Wheel spacers

Im having a speedster built and have a question as to how to set up the wheel within the fender. Im using a Fuchs 16x8 in the rear which have a 43/4 in backset. I tried a 964 wheel which has a 63/8 in backset to see how they both fit. I own and want the Fuchs, but it seems that I would need at least a 2in spacer to give it the clearance and look I would want to achieve. Is a 2in spacer excessive for the rear wheels? Help!

For an IRS, it's too much. Short term, you could get around, but you're placing a LOT of force on the stub axle assemblies.

Swing axle is no problem. Not for a car as light as the Speedster.

You might want to consider alum 944 trailing arms. They will bolt on, give you the correct bolt pattern and they are appox 2" wider on each side.
They are cheap and you get better brakes. You have some options on front brakes.


I had a large spacer but I knew that was just a stop-gap measure. Look here for some info
www.vdubengineering.com

the 944 turbo trailing arms are aluminium, wider, and internally braced. Brakes are 4 pot calipers and better than the non-turbo model. Rebuilding the 944T calipers is very expensive at about 250.00 ea so make sure you get good ones or go for more modern and bigger 996 calipers.

I am using 996 monoblock axial mount calipers, 96 - 944T rotors, and 944T narrow arms with 17 x 8.5 Boxter wheels

There are 2 models of 944T trailing arms, that differ in track width. I am not 100% sure on the years, but think that pre 86 are the narrow ones, and later are wider. Early = 25mm and late = 50mmm per side increase in width.
Seems that the late arms would do the trick for your wheel problem.

Steel non-turbo 944 arms are cheaper, narrow, and have the standard brakes.

Spacers are a bearing failure waiting to happen. Dont use um I have started making a new wider beam for my car just because of front bearig failures I have had.

Your car must be a wide body car if your adding spacers to the rear. If your just wanting a 5 lug rim you can get rotors made for ford or chevy wheel lug patterns.

But the futher away from the outer bearing you get the likely it is to fail.

Howard
A porsche 930 uses FACTORY 3" spacers on a 915 transaxle with IRS. They do not fail. The bearings do not fail. The trailing arms do not fail. Not with a 3.2, not with turbo, not with the 700 HP turbo that our engine building in Colorado assembled for himself.

We have a 911 turbo body in the shop right now that also has 3" spacers (aftermarket). Very good quality spacers are available for a 911 setup. We have a 912 that we converted for a customer to a 911 engine. That car also has 3" spacers on it.

Pelican Parts sells them in every width you can imagine. Only buy good ones as when you get into the wider widths, the quality difference makes a huge SAFETY difference.

Remember, you are not using VW swing axle parts, Henry is building your car with 911 parts. You cannot break them. Period.

angela

I've got a set of those 944 T trailing arms. My son salvaged them off a car the motor went bad in and the owner just quit on. I'd told him to watch for me a pair. I decided I'm not anxious to do the work for the cool factor. I don't need that much stopping power, and while I'm running a set of 16x7 fuchs onr rear, 16x6 up front, I only needed about 1/4" spacers in ther rear and 1/2" spacers up front. 225 rear, 205s up front. Tell me if you want me to get him to price them to you.

Jack,

If Howard is not interested, I may be, Send me a price at taldridge"at"gmail.com.

Thanks.

Tomm

I'm "pretty" sure that Howard's car was built with 911 trailing arms. I think the last person I talked to who had a 911 engine in their IM told me that the car had 911 trailing arms.

Sure would make spacers easy. If not, back to square one.
angela

Hi guys, Henry sent me pics of the 964 wheel and a 7 x16 in wheel for mock up purpose. Your right Angela, its all 911 mid-late 80's vintage stuff. The issue is that the wheel/tire has tocome back into the car, or shortened a bit, not lenghtened out. The backset of my Fuchs wheel needs to be reduced to bring the wheel into the wheel well. Henry sent me pics, maybe I'll post them here. He said not to worry as he has remedies for this sort of thing. I do appreciate the input from my colleagues. The body goes to the paint shop- this week for prep/paint which takes about 2-3 weeks, then assembly. Im going to the IM BBQ over July 4th weekend to tour the Great Northwest with my wife( w/o the kids).Hooray. I'll at least be able to touch it.

Howard,

As your off-set is toward the center of the car, maybe you would consider have some wheels built to accommodate.

Lindsey Racing takes Fuchs wheels, cuts the centers out and puts on rims on the wheel. Either welded or 3 piece bolted. They wind up 17" wheels which gives great performacne tire options.

But the really cool thing is that they can build any offset you want. http://www.lindseyracing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LR&Category_Code=P3

Just one more option.

angela

Angela, Yes I know about Lindsey. I guess they could modify the 16 7/8 Fuchs that I already bought. I had the inserts color keyed to match the body color.Very cool look. They could remake the wheel I have, $$$$$? I really didn't want to go that way. You are right then we could specify the correct offset. I'll talk to them on Monday and see what is invovled.

Just checked the website. If I supply my own wheels they will knock off 125 bucks/corner. I've already paid 1850 for they set of 911 Fuchs, which fit the suspension. Problem is the car is too narrow. I'll let Henry figure this one out, which he is confident he can do.

+1 on Henry. If he says he can do it - he can and will.

angela

The rear bearings are.t as likely but the front outer bearing are very prone to fail.

Here is a good question . Does any production (P) cars have spindes and rotors that have a larger outer bearing and race. that would fit these cars ??

If you car is being built with 911 parts dont worry about using spacers. You will NOT have a problem.

Like Angela said, 911s have been using wheel spacers for 30 year, without a problem.

Check around before you buy. I have bought/sold many a pair over the years.

As long as you stay away from cast spacers you will be fine. They should also be hub centric. I have never seen a cast 911 spacer nor have a ever seen a non hub centric spacer for a 911 (I know that doesn't mean they don't exist).