Spare wheel

[Neil Duke]

OK,I know this has to be the silliest question ever,but, my spare wire wheel,should it sit dish up?,or dish down?.If it sits dish up,it is more unstable,but easier for tool storage,dish down,sits low,& flat,but not so good for tools.TIA

[Gfhug]

Neil, in my S2 it's dish up as the hold down bolt (do you have one?) is too short to fit the other way around. Is a lack of hold down bolt the reason yours is unstable?

Geoff

[malcolm]

[Neil Duke]

No hold down bolt,bought an XJ6 one to modify,wasn't sure whether to lengthen,or shorten it.Thanks guys,lots more silly questions to come.

[Bob.]

Hi Neil
No not a silly question but just a word of caution. Both the standard S3 steel wheels and optional wire wheels left the factory with the spare wheel mounted face up unlike S1/2. Therefore there is a significant loss of storage space as you say and the need for a long hold down bolt. As you found, if you mount a wire wheel face down in an S3 the tyre face is not supported at all and the wheel is unstable with all "wobbling" loads trying to tear away at the few spot welds which hold the wheel locating feature to the face of the floor. I doubt this is the case for S1/2 where the locating feature is mounted below the floor level and I presume (always dangerous) that the tyre face is supported on the boot reinforcing struts.

Original spare (car has done 3500mls from new with original tyre)


These pictures show the difference between S1/S2 boot floor and S3.

S1/2


S3

[Neil Duke]

Thanks for the picture,that makes more sense.Add 35 mm into XJ6 holding down bolt.

[Ole-xke1974]

I don't even carry a spare wheel. I know mentioning this will most likely be bad karma and I will suffer a flat that cannot be repaired with my plug kit.
I've even thought of making a space saver wheel from a modern wheel with a splined hub from a wire wheel, but I doubt I'll ever get around to even experimenting with it.