I need to buy a set of 4 2" adapters to put 4th gen rims on my car. I had some before but they were causing horrific vibrations at high speeds. I want to hear from people who have them on their cars, who have driven over 80 mph while not accelerating, and who have had them for a while. I would like to buy some in the near future as I cant drive my car until i get these rims back on.

Hopefully i posted this in the right place

What kind did you end up getting? I'm guessing Ebay? I'm curious if there wasn't something with the spacers that isn't true/accurate.

i'm sure, because the spacers were out of round and by taking off only the front ones about 75% of my vibration went away.

I actually got them from somewhere local, not from ebay.

So any suggestions on where to get some?

I think these are what you're looking for:

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/ca...athirdgen.aspx

That is what i'm looking for, just a little more expensive then I had hoped for. I'll look into it more before buying them

Has anyone used these?

There's a guy that makes them in the US that are hubcentric and milled to exact tolerances for a perfect mating surface. Problem is, they're expensive... $320 shipped ($75 a piece) for 2 inch spacers for my application. That's a set of tires-worth right there.

*Hawks is cheaper. Just looked at that.

2" bolt on ebay spacers on my car for ~5 years and ~100k miles with two wrecks (one being an offroading adventure) and I've had no issues. Torque them down correctly and you'll be fine.

Which ones did you get, though.. that's the question. I see two different designs.. the ones with the lip around the center, and the ones without. I'm still not sure how much of a difference that will make, though.

if you get the cheaper ones without the lip on them, try tightening the lug nuts together. if you snug one down all the way, the rest of the tapered seats won't be dead on and can cause that wobble. put them all on loosely and go around until they are all in hand tight. then tighten down in the usual star pattern and you should be ok.

see, that's kind of what I was thinking.. but I've never owned spacers before, so I wasn't about to make that suggestion. I'm considering buying the hub-centric ones, but those things are REAL expensive.

i happen to have a set of each actually; bought my ebay ones before i got my vette rims, only to discover the seller was including a set of the good ones. guess which set are getting resold

Have you tested both of your sets with good results?

alas, i have not. motor swap's still not done yet, so the car's still up on jackstands. maybe soon-ish

My wallet is telling me to go with the $140 set.. but I feel like I'm gambling on this one so I'm indecisive. I just have a really hard time believing it makes THAT much of a difference assuming everything is put on a properly as well as machined to spec as it should be. $300 is a lot to swallow on 4 pieces of aluminum, but so is paying for the say part twice.

ive had 2 different sets now with the same result, and paid less then $200 for each set. I would try to tighten the lugs for the spacer 1st with a thin wall socket, but the spacers were out of round and the socket would catch in one area as it turned. I also looked at the spacers on a brand new rotor and they did not fit - almost like they were a bigger bolt pattern.

so to summarize this - i want a return policy due to my bad luck so far with these

any more suggestions on a reputable place to buy these? i really want somewhere that i could return them due to my past bad experiences. even hawks says on their website they only accept returns on new items in the box, but they charge a 30% fee!!

somewhere in s florida would be awesome!!

I hope somebody can fill me in. I need the 2" spacers right? I dont know what to get so I can order them asap

i must be lost - what do you want to be filled in on? what do you need to buy spacers for? what rims are you using?

I have had my spacers on for almost a year and a half and put about 15,000 mi on them. DONT use an impact to put them on. I did this at first thinking they would be tighter but it made them vibrate and come loose. I installed new Moser studs into the spacers and torqued them by hand and havent had a problem since!

I have an 88 Camaro and 88 S10. I ended up with a set of 97 Firebird 16" wheels. The tire size is 245/50R16 FRONT AND 255/50R16 REAR.

Hi, which spacers are fine to put these 4gen rims (16", 8J from 2002 ) on my chevy? Any experience? Thanks

How did u guys put the spacers on the fronts? I had somebody hold the brake down and tighten them since the front rotors like to spin.

i had some bought off ebay, but i think they were not the cheap brand. had no problems with vibrations even with some 100mph spurts. mine are now for sale. asking 100. this weekend i'll be putting them on ebay. pm me if interested. (i had 2" on all four corners)

i sent a pm yesterday, let me know if you want to get rid of them. im definately interested.

These are the ones I used. So far they are GREAT! I torqued them down evenly then used a torque wrench.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1967-...Q5fAccessories

pm sent

Sorry, didn't see this question. From this guy;

http://shop.ebay.com/completevalue/m..._sop=12&_rdc=1

Whatever you do, just make sure they seat firmly against the hub/rotor. And re-torque them. A local thirdgenner didn't and lost a wheel on the freeway. I've always made sure they were torqued properly and have never had an issue.

How often do u have to re-torque them?

I check them every time my wheels are off and i've never had a single loose lug nut. Not saying they wont loosen up on you, but how often do your lugs come loose on your wheels when torqued properly? Not very often, why would the inner lugs be any different? Also most 1 ton trucks run the same type of spacer on the front end so that should tell you something as well. As long as you check the periodically you "shouldn't" have an issue

I wonder how much my C6 Z06 rims weigh because I'm pretty sure my car got a tad bit slower with all the weight of the rims plus spacers.

just thowing in my opinion, im running ebay spacers after i went back and 4th with hawks 4 times trying to get my spacers right. I do drag racing auto cross. backroads etc. driving well over 80mph all the time. what im trying to say is if you get the right spacers from ebay. they are great. wouldnt steer anyone away from them.

I don't run wheel spacers. I want to live...

if they are manufactured and installed correctly they are 100% safe. it's been rehashed 5 million times on this board.... of course those with little knowledge of any type of mechanical analysis still will argue they are dangerous

I disagree
Anyone with a brain knows that wheel assembly's ride in the middle. On the hub. That little round raised area that sticks out on the end of an axle. It centers the wheel and gives all kinds of strength and balance to the rotating assembly.
All that lug nuts do is bolt the wheel to the hub.
Most pacers do not extend the hub. They eliminate it. That means your betting that the wheel is centered by the lugs.
That can cause unwanted vibration and can lead to cracked studs. Add that our studs are only 12mm wide or 7/16" in the earlier cars.


Rarely, some spacers have a machined hub but then there is the fact that there are 10 studs and nuts per wheel adding weight and many of these spacers are from China with unknown metal strength. Does anyone Rockwell their spacers before they put them on??

Just buy your wheels with the right backspacing. If you don't know how find someone who does. Make sure the studs enter the lugnut heads and it doesn't hurt to change to 1/2" studs if your going racing.

Just common sense

I have friends that have big body cars and many of them require spacers as well. If a Caprice with 22's or 24's can hang I'm pretty sure my C6 Z06 rims + spacers will be fine. So far I've gotten many compliments on how they look on the gta.

I got mine from hawks third gen just for the fronts and have gone 183 mph on GPS no vib just a feeling of flying

I have a 2" pair on the rear of my 76 CJ7 with 37x13.5x15's. Not doing 100mph but I have drove 3hrs one way at 60 to 70 as much as possible and no problems. It also see's a lot of rocks. I have been running them now for 3yrs without any problems. I am also running a detroit locker. If you install them properlly and check them on a regular basis you shouldn't have a problem. With that said I am getting a set of 4 2" for 89 IROC to run vette wheels.

On an unlimited budget, yes custom wheels with the perfect backspacing is the right thing to do but there is nothing, I repeat NOTHING wrong with properly torqued/installed spacer/adapters. I'll direct you to this thread. I did that on the same spacers I'm running right now. That was three years ago. On a daily driver. That I beat the snot out of.

On a side note, the "round raised area" that you're calling the hub is not the hub. The hub is what you bolt the wheel too, studs and all. The "round raised area" doesn't center the wheel. The entire reason we run acorn style lug nuts/wheels is to center the wheel while you correctly torque it down in a star pattern.

I wish we had a like button on these threads! If properly installed they work great!

Hmm, it seems to me you can buy a new set of American Racing wheels the right size for less than a set of used 4th gen wheels and spacers.

hmmm - now that my thread has been hijacked AMerican Racing does not make the wheels i want - to each their own.

Running these since January.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wheel...Q5fAccessories

You are the one that suggested $260 for a set of four spacers was too much, I just suggested a cheaper alternative. But if you want to be that way, fine, I won't bother to suggest anything to help you save money ever again.

im all about saving money. the hijack was when the topic switched from where to get spacers to arguing about whether or not spacers should be used.

I actually got this taken care of already. thanks to everyone for their input

you get those wheels on yet?

yes, but i need an alignment so i havnt driven it yet

DISCLAIMER: I'm assuming all spacers are manufactured and installed correctly, and contain no material defects.

I'll agree that hub-centric spacers may do a slightly better job of centering the wheels, but as iansane said if you TQ the lugs properly thats pretty much a non-issue. Even then, I still prefer hub-centric spacers giving the option, and most, not all but most, quality spacers are hub-centric.

The main issue with your "they need to be hub-centric so the studs only see tensile stress" is that the centering ring is not a PERFECT fit in the wheel, so the studs are still going to see shear stresses similar to the ring not even being there. If the studs deflect enough to allow a considerable force to transfered to the centering ring, there would still be shear stress in the studs equal to the stress required to deflect the stud enough to allow force to be transfered to the centering ring. So even with the centering ring taking the majority of the force, the studs are still seeing a shear stress and some very small form of elastic deformation, so either way the studs are in a constantly changing load and deformation cycle, there goes your vibration argument...

If your considering a non hub-centric spacer then all of the force is on the studs and they are going to be experiencing a similar, albeit slightly higher load/deformation cycle. If this load is so much more than a hub-centric design that it is an issue, then the studs must be deflecting more, meaning the wheel is now off center due to the lack of the centering ring, and the whole assembly will now be unbalanced. We know from many, many personal accounts (including my own) that this is simply not true. Therefor the increase in load does not lead to appreciable deformation greater than that of a hub-centric style attachment.

If you look at a stress/strain graph for a material you will see that there is a wide range of loads that can be safely applied with very little difference in deformation, and then there are critical loads that will lead to plastic deformation and failure. I do not have said charts on hand, but I'm willing to bet both hub and lug centric attachments produce loads on the studs that are well within the acceptable "safe" rage for the stud material.

CLIFF notes of the above: With properly sized studs, there is no issue with lug-centric spacers if they are machined correctly (studs are in the correct locations). I'm not able to tell at this time for sure, but I'm willing to bet that the studs on our cars, and the ones that come in spacers are plenty strong for our applications if they are in good condition.

More food for thought, ALL heavy duty 3500/1 Ton trucks have hub-centric front spacers from the factory.... they are even super strong cast steel so if anything was going to break while towing 30000+ lbs in the spacer assembly you'd think it would be the studs... I've never seen or heard of a single failure.


"Common sense"

Like I said in my previous post, people with little to zero knowledge of how to analyze a mechanical connection will argue that spacers are dangerous, a bad idea, etc. Stating the lugs/studs only experience tensile stress and no shear stress "because the wheel rides on the little raised area" shows just how right I am in my previous statement.

I'm not gonna go into anymore detail here until I do a full analysis on some spacers one of these days, and try to take some spacers to the material testing lab and put them to the test.... I just need to find some time LOL

But go ahead, keep spreading your "common sense" engineering, I always need a good laugh