouldered stud on the left, fits the chrome wheel nuts of the metal disk wheel. That same nut does not fit on the tapered studs thread, at least without trying to force it. (not tested on this damaged on, but on one on the car)  The wire wheel nuts, also do not quite fit the square shouldered stud on the left either (without forcing it) 

    Now what's really strange... since the nuts don't fit each others stud, I  couldn't use the original wire wheel nut on the now replaced stud. So I went digging in the bin of spare hardware that came with this '67 MKIII Spitfire when I bought it, and sure enough... I found a nut that looks EXACTLY like the original wire wheel nuts, but it fits the square shouldered stud that I had installed on the car. That same nut does not fit the other three original studs. The nut that fit, needs a 9/16" (.5625") wrench to tighten it, while the original nuts are all 5/8" (.625") The taper of the nuts are identical, so all of them fit the wire wheel adapter recesses correctly. Both nuts are the same height (number of threads in contact with the stud.) 

     So...does anyone have any clue what's going on here? Was there a difference in early MKI &II Spits vs. the MKIII's and or later model Spitfires/GT6's??    any clues? anyone?    

comments can forwarded to ptegler@cablespeed.com  thanks!