Wheels / Tires: which wheels will work on a 56 Power Hawk?

[jeryst]

My 56 PH has aftermarket wheels that are pretty crappy, so I'm
going to keep my eyes open for a nice used set. Can someone
please tell me what the bolt pattern is and which other wheels (Chrysler,
Chevy, Ford) will fit?

How wide were the stock wheels?

Also, I'm assuming that the lug nuts on the drivers side should be
left hand thread, so I just want to confirm.

Thanks

[56PHawk]

I have a Power Hawk. The driver side lug nuts are left hand thread. Here a link that discusses the 4.5 bolt pattern.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?747-Studebaker-Bolt-pattern

[RadioRoy]

The stock wheels were five inches wide and most folks seem to like six inch wide wheels better.

Ford and MoPar have the same bolt pattern as 51 and later Studebaker cars. The Ford wheels need the larger lug nuts.

Left hand studs say "L" on the ends. Left hand lug nuts have impressed markings. Some have a circle on the outer surface and some left hand lug nuts have little divots on the corners between flats.

One of the new wheels available at Summit speed shop is Wheel Vintiques 62 Series Ford-Chevy Style O.E. Bare Wheels 62-5612334

[jeryst]

Unfortunately there are aftermarket wheels and lug nuts on the car and I have
not been able to find any type of markings. So I dont know if they are unmarked
LH nuts, or if someone changed them out for RH studs/nuts.

[64studeavanti]

To state the obvious, if turning nuts to the right tightens, you have rh threads. If left tightens, you have lh threads.

[fatboylust]

A couple of other pieces of the proper wheel puzzle are the correct wheel offset/back space and tire size. Studebaker's (cars) front suspension form 1951 to the end was basically the same design. Incorrect wheel width, off-set/back space or tire width can result in tire interference with the suspension. Here are pictures from my 1952 before I changed the stock wheels (due to disk brake conversion) and replace the tires which illustrate how tire size alone can result in interference. These were stock wheels (5" wide) with G78-15 tires, which are 8" wide and 28" in diameter.
Note the blackwall stripe where the tire was rubbing on the A-frame, this only happened when turning sharply.
Note the shiny edge on the A-frame.

[StudeNewby]

To state the obvious, if turning nuts to the right tightens, you have rh threads. If left tightens, you have lh threads.

And to elaborate on the obvious, if the threads are visible, then you can tell which way to turn the nuts.

[jeryst]

To state the obvious, if turning nuts to the right tightens, you have rh threads. If left tightens, you have lh threads.

I put a cheater bar on the wrench and tried in both directions. Nothing budged
and I'm afraid to put a lot of torque on it without knowing what is right. Last thing
I want to do is start replacing stands.

I'm probably just going to assume that the driver side is LH and go for it.

[jif988]

If the threads are visible you can tell if right or left hand thread by comparing to a known RH threaded bolt, you will see that with R hand thread the threads slant one way and the opposite is true of left hand threads.

[jif988]

Also I sent you a PM regarding some Stude wheels I have for sale