Anyone in here have experience with wheel spacers?

I had a pair of the Mr. Gasket aluminum spacers on the front of a 1983 Nova many years ago. The Crager SS wheels that I was using were from a car with drum brakes (they were old wheels) and the Nova had disc brakes. The lugs seamed to loosen about every 3 or 4 days. I soon got the right wheels for the Nova. But again these were UNI-LUG wheels and they in them selves had a tendency to get loose on their own.

But does the truck drive the same with the winter tires? I mean the shimmy that you had.

Brian

Seems to drive about the same, I was more worried about the wheels falling off then paying attention to the shimmy to be perfectly honest! I'm gunna take her out for a 50 mile drive tomorrow and see if the lugs stay torqued.

My wife only drives about 25 miles a week, so even if I have to retorque every 50 miles it's no big deal.

I have bought wheels with the correct backspacing, BUT the cheapest pair I could find were $129.99/each and I got these for $82.99/each. I wasn't going to spend an extra $188 for winter wheels, especially given the low mileage she puts on it. I literally change the oil once a year, and even then it's usually under 3K miles, I just can't stand the thought of going more than a year with the same oil in the crankcase...................

Doc

Just a thought..............use a thread lock on them. There has to be a thread lock that keeps them from rusting and yet keeps the nut from turning out

yeah

all bad

VERY SOFT metal

best check torque often

Before trying thread lock mark the nuts and wheel with a magic marker. If they are actually loosening a thread locker like Loctite Red would be appropriate. If the aluminum is compressing then nothing will help, but getting the right wheels.

Back in the 60's, we used to use spacers to get the *wide look*. Besides the wheels always being loose, we also had a lot of studs break off. In those days, teenagers didn't have the money for custom wheels, so spacers were the only option. Today I wouldn't even consider spacers. H

There are two problems with wheel spacers. One they're made of soft aluminum and the wheels never stay tight because they flex and the flexing lets the lugs back off.. And two, the entire weight of the vehicle is sitting on the studs. With the correct wheel for a given application the center hole of the wheel is going to fit the hub of the rear axle and the front rotor and that is what supports the weight of the vehicle. The studs and lug nuts then do nothing but hold the wheels one, which is all they are supposed to do. Whitelightning

I'm not disagreeing with what you have said, but isn't this true of just about all aftermarket wheels, and not just ones with spacers? What I am referring to is the studs supporting the weight of the vehicle.

Because most AM wheels have center holes large enough to accomodate most applications, even without spacers this is the case in most instances, where the hub is smaller than the hole in the wheel.

Regards,

Doc

dunno, doc.. never used them... but several folks in the dodge group have asked about putting them on vans.. the guys there (if my ol' memory is working) were pretty firm about only using them if you HAD to and to use the steel ones, not the aluminum.. no idea why..

Had a '79 Dodge van bought new back in the vanning days. Ran a 15x8 Fenton S/S wheel on the front (Cragar S/S clone) with a 1/2 thick spacer to clear the caliper. Just had to have the deep dish look. It was a uni-lug wheel. Used the longer lug nuts with the NHRA spec. hole in the end lug nuts and never had a problem in the 160k miles the wheels where on the truck. The spec. lug nuts have the open cap as so inspectors can easily verify you have longer studs installed without removing them. That was then anyway. That van also got a set of big Hellwig sway bars fore n' aft and corner limits where explored on a regular basis by dogging Beemers and other sporty cars down off ramps. Zero problems with wheels loosening up in those 160k miles.

snip I literally change the oil once a year, and

Hey Doc,

Shouldn't you change that oil every 3 months under those driving conditions, especially in the winter. It sounds like your better half makes a lot of short trips.

That's possible but by using spacers you move the pressure applied to the studs further away from the studs contact area with the spindle. Thus you have created a lever applying more pressure to that area and increasing the possibility of stud shearing at the spindle.

I myself have often wondered about the center hole being too large to register on the spigot. The studs support the entire weight of the vehicle. At least a 3/4-ton has lots of meaty studs for a situation like this.

-- Best Regards Gordie

Friction is what supports the weight of the vehicle, believe it or not. if you've got a 1/2-20 wheel stud, tightened to 100ft lbs, you're looking at a clamping force of approximately 12,000lbs PER STUD. for a 5 lug wheel that's 60,000 lbs, no wonder an aluminum spacer will deform.

-Bret

No that's not correct, any threaded fastener puts holding force between the two items that are being held together. If the weight is on the studs prior to tightening the fasteners, the load is transferred to the two mating surfaces that the fastener is tightened against.

I know already that 100,000 people will tell me I'm crazy so I'll include a link for those who didn't take structure analyses in collage.

Sorry, "college" not "collage"........

Finally a positive comment, seems I have a chance eh? Took er' out for a rip today and they stayed nice and tight at 105 ft/lbs.

Doc

I take it out once every week or so for a hard run to heat her up and burn off any condensation that might be in the oil. I use M1 oil and filters and haven't had any problems thus far in the three years we've owned it. Oil analysis tells me I should leave it in the crankcase even after a year, believe it or not.

Doc

I'm not partial too wheel spacers of any kind. The "better" kind bolt directly too the axle, and then the wheel bolts to the spacer. I'm not really partial of anything that has force applied to it and is held by "sandwich" (lift blocks for example).

GMC Gremlin