When "knock off" wheel optioned cars went down the line at the factory - was there a special station on the line just for KO's and where the spinners torqued on with a special air tool wrench or did they whack them with a hammer at the factory and deliver them with dented ears ?
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Re: Factory Knock Off Install
Peter,
That's a good question. I do know that the KO wheels were installed on the car in the same assy line location as conventional wheels but I don't know how they were torqued to the required 450 foot pound. I have to assume there was a tool to torque the nut because I can't imagine any of the workers wacking on spinners without eventually missing and hitting/damaging a wheel.
The cars landed on their feet for the first time right after the wheels/tires were installed so if KO equipped, the correct wheels would have to have been installed at that time.
I don't think I have any paperwork on this at all but I'll look. I was thinking that possibly Hinckley would remember but I think that was about a year before he was at the St. Louis plant.
Hanson -
Re: Factory Knock Off Install
the plant used a big big man. with a big big hammer.Comment
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Re: Factory Knock Off Install
They were torqued using a LARGE Chicago-Pneumatic air impact wrench (about a 1-1/2" shank) that was suspended from an overhead balancer, with VERY expensive custom-made machined/heat-treated/plastic-lined sockets. C-P supplied the same type of super-duty impact gun for industrial applications like oil drilling rigs.Comment
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Re: Factory Knock Off Install
Thanks John. I had a feeling it would be something like that but I didn't want to guess and give an incorrect answer. I knew the KO wheels were installed at the conventional location on the line but never did see the tool for torquing the spinner.
And speaking of expensive tools, what about that "gang wrench" that torqued all five steel wheel lug nuts at the same time. Bet that was another big dollar tool. What an interesting facility that was!
HansonComment
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Re: Factory Knock Off Install
The wheel lug nut multiple nutrunner was really pretty simple - just five air nutrunners mounted on a 4-3/4" circle, fed from a common (large) air manifold; the operator just pulled the trigger and held it until the noise stopped. These days, that same tool is about $250,000.00, as the nutrunners are DC electric (not air), with torque and angle transducers on each spindle, and each spindle is independently dynamically controlled for torque and angle by a remote computer and Allen-Bradley industrial controller interface, and each spindle's torque and angle data is instantly uploaded to the electronic build record for that particular car. Nothing is simple any moreComment
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