Hi guys -

did a search on wheel spacers and got millions of hits but no answers....so I'll post this up. Where do you find good wheel spacers, and what are the pro's and con's of doing the various options?

for the width I'm looking for - it seems there is a "bolt on" that does not need new wheel studs, or the spacers that have longer wheel studs passing thru them. I've gone with a 5-lug drilled into the 4 lug hubs....

I was surprised at the weight of the 2" spacers 'bolt on', like 6+ lbs each?!

Currently I'm leaning towards the 54MM, Weltmeister Turbo Star Wheel Spacer - found a pair on paragon for $144.....compared to $146 EACH for the bolt on version on the bird site.

thoughts and knowledge sharing very appreciated!

cheers

td

What wheels? What offset? What fenders? 1" and 2" is ambiguous and misleading for those searching (as you did) for spacers.

No possible answers without knowing what it is you're "looking for".

AHHH, point taken.

I have 10 spoke 17" 996 wheels front and back, fronts are 7, rears are 9" I believe. The flares are not on the car but are AIR wide GT flares, so I don't expect there will be clearance issues. We had the wheels up against the hubs and measured for clearance, so ~2" in the rear and ~1" in the front will work out just fine I think.

Not really looking for advice on how wide, but given 1" and 2" spacers +/-, what are the options?

thx

td

FWIW... I like 944 spacers. I've stacked a few and custom machined them for the desired thickness:

WOW! that is ARTWORK! You are talking hub-centric, yah? I've got stock 914 4 lug hubs drilled for 5-lug, not sure that approach will work? <---- clearly I'm lost and way out of my depth, trying to learn here....

thx

td

Street driving only or do you plan to do some track time?

If track time is in your future, the bolt on "spacers" are *not* legal with any racing organization.


Longer studs are easy to obtain and installed and the spacers for them (like the 944 spacers above) are much lighter and simple to install and change.

I bought some from this guy
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wheel-Hub-Centric-...d62&vxp=mtr

VERY good quality and very good aluminum alloy (6061)

As you can see, i very much prefer the longer studs. Obviously, you don't have to use them that long (100mm in my case), you can run shorter ones if you don't need that much spacers ...

thanks - re: track time - only DE events and AX are intended, mostly street time. TD

Bolt on adapters will be illegal to use for DE (and technically also for AX) ...

So you'll have 914 calipers and solid rotors under all of that meat?

Doable but, as Andy mentions, it really depends upon your intended use. When you mentioned the Sheridan kit and the wide rubber, I thought you might be racing the car but, with drilled 4 stuff, it appears to be more of a street car.

The rears are fine being drilled but again, you're limiting yourself to 914 components attached to 935 wheels and tires. (914 rear hubs only allow 914 CV joints). If your fronts are drilled 914 rotors then you can really only work with 914 calipers and solid rotors. You can use a 911 caliper without spacers if it's an early 914 rotor but there's no real gain.

Again, all this can be done if all you want is a cool looking street car and you don't plan to put a motor in it that is commensurate to the body kit and the tire size.

Let us know what you're plans are and we can help guide you so you don't waste money along the way.

Sorry... misread... the A.I.R. flares.

iuseHAND R BOLTON TYPE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH THEM

JERRY

I used 100mm studs and 944 spacers. They are light and very high quality. You can find them at the junk yard if your lucky.

944 spacers.




Click to view attachment

"don't waste money along the way?!"

ultimately, as time and money allow - I'd like to do more track, but for now the goal is to have a decent street car with good handling and some of the cool big boy look.

So, compromise is the order of the day - I've been able to assemble the kit so far fairly reasonably.....totally agree that I'm limited by the strength of the stock 914 bits on her at present and realize that I will have to upgrade at some point to stronger CVs, etc if I find the right engine....2.7L or higher. But that is a whole 'nuther slippery slope....

Now, about these 944 spacers - am I correct in seeing that it looks like they are about an inch each and the guys are adding a pair for ~2in spacer? I'll dig around and see what I come up with - are they just laying in the dirt next to abandoned 944s waiting for a new home?

td

I vaguely remember them being a bit less than an inch wide ...

I agree, used them on my rears. I have 5 stud 100mm rears and just pressed the studs out of these spacers and they then slid right over my studs on the hub.

Is that a local rule on the west coast? I checked with the Tech people in the Peachstate (Georgia) PCA region, and they have no idea why you can't use them, they are very popular in installing late offset wheels on early 911's and 944's. We use the PCR's and there is nothing in them banning them.

That is a good question. Maybe PCA has changed their mind of late?

It's been 10 years since i was last dinged for running bolt on adapters and now they rarely look for them during tech inspections.

I switched to longer studs and slip on spacers some 8 years ago and haven't paid much attention to the rules since.

From my inspection of the '2012 PCA Club Racing Rule Book', I can't find anything about bolt on spacers or adapters. I looked at all the sections referring to Suspension as well as Brakes. I also searched the PDF and only found six occurrences of 'spacer' and none of them refer to material or technique (i.e. bolt on spacers/adapters aren't specifically restricted).

Two inch slip on spacers over 100mm studs puts a lot of stress on the base of the stud.

"I'm not an engineer", but I think the hubcentric ring keeps the bolts from having a bending moment keping them in tension. I'm sure we've got some real engineers who can comment.

The hub ring is what keeps the spacers in place, not the studs.

But the rear doesn't have a ring. And early fronts don't have rings.

There are rear hubs (5 lug) with rings ...