Hi everyone,
I decided to get a set of the new polished & powder coated Maxilite Kent wheels ( from Moss ) for my 1985 XJ6 Sovereign to replace the steel with euro style hubcaps that came with the car. The hubcaps just looked a little too 60's for me, so they will be stored for the next owner. In the process of fitting them to my car I ended up learning FAR more about lug nuts and the center caps than I ever wanted to know !

Basically the lug holes in the new rims are too big to use factory lug nuts ( in my opinion ) and the original metal center caps will not grip securely without some kind of major modifications.

The inside hub diameters are the same for both the original and the new rims so they locate on the hubs correctly, the main problem is that the new rim lug nut holes are aprox .045" bigger ! When the factory nuts are installed almost snug, the wheel can be rotated almost a 1/4" back and forth. If all of them ever became loose enough for one of the rear wheels to rotate, it would damage the rim or maybe even snap off the wheel studs ! After alot of searching I found some after market nuts with a bigger shank diameter to eliminate most of the "slop". They do not fit as snug as the all original parts do but should be fine for any non-racing application.
I used the White Knight 5304 which had the biggest shank diameter I could find. The Weld racing 601-1466 might make a good replacement nut for factory rims and finally I including info on the Dayton wire wheel nuts just for comparison.
One really important last note, the replacement nuts need a 13/16" lug wrench instead of the factory one which is 7/8" ! I plan on making a socket adapter so I can still use the factory wrench instead of carrying even more tools !

I used the plastic center caps that came with the rims since the factory style metal ones would not grip securely and I didn't want to mangle the mounting tabs trying to make them work.
I'm including some pictures showing how the factory rims have a deeper sharp ledge for the retaining tabs to grip where as the new ones only have a bubble edge at the outer lip ( where the new plastic caps snap in ).

My measurement table may also help someone just looking to replace their factory nuts with aftermarket as well.Kent Rim Measurements

Cheers !
Brian



Size chart




White Knight Factory sizes, my measurements where slightly different.

 

Some more notes and pictures !
Beware that because the White Knight 5304's have a bigger shank diameter, they will NOT fit factory Kents !
Also some of the nuts I purchased had slightly off center bores causing them to "wobble" just a little when installing. Not real happy with their QC but will work good enough for now.



Gorgeous polished Rim



Inside of new rims



Jaguar lug nuts

 

Pictures showing the center cap fitment issue. I THINK the retainer lips could be bent / curled back enough to hold the original metal caps on but since the ridge on the inside of the new rims is "bubbled / tapered" instead of a sharp 90 like the original rims, I suspect you would be replacing lost caps fairly often ! $$$$ ! The chromed plastic actually looks better with the polished rim anyway in my option.


Original rim with deep & sharp 90 edge for center cap tabs to grip




New rim with shallow bubbled edge for plastic center caps to grip




Trying to fit a "old" metal cap on a new rim, tab is over 1/16" deeper than edge so has cap serious movement !



New rims with plastic caps and Jaguar inserts installed, Sweet !

Finished Product ! 1985 XJ6 Sovereign