Bloody spacers

[Spooks]

I've never been happy with the spacing on the front of my MC since I fitted the LMs to it. It's running 10mm H&R items at the moment which pushes the rims out too far. Dropping to 7 or 8mm would be ideal, pulling the wheel in but still clearing the KWs, but this size isn't made in hubcentric.

I am going to buy a set of H&R 5mm items to test (I think wheel may hit the KW but worth a try) but they come with the following warning...

"EXTRA INFO*- - . These spacers do not have double sided centreing & are only suitable for cars with a sufficient length of centreing to be able to centre the wheels once the spacer is fitted."

Question is, which side do you think the centreing is missing from, spacer to hub or spacer to wheel?

IF they did clear the suspension I want to make sure I'm not introducing any problems.

Thoughts appreciated!

[Jonttt]

You can get 7mm hub centric, schnitzer do them as they are a common requirement for their e36 offsets to fit a Z3 front ;-)

[Spooks]

I was under the impression they only fit ACS wheels though?

[JuhaV]

Hi,

Is it the rim or the tyre that get close to the KW ?

I have noticed that at least at track the tyre itself may bend sideways in hard cornering quite significantly. My front tyres clear the suspension at stand still about 10 mm but still I can get black rubber marks on the suspension at track.
This happens especially with lower (cold) tyre pressures below 2.5 bars.

What is the common consensus, what would be the minimun clearance to be used ?

- JuhaV

[Spooks]

It's the actual rim that is closet, probably about 5mm of clearance, so a little close but I think I can get away with a couple of mm closer?!

[c_w]

I honestly wouldn't be faffing around changing the offset by 2mm! Would be difficult to detect the difference.

I can't see how you can get a 7mm spacer that is hubcentric unless the difference between the centre hub spigot and the wheel centre bore is significantly different enough to allow enough material to make it (I suspect this is how ACS spacer are made and the centre bore of an ACS wheel is quite a bit larger than standard)?

[Spooks]

I know what you're saying! They just don't look quite right now as they protrude from the arch by about 5mm so taking off 2mm and lowering a bit further will hopefully make it look better!

It's a lot less hassle than my other option of reverse mounting the split rims (from front to back mounted) to push the barrel out to gain a few mm, which would probably then allow a 5mm spacer to fit straight on and clear. This option would give me more dish on the front rims though...

[Dave P]

7.5mm spacers,

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-89...ender-kit.aspx

[ragerover]

Spooks

The problem with 7mm is they are deep enough to take up the centric bit of your hub but not thick enough to have its own hub centric bit

I had same problem

I bought 5mm ones for my lm's

Company was called Novak kustoms
That way your original hub pokes through and you get no rubbing

I tried turning some 7mm ones down on lathe but there too thin

We have a local cc shop which we use for custom parts and that was my next option till I came across these

http://www.novaks.co.uk
Awesome quality and chip as chips

[Spooks]

Thank gents, it's starting to make sense why you can't have less than 10mm now... spacer isn't thick enough to fit flush up to the original hub face and still have it's own hubcentric piece as it won't clear what's left of the remaining item?!

7.5mm spacers,

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-89...ender-kit.aspx

Now they look like a very good idea indeed! It's a long shot but has anyone fitted these? Bloody expensive though!

What do people think the minimum clearance between wheel rim and suspension should be before I mess about?

[c_w]

Clearance on mine when I run a 9J ET35 on the front is quite small, must be at most 4mm from standard strut. No issues on track.

I've seen those tap in spigots before, it's not a new idea (think they do them for old Minis) - bit expensive to alter offset by a couple of mm.

[Spooks]

Great, ta.

I agree yeah but I've spent several £k on new suspension and the LMs and it's not quite right. If another few quid sorts it, or makes it better, then it'll be worth it.

Or should I look at something else like castor plates (or swap the top mounts over?) or do you still need the right amount of protrusion before you start?

[c_w]

If you swap the top mounts over you'll probably want a 15mm spacer. I could probably run a 25mm spacer on my stock wheels and not protude.

9J ET35 doesn't sit out of the bonnet/arch on my car with swapped mounts. I dont think it's even "flush".

[Spooks]

Well I definitely don't want to go out further!

I measured it last night and my rims are protruding about 9mm at TDC, they're a 18x8.5" fr ET 33/34 with a 10mm spacer (so effectively now ET 23/24). It was these wheels that I bought...

http://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14306

Shanty thought that reverse mounting the front would take the offset down to about ET21, which looking at the thickness of the materials involved looks about right. Not sure this will help though?!?!

[c_w]

The lower offset would mean it'd stick out a couple mm more without the spacers.

Swapping the top mounts is an option, though it does give more camber than usually necessary so you would have an impact on tyre wear on the inner shoulder (minimised by parallel tracking). Probably would bring it in 10-15mm. This would then give you space to play with spacers to get it how you want.