The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk New Wheels & Tires

I purchased new wheels and tires for my 49 Chevy 3100 and got them put on today. I bought US Wheel 52 Smoothies from Summit Racing, size 15x7 with 6x5.5 bolt pattern and 4" backspace. Wheels fit and look good. However, I ran into a problem. The wheel bearing dust covers on the front spindles are too long and the smoothie caps will not snap into place on the wheels. Anyone else run into this problem? My dust covers are 2" inside diameter and 7/8" long. Is there a company that makes a shorter dust cover? I really want to make these smoothies work because they look awesome. I don't think they make a deeper dish to clear the dust covers. Looking for options.

How much shorter do the dust caps need to be? You can hit the dust cap with a BFH to get some clearance, as long as the middle of the cap doesn't make contact with the end of the spindle.

Not first choice (or widely recommend) but a 1/4” wheel spacer might work if there’s no room for the hammer modification.

I'm thinking I need at least a 1/4 inch. The dust cover is 7/8 inch. I think 1/2 inch would work. I don't think I could beat it down that much with a hammer. It looks like the inside diameter that goes inside the spindle is 2 inches if I could find one that is shorter.

Take the dust cap off, put a ball of modeling clay or similar on the spindle, fit and remove hub cap, cut clay in half with a sharp knife and measure what room you have to work with.

One can also measure the spindle to dust cap clearance like Grigg says, depending on the clearance, cut and weld shortened cap if there is room. Always need to practice welding skills.

Ed

Why not just run without the dust caps? After all, it will be covered and protected by the hub cap.

The grease will get out and fill the back of the hubcap until the bearings are dry. Ask me how I know and I will lie to you about who it happened to...

I thought about doing that, but I didn't want grease all over the backside of the hubcap. I also don't want to run the bearings dry. What about those rubber dust covers on trailer hubs? Would those work if I found one the diameter of the spindle hub?

find out what room you have before choosing a less than ideal "fix".
With a better understanding of what you have to work you're more likely to find and choose a good solution.

I have the same problem. Darrell, Did you solve the problem?

My dust cap rolled off into the weeds on the first test drive out on the road. I will probably have to wait until next spring to find it, however I found that the small size brake fluid plastic bottle fits perfectly over the spindle! so it will allow easy adjustment! Peak brand Blue bottle.