Doug70vert

I'm in the market for some new wheels and most have too much offset for stock C3. Can I use adapters to solve this problem without creating others? :confused:

Scooter70

:withstupid: (Stupid = salesman) I don't like the idea of adapters.

norvalwilhelm

I don't follow that Scooter70 You say salesman=stupid yet you agree that wheel adaptors are not good?? Isn't that what the wheel salesman just said??

I don't like wheel adaptors and feel you should just get the right backspacing to begin with. With a little work and offset trailing arms you can handle 5 inches of backspacing with 15 inch rims and 6 inches with 17 inch rims do to the reduced section width.
I would buy the proper offset and forget the adaptors.

COMMANDER370

My 80 has been running spacers since day one. I am second owner and car had spacers for the wire wheels when i bought it.Just changed to cragar S/S and will be running 1/2" spcaers this time.never had a problem with them. :seeya

Scooter70

Sorry for the confusion. The salesman is the "stupid" in the "I'm with stupid" smiley.

markdtn

:iagree: I know a lot of people run them, but I just don't like the idea. If you must, get longer studs and use a spacer between the rotor and the rim-not the bolt-on type.

neverendingproject

definately use hub centric adapters , if you must use them. they have the lip on the outside to locate the wheel and a recess cut into the inside to locate the spacer correctly on the axle flange. this lip and recess is what takes the load. spacers that do not have this and use the studs only to carry the load are the ones that break studs.

gkull

I have faith in my two inch billet aluminum adapters with 1/2 inch studs. Yes they are the bolt on type.

Unless your exceeding a 9 inch rim with 4.5 b.s. or so called centered offset don't use an adapter if you can get a wheel style you like.

I really found the rear tire I like when I was having a 4 wheel alignment done this last weekend. 345/25/20 inch rim They measure @ 27 inches in diameter. They make my 315/35/17's look small, But at $500 each they aught to work pretty good.

The 20 inch rims are 12 inches wide


[Modified by gkull, 2:33 PM 5/20/2004]

OHSIXX

I had mine made out of billet aluminum and have been running them for two years with zero problems. Another member once reported he had them on for 20 years with no problems.

When someone says they don't like spacers; they are only expressing an opinion and nothing more. No need to read too much into it.

For example, it is quite common here for people to come out against spacers.

They often say, "I just don't like spacers." Not once in almost five years on the Corvetteforum have I ever read a solid technical explanation for this assertion.

Not once has anyone ever cited a safety reason to not use spacers. And not once has anyone ever reported an accident cause by spacers. :rolleyes:

[Modified by OHSIXX, 3:36 PM 5/20/2004]


[Modified by OHSIXX, 4:06 PM 5/20/2004]

R. Bruno

I too had spacers on mine for years with no problems. That said, there was a recent thread wherein a guy with spacers had his lug nuts sheer off. Is there a correlation? Who knows. :nonod:

Mack

O.K. ... Here's one... (Not looking for an argument, just stating my opinion.) It's my opinion (there's that word again) as a Mechanical Engineer that spacers MAY reduce bearing life, because they change the way the bearings are loaded. Now, having said that, consider this: Three major things influence bearing life over the life of a machine. There's the geometry of the load, the size of the load and the number of cycles the bearing sees from the load. There are more influences, like lubricants, bearing type, etc. but let's just consider these things for now. O.K., we've changed the geometry of the load, but we haven't changed the size of the load. However, the number of cycles may be less than the original design, because we may not be driving our older cars as much as the original designer had allowed for when the car was going to be new. So, reducing the number of cycles may offset the change that we made in the geometry of the load on the bearings. Can I prove all this? Nope... It's just opinion, but it's opinion after practicing as an engineer for close to thirty-five years. Too many engineers have learned the hard way that over-hung load and thrust loads are bearing killers. That's why I won't use spacers. I know a lot of people use them without problems, maybe for the reason stated above. But I've seen bearing failures and I don't want to take a chance on it. :yesnod:

VettePower

[assertion. ...
O.K. ... Here's one... (Not looking for an argument, just stating my opinion.) It's my opinion (there's that word again) as a Mechanical Engineer that spacers MAY reduce bearing life, because they change the way the bearings are loaded. Now, having said that, consider this: Three major things influence bearing life over the life of a machine. There's the geometry of the load, the size of the load and the number of cycles the bearing sees from the load. There are more influences, like lubricants, bearing type, etc. but let's just consider these things for now. O.K., we've changed the geometry of the load, but we haven't changed the size of the load. However, the number of cycles may be less than the original design, because we may not be driving our older cars as much as the original designer had allowed for when the car was going to be new. So, reducing the number of cycles may offset the change that we made in the geometry of the load on the bearings. Can I prove all this? Nope... It's just opinion, but it's opinion after practicing as an engineer for close to thirty-five years. Too many engineers have learned the hard way that over-hung load and thrust loads are bearing killers. That's why I won't use spacers. I know a lot of people use them without problems, maybe for the reason stated above. But I've seen bearing failures and I don't want to take a chance on it. :yesnod: [/QUOTE]


:iagree: :withstupid:

OHSIXX

I was not going to response to this thread again, so it would just go away. But since it is back at the top I do have another comment.

The large majority of what Mack76 posted goes a very long way towards supporting all the points I previously made. Even he states it is just his opinion and nothing more. He offers no evidence whatsoever that spacers are bad. That is all that has ever been offered here and Mack76s comments add nothing to the existing insinuation that you got to be a little whacked to even think of using spacers. :)


[Modified by OHSIXX, 4:07 PM 5/21/2004]


[Modified by OHSIXX, 4:10 PM 5/21/2004]

Turbo-Jet

i think the there is a LOT of automyth floating around with respect to wheel spacers.

the bearing load center is important to consider, as is clamping force and installation. but if one understands the forces at work, i think wheel spaces can work faultlessly.

bearings in front hub: the vertical load line of action does not intersect the bearing load center, but it is pretty close. it is off by less than 1/2" i think. there is some margin in the position of the line of action but i can't remember what the limit is. i'll have to dig up my notes.
i have not calculated the rear bearing load details yet...

mrvette

NOW right there, take a good look at what Vettepower there said.....
he is talking of MY primary concern I have voiced many a time, the wheel centerline should not shift any if much at all....so the loading on the bearing and accompanying suspension is minimized.....so within that consideration....

there are two totally differant animals being discussed here to date, that is the wheel spacer, which is in my mind an unsafe situation not only due to the construction of the typical cast pot metal/aluminum spacer, but the obvious loading increases this places on a lug centric, or since it's no longer on the hub, the cat-butt-trophic loading increases on the lugs then.....

NOW a wheel adaptor is an entirely differant animal, it interleaves the two wheels, lets say 5 on 4.75 for each as in my case.....the adaptor is 2.5 inches thick....therefore it mounts like a typical mag wheel to the rotor/hub....nothing new, BUT on the interleaving pattern there is a whole new set of studs for the wheel.....

this is how for allmost ten years now, my '92 vette wheels are on my '72 vette, I can assure you the system is totally safe from a great number of standpoints.....

I still get stupid when hearing the tossing of terms as 'spacer' along with 'adaptor'.....they are two ENTIRELY differant animals, the adaptor being correct, the 'spacer' being junk......

I think some guys have to look-see what in hell a real 'adaptor' is all about, then I think their minds will change....

GENE

Matt Gruber

true or false:
A STACK OF WASHERS MAKES A GOOD SPACER

gkull

Matt - washers make great spacers on the rear of my tranny to crossmember mount to get the correct motor angle.

But if you life depended on it I like maximum amount of surface contact. I had a hard time getting one of my adapters off once

Matt Gruber

c3's are old cars and we all patch them up as best we can.
Don't confuse spacers & adapters with sound engineering; they are not.
Fact is, the thicker the spacer, the less threads for the lug nut. :eek:

norvalwilhelm

When someone says they don't like spacers; they are only expressing an opinion and nothing more.

I agree OHSIXX. That is just my opinion. I feel wheel ADAPTORS are strong enough but to me bolting a 2 inch thick by 6 or 7 inch diameter chunk of aluminum to my wheel along with 10 lugs, 10 lug nuts, not sure about how the adaptor centers on the axles or how the rim centers on the adaptor just doesn't appeal to me.
Being extremely censitive to weight and accuracy I feel I can do without this added source of error.

Wheel spacers can become a safety issue. I feel our short 7/16 wheel studs are marginal along with the closed ended lug nuts. How much are they engaging the thread? I believe in upgrading to 3 inch long 1/2 inch quality studs with lug nuts totally threaded all the way through and the wheel stud sticking right through the nut.

Wheel Adaptors, wheel spacers are two different things and in both cases are strickly used to fix another problem. If you go to the source of the problem and get the right rim this added bandaid can be eliminated.

I also know that sometime an adaptor is need if you are running a very wide wide rim with little offset. The rim becomes too flimsy to take the huge offset so the adaptor actually strengths the rim in this case.

But I stick with my original opinon that if you get the proper rim in the first place no adaptor/spacers are needed.

OHSIXX

I am going to look into getting some longer and thicker studs. :)