Safety Wire Knockoffs?

[tbsmith]

What is the consensus regarding putting safety wire on knockoff wheels? Necessary? Although I have Panasports, I'm assuming the factory never used safety wire.

Tom

[RayBoulay]

Don't bother with safety wire. I drove a new 66 S2 SE in Germany for a year and a half, almost always against the ignition governor, and then back and forth from Boston to California and elsewhere in the US for a couple of years. (A dumb idea, but it worked out OK!). Never had an issue with the knock-offs ever being loose. But I would say that I hammered the hell out of them to tighten them -- probably harder than the typical owner might do, without any concern about banging up the tips, By the way, the S2 SE, when bought directly from Cheshunt, was a bit different than the US spec. With the 3:55 diff, top speed was 128, and bending the grounding arm on the distributor rotor took it up to 132.

On the other hand, when I turned it into an SCCA C-Production car, I also fitted it with 6" Panasports. They had a (bronze?) insert that the knock-offs seated on. I never quite trusted having the extra piece in there because of the potential for an extra part to wiggle, and I did safety-wire them.Regards, Ray.

[StressCraxx]

K/Os on Panasports, torqued to 220 Ft/lbs. no lock wire, never come loose for 15 years.

[tbsmith]

Thanks for the info guys! I will just make sure they are properly torqued and forego the safety wire.

Tom