three piece wheels - which nuts/bolts to use?

[J Smith]

I recently aquired some three piece wheels and I have disassembled them to have them blasted/powdercoated.

The nuts and bolts are not original. I know this because the lengths of the bolts are different, and someone in the past cut the longer ones to make them all the same length.

I'd like to replace the hardware, but I'm unsure of what to use. They are socket head screws, 3/8", 24 pitch, and 1 1/2" long. It appears the bolts are stainless (because they are not rusted, and are not magnetic), but the nuts are not. They're rusty.

It appears these wheels held up fine, but I'm concerned about strength. I also don't want rusty bolts. I know stainless hardware has less tensile strength. These will be track wheels, so I guess strength is even more important. But 20 bolts on each wheel has to be pretty darn strong. Right?

Any ideas?

[Bill Verburg]

You can use Ti, SS or plain steel, your choice

Wheel bolts

follow the links to products

[IROC]

Not all stainless is low strength. 300 series is low, but there are some really strong stainless fasteners out there. If you want to use plain steel, I would recommend some ASTM A574 socket head cap screws. I think the tensile strength is 180ksi (from memory).

If you want some nice stainless, then I would get some NAS1351N6-XX ("-XX" being the proper grip length) fasteners. These will probably be pricey, though. They are over twice the strength of 300 series and exceed SAE Grade 8. Or maybe some nice SPS EWB0420s...

Mike