by Claude Wynre in the July , 1995 RootesReview
For you Sunbeam owners who have wire wheels.
For years I had problems with a clunk sound in the rear end whenever I started forward to backwards in my Sunbeam Alpine with wire wheels. One shop even “overhauled” the rear end at no small cost and several shops had no idea at all for the cause of the clunk.
A couple of fellows were on the right track because they tried to tighten my wheels. I finally got the right man. The cure is to grease the taper on the wheel. There is so much friction on this taper that even though you have greased the splines and everything else, you only think you are getting the wheel tight. This simple solution has cured my problem. This may be why some people have trouble loosing a wheel as they will swear the wheel is tight when it is really not tight.
Don’t forget to hit each ear of nut, in turn when tightening wheels!