Mazda Rotary Club

General => General Technical => Wheels & Tyres, Suspension & Brakes => Topic started by: Jimi_Hendrix on January 02, 2009, 12:16:37 AM

Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: Jimi_Hendrix on January 02, 2009, 12:16:37 AM
Could i get away with using 10mm spacers between the hubs and the alloys without fear of something snaping, shearing, breaking or generaly going south kind of quick??
 
I cant remember how exactley but i alwys thought spacers were kind of a bad thing?
 
I\'ve looked into extended wheel studs but haven\'t found anything for FC\'s
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: skybusr34 on January 02, 2009, 12:27:41 AM
you would need to definately get longer bolts bud
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: SiH on January 02, 2009, 07:12:33 AM
Spacers are fine when done properly, but 10mm on stock studs is borderline dangerous.
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: AtomicRex on January 02, 2009, 07:46:15 AM
Spacers should be avoided under all circumstances, and should only be used as a last resort.  You are putting massive loadings on the stud, and you run the risk of snapping them, or the nuts coming loose.  They screw up the geometry too.
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: skybusr34 on January 02, 2009, 01:09:30 PM
Quote from: AtomicRex;570431Spacers should be avoided under all circumstances, and should only be used as a last resort.  You are putting massive loadings on the stud, and you run the risk of snapping them, or the nuts coming loose.  They screw up the geometry too.

how do they screw up the geometry? excuse my ignorance but surely its no differnt to fitting alloys with a lower offset? ie going for et40 to et20?
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: AtomicRex on January 02, 2009, 01:26:41 PM
Yes indeed, sorry I should have been a bit more specific about that point.
 
The KPI (kingpin inclination) angle is measured to the mid point of the tyre contact patch where the normal load point would act. The problem with moving the wheels out, is this point doesn\'t move with it. So although you are putting wider wheels on, it doesn\'t mean you are using the full extent of the tyre. You can start messing with Camber settings to improve this though.
 
So by altering the offsets of the wheels away from where Mazda designed it, or by adding spacers the net effect is to mess with the geometry.
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: clive on January 02, 2009, 01:42:19 PM
Quote from: SiH;570430Spacers are fine when done properly, but 10mm on stock studs is borderline dangerous.


I have used 6mm on stock studs on quite a few RX\'s, but this is as big as you can safely go due to the length of the stud,

Personally have 25mm on our RX-8 and have had 50mm kit on our heavy Explorer for the last three years with no stud nut or tyre scrubbing issues as  the only geometry change is to the track or width of the vehicle and not the cambler, caster or akerman angle etc,    

Many people do not actually realise that its not the nuts studs that directly  hold the wheels on, it\'s actually the clamping effect between the flat surfaces that is really holding the wheels on and doing the bulk of the work,

The studs and nuts just act as the means to clamp the surfaces with the correct tension to accomplish this,

If you can picture this, think of  the violence that goes through say a Top Fuel Dragster on launch that still uses conventional studs and nuts, if the studs alone were doing the work you would shear them off every time you unleashed 6,000 horsepower !  

The only time this differs slightly and the clamping effect is a little less is when you have a proper race wheel that is held by a single center nut that will be spline or peg mounted.

Hope this helps
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: interloper393 on January 02, 2009, 02:34:22 PM
iv had spacers on quite a few of my cars with no problems, but its been the spacers that bolt to the existing hub then the wheel bolts onto the spacer if you know what i mean lol
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: Jimi_Hendrix on January 02, 2009, 02:44:32 PM
Cheers guys. I kind of knew 5mm was the bigest anyone would want to go, just wanted to check the views of the wise! :Thumbs-up
 
Incidentaly, what do you want to do about my Rays Interlope?
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: chrisJDM on January 03, 2009, 08:36:52 PM
just spotted these and thought of this thread, surely ones like these are ok as they take into consideration the problem with the studs

problem not the right ones for a rx7 but you get the idea

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-JC-PROJECT-Wheel-Spacer-15mm-5-x-100-M12x30x1-5_W0QQitemZ290244312284QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item290244312284&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: TonyC on January 03, 2009, 10:30:35 PM
I ran 5mm spacers on the MGB race car for loads of seasons - no problems. Just don\'t do something like this:
(http://www.barryboys.co.uk/photos15/8543cb2b5560d02842e567f7b1ac37f0.jpg)

:D
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: Jimi_Hendrix on January 03, 2009, 10:33:10 PM
Ha ha! What the feck! seriously going to put strain on those hubs! Lol!
Title: Weight!
Post by: DMDRIFTING on January 12, 2009, 07:54:28 PM
Also adding large spacers will mess with your un-sprung weight in all 4 corners, thus affecting handling.

This aside, i\'ve run 25mm bolt on spacers on an FD around the Nurburgring and they were fine..

Im looking into running them on my new 17inch wheels but worried about messing around with the contact patch??

I have a good garage for alignment, how much would the settings need to be changed from standard alignment if i were to add these?
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: interloper393 on January 12, 2009, 08:20:55 PM
i cant see the spacer weight making much of a difference lol, what are they aybe 2.5lbs each?
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: interloper393 on January 12, 2009, 08:22:38 PM
Quote from: Jimi_Hendrix;570509Cheers guys. I kind of knew 5mm was the bigest anyone would want to go, just wanted to check the views of the wise! :Thumbs-up
 
Incidentaly, what do you want to do about my Rays Interlope?

i`ll paint your bonnet for free lol
Title: 10mm spacers? Good idea/bad idea?
Post by: Jimi_Hendrix on January 12, 2009, 08:42:27 PM
Quote from: interloper393;574103i`ll paint your bonnet for free lol

Lol! They are long gone Craig! You can still feel free to paint the bonnet for free though!:Giggle
Title: Weight!
Post by: DMDRIFTING on January 13, 2009, 10:03:03 PM
Quote from: interloper393;574102i cant see the spacer weight making much of a difference lol, what are they aybe 2.5lbs each?

You would go as far as replacing all wheels nuts, to alloy, in aid of weight loss, and i\'d imagine 4 x 25mm spacers weight over 6kg?!

As the largest Supermarket chain states, \'Every little helps!\' hahahaha :rollin


Would you use them on your set up, if you tracked your fd?