Hi Robert,
I noticed that you posted several messages to the Triumphs lists asking
about wheel spacers.
I'll relate to you my personal experience.
First off, check with some wheel shops that specialize in racing
applications. A lot of racers run spacers of some type or another.
Some speed shops in the "states" carry universal wheel spacers. They are
pretty cheap. In fact, I think they are from Moroso or Mr. Gasket brand.
Further, I'm pretty sure that Moss sells these spacers. Not to belittle
Moss or Moroso etc., but I would stay away from these particular spacers
for a number of reasons.
One. That are made from really soft casting material, possibly aluminum,
but they are really soft. Two. If you autoX or generally beat on your
car, the universal wheel spacers can be a real problem because they leave
gaps around the lugs where the "universal slots" are. This is a potential
safety issue, as a proper spacer should have the lug holes be "just
larger" than the studs, e.g. they should be a clearance fit.
I'll spare further details on the cheeeeep-o spacers.
My solution was to contact some machine shops in my area and ask them to
make some up for me. By luck of the draw, a friend volunteered to make me
a few. They are really nice aluminum pieces. We bartered a settlement -
one of his cars is in my garage for the time being.
They key facts that you need to have some made (or make your own if you
are so inclined) are 4 X 4.5 bolt pattern and the stock lugs are 7/16ths,
don't forget to tell the shop if you upgraded to 1/2 inch size. Both the
front and rear wheel hubs have a raised area. You need to make a hole in
the middle of your spacer to accomodate that. I forget the size, but you
need a hole in the middle and then you need to chamfer that hole because
the castings for the front and rear hubs have a small radius there. In
otherwords, you need to make the spacers with an "in" side and an "out"
side. Don't make the spacers more than 1/4" unless you like to live on
the edge.
A competent machinist should be able to crank out a set of 4 in a couple
of hours, so figure on spending a hundred bucks or so for a set of four.
By the way, I'd get four just because it would be just as easy to make
four as it would for making two, it's one setup step for each hole and
then they can crank 'em out. If you find a really competent machine
shop, they might even be able to write a CNC program and they could crank
out hundreds of them!
Oh well, that's what I did. They work great, no rubbing!
rml
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