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rlutterb
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2006
Posts: 1393
Location: Carrollton Ohio
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 Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:39 pm Post subject: Empi 8 spoke on 72 superbeetle |
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I have a 72 super beetle on which I just installed adjustable struts. I’m not trying to slam it, but I wanted the floating front of that super beetle at least at the same height as the rear, which is about 26 3/4 high from ground to fender.
Worked perfect with the stock rims front end tucked down nice with no issues. Using the exact same tires, I changed over to new empi 8 spoke and now the inside of the rim is grinding on the bottom nut/bold of the ball joint...so OK the empi rim is a tad wider. So....I install 3/8 wheel spacers to get the rim away from the ballpoint....no more grinding but now I have tire rub on the inside of the fenders that I didn’t have before. Here are the options I’m considering to fix this -
Find somebody that can mill off or round of the inside of the rims to get the clearance and get rid of the spacers (will this mess with wheel integrity?)
Grind the ball joint bolt off all the way to the nut and get rid of the spacers (this shouldn’t compromise the ballpoint but I’ll hate myself if I ever have to replace the ballpoints)
Find a 1/8 inch thick 4x130 spacer and see if that eliminates the wheel rub (so far I cannot find them online)
Cut the inside of the fenders (probably won’t fix it and it’s a HACK on a really nice original 55K mile bug)
Raise back up the adjustable struts, pretty much wasting the money and time I spent installing them
Are there other solutions out there?
Original height with stock struts
Adjustable struts with stock rims
Adjustable struts with empi’s
_________________
1973 Super Beetle
1978 Ford F-250
2020 GMC Sierra |
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ach60 
Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2001
Posts: 4139
Location: Santa Maria
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:24 am Post subject: Re: Empi 8 spoke on 72 superbeetle |
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| rlutterb wrote: |
I have a 72 super beetle on which I just installed adjustable struts. I’m not trying to slam it, but I wanted the floating front of that super beetle at least at the same height as the rear, which is about 26 3/4 high from ground to fender.
Worked perfect with the stock rims front end tucked down nice with no issues. Using the exact same tires, I changed over to new empi 8 spoke and now the inside of the rim is grinding on the bottom nut/bold of the ball joint...so OK the empi rim is a tad wider. So....I install 3/8 wheel spacers to get the rim away from the ballpoint....no more grinding but now I have tire rub on the inside of the fenders that I didn’t have before. Here are the options I’m considering to fix this -
Find somebody that can mill off or round of the inside of the rims to get the clearance and get rid of the spacers (will this mess with wheel integrity?)
Grind the ball joint bolt off all the way to the nut and get rid of the spacers (this shouldn’t compromise the ballpoint but I’ll hate myself if I ever have to replace the ballpoints)
Find a 1/8 inch thick 4x130 spacer and see if that eliminates the wheel rub (so far I cannot find them online)
Cut the inside of the fenders (probably won’t fix it and it’s a HACK on a really nice original 55K mile bug)
Raise back up the adjustable struts, pretty much wasting the money and time I spent installing them
Are there other solutions out there?
Original height with stock struts
Adjustable struts with stock rims
Adjustable struts with empi’s
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Measure the distance you have now between ball joint and the wheel.
Subtract 0.050 and that is the amount of material you can remove from your spacers.
Take your spacers to a machine shop and have them cut down, should be a easy lathe job.
You can play around in your drive way with various spacer sizes by using fender washers as spacer at each stud.
That will be a good way to verify your math.
You could also consider running narrower tires, I'm running 145R15 on my Super.
I switched over to 195-65-15 tires on the rear, and Front tires are 145SR15, so I now have the classic Big & Little tire combination
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Good Luck
Al |
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Sharp64
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2015
Posts: 5304
Location: Central Florida
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| Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:16 am Post subject: Re: Empi 8 spoke on 72 superbeetle |
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Narrower or lower profile tire way help the fender rub.
_________________
1960 Indigo Blue Ragtop (Blue Barry)
1967 Ghia
1985 Westy Money Pit
“...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” - Michael Caine |
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