Wheel Data & Modifications

In outline, 165x400 rolled rim wheels were supplied for all Series I cars and for B12, B22 and B20/B24 4th series cars. A 165x400 J-rimmed wheel was fitted to the B20/B24 5th and 6th series cars. 5.50x16 inch wheels were also available. The table below attempts to summarise the details.

Many of the minor details of the wheels concerned their balancing – see following section.

The rolled rim wheels suffer from internal corrosion so that the rim rusts out and can even separate from the centre. A probable cause is water getting in at the valve hole.
A possible replacement that has been used (Niels Jonassen, Denmark, 2003) is a Citroen B11 rim, which also uses 165x400 mm tyres. The Citroen rims have a deeper section and it was necessary to heat and slightly bend in the webs of the Aurelia wheel centre, before sliding the rim over it and welding.
Front wheel hub nuts should be checked regularly and set to 135 ft.lbs or 183 N.m. This also preloads the bearings properly.
The wheel nuts are often of bronze and can easily be damaged using air wrenches carelessly.
Information on non-standard wheels including the Borrani types is given at the end of this section.
For summaries of information on tyres and hubcaps see sections 6.3 and 6.4 below, although a good deal of information is included in the wheel table below
Note: After much study I have allocated the pictures seen in the table below to wheel types B20-73601 and B12-73601/2133082, but I am not completely sure, as there seem to be many exceptions on extant cars. As the wheels are interchangeable this is not surprising. It is noteworthy that technical sketch 251 on balancing the wheels shows these two part numbers and there is a diagram of the wheel I have allocated to B12-73601 indicating a difference in the fixing of the balance weight mountings. Further research/help required!

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