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Wheel Studs too Short?


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I got a set of the classic 5 slot mag rims that came extra with my '71 240Z when I bought it and it had the stock rims on it. I got them all pollished up and got new tires and went ahead and tried to install them. The problem is the studs don't protrude but 1/8-1/4" from the outter face of the wheel and the stock lugnuts are barely engaging only a few threads. I am assuming these wheels are the same ones that come from MSA. Are they supposed to use different lug nuts?

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The wheels are not seating completely on the front hubs. I have just been through this exercise on a 260Z. The inside diameter of the hub opening is almost the same as the hub outside diameter (75mm) of the S30 front hubs.

 

These wheels were made by American Racing (their Ansen series). The 4x4.5 bolt pattern wheel was designed to fit the 1960’s vintage Ford Mustang six-cylinder and not the Z car:

 

http://www.americanracingwheelsinfo.com/American_Racing_Ansen_Sprint_Slot_Mag.htm

 

However, due to manufacturing tolerances some of these wheels will just barely fit correctly on an S30 hub, but some wheels will not. This is probably why Motosport Auto no longer sells them and denies that there is a fitment issue. I sure there are people driving around with these wheels and have only four or five turns of thread engagement on the wheel nuts.

 

Although Nissan changed the design of the S30 hubs when the 260Z was introduced, the fitment issue with these wheels remains whether you have a 240Z hub or a 260z/280Z hub.

 

To make these wheels fit correctly you can install a spacer between the wheel and hub and use longer wheel studs or have the center opening on the back of the wheel machined out.

 

Since the 260Z I was working on had the vented Toyo calipers on it, I used the wheel spacer.

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  • 1 year later...

Apologies for dredging up an old thread... Hope the interested parties are still around.

 

I'm really looking into getting some of these Ansen sprint wheels (15x7). I'm not sure how prevalent this issue is, but I'm glad it has been documented.

 

Anyway, as a follow-up, does anyone know how much interference are we talking? It sounds like a very small amount.

 

To make these wheels fit correctly you can install a spacer between the wheel and hub and use longer wheel studs or have the center opening on the back of the wheel machined out.

quote]

 

If I don't want to use a spacer, can the wheel ID be opened up by hand (say with a Dremel tool), or is there too much material that needs to be removed to do it that way?

 

Thanks,

Marc

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...If I don't want to use a spacer, can the wheel ID be opened up by hand (say with a Dremel tool), or is there too much material that needs to be removed to do it that way?

 

The amount of material to be removed is not much, but I like to do things “correctlyâ€, so if I was going to enlarge the opening I would have a machine shop do it. This would reduce any possible wheel imbalance a hand operation might cause.

 

But if you insist on doing it yourself, then use an air driven die-grinder loaded with a 1/4†end mill bit.

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Thanks for the reply, Steve. Other than this, have you been satisfied with the Ansens?

 

In any case, the problem doesn't seem huge, so I'll probably just go ahead and get the wheels. If any intereference shows up, I'll look into either the spacer or machining the wheel.

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Thanks for the reply, Steve. Other than this, have you been satisfied with the Ansens?

 

It was not my car. I was installing bigger front brakes on a friend’s 260Z when we encountered the interference issue.

 

Personally, I think these Ansen wheels look great on the S30’s. Very retro.

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