Marmon Hubcap

Can anyone tell me the make of wire wheel this is for and the year or years it was used on the Marmon?

One book I have shows that to be a 1929...my book has been known to have mistakes. I just googled 1929 Marmon and some of them look to have this cap on wire wheel cars.

They are Dayton wheels, Don, though Layden may well have an alternative name for them. They were used in at least two sizes by Marmon for some time in the late '20's. I have both size wheel nuts with Marmon plate like yours. Smaller models like 3 litre ohv straight 8 Model 78 used the small ones, as did the smaller side- valve 8 Roosevelt. Auburns also used the same wheels but with a winged nut that had to be tightened and undone with a hide hammer. "Tighten" was the important word, because with no separate locking device for safety, they relied only on the grip of the taper with bronze nut aginst the steel wheel centre. This contact of dis-similar materials will grip rather than fret. There is a ring engagement of square-profile teeth of hub and wheel centre, but if the nut is loose you are in trouble. In 1963 I was using my 1927 Cadillac to tow a Marmon78 sedan owned by a student in the same university course when a front wheel fell off the Marmon on a two-lane undivided highway in traffic. It was exciting enough to accelerate my perception of the sequence so that it seemed to happen in slow motion. I have these big Dayton wire wheels on my 1928 8-115 Auburn. Wade Morton and others raced Auburn on these wheels in the late 20's; but never drive on them if they are not dead tight and frequently checked.

Thanks guys. Ivan, your store of knowledge amazes me as always. The cap I have is about 4 7/8" wide, would it be considered the large or small size?

I checked here Don, and the large size I have is nominal 5" OD, but just a whisker under. This would be their big side valve straight 8. This is same size as Auburn 115, 120, & 125 of 1928-30. The small size is just under the 4" nominal size again. Curiously, the small size has a locking pawl which is disengaged by the spanner. The spring is about a 300 degrees of a circle of spring wire of about 80 thou in section. Diameter of the thread is the same for both at 2 3/4"nominal, and the thread pitch issame for both at 10 TPI.

Ivan, thanks again and happy holidays.