Alloy wheel spacers safe on steel wheels?
Discussion
stevieturbo said:
Depends on the spacer, some are thing wobbly bits of s
t.
If it's a full face flat surface...can't see a problem
Halfway right, It DOES depend on the spacer but the preferred choice of spacer is a hub centric one which has a mounting lip for the wheel to sit on rather than the cheaper/crapper flat faced spacers. t.If it's a full face flat surface...can't see a problem
aka_kerrly said:
Halfway right, It DOES depend on the spacer but the preferred choice of spacer is a hub centric one which has a mounting lip for the wheel to sit on rather than the cheaper/crapper flat faced spacers.
Only huge spacers have that option...and I would never use huge spacers. It's all wrongE-bmw said:
As do steel wheels on steel hubs, a bit of copper grease sorts it out. 
At the risk of opening up the old chestnut - don't put copper grease on the mating surfaces. If you absolutely must then just a little bit around the edges to stop the moisture getting in - but those surfaces are transferring the torque from the wheel to the hub / spacer. Mave said:
E-bmw said:
As do steel wheels on steel hubs, a bit of copper grease sorts it out.
At the risk of opening up the old chestnut - don't put copper grease on the mating surfaces. If you absolutely must then just a little bit around the edges to stop the moisture getting in - but those surfaces are transferring the torque from the wheel to the hub / spacer. E-bmw said:
Mave said:
E-bmw said:
As do steel wheels on steel hubs, a bit of copper grease sorts it out.
At the risk of opening up the old chestnut - don't put copper grease on the mating surfaces. If you absolutely must then just a little bit around the edges to stop the moisture getting in - but those surfaces are transferring the torque from the wheel to the hub / spacer. Mave said:
E-bmw said:
Mave said:
E-bmw said:
As do steel wheels on steel hubs, a bit of copper grease sorts it out.
At the risk of opening up the old chestnut - don't put copper grease on the mating surfaces. If you absolutely must then just a little bit around the edges to stop the moisture getting in - but those surfaces are transferring the torque from the wheel to the hub / spacer. E-bmw said:
No, it is vastly overcome by the clamping force of the nut & stud/bolt tension & the positive location afforded by the bolt/nut cones & the wheel spigot.
The bolt /nut cones shouldn't be transmitting any torque because that would load them in shear, the spigot can't transmit torque, and the clamping force of the nut / bolt can't transmit torque because it's in the wrong direction. The only thing which transmits torque is the friction across the mating surfaces resulting from the combination of bolt tension and friction. There may be enough margin in the joint to allow some copper grease, just like there may be enough margin to get away with all sorts of wheel spacer arrangements, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, which was the essence of the OPs question.
Mave said:
E-bmw said:
No, it is vastly overcome by the clamping force of the nut & stud/bolt tension & the positive location afforded by the bolt/nut cones & the wheel spigot.
The bolt /nut cones shouldn't be transmitting any torque because that would load them in shear, the spigot can't transmit torque, and the clamping force of the nut / bolt can't transmit torque because it's in the wrong direction. The only thing which transmits torque is the friction across the mating surfaces resulting from the combination of bolt tension and friction. There may be enough margin in the joint to allow some copper grease, just like there may be enough margin to get away with all sorts of wheel spacer arrangements, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, which was the essence of the OPs question.
The cone on the nut/bolt & the spigot ring locate the wheel.
The clamping force comes from the torque on the nut/bolt.
If what you say in the final paragraph were true then a wheel on a hub without grease would not be able to be turned by hand before the wheel were fitted.
The torque is 100% transmitted to the wheel via the bolt/stud, just try transmitting torque without them.
E-bmw said:
You have misunderstood what I said.
The cone on the nut/bolt & the spigot ring locate the wheel.
The clamping force comes from the torque on the nut/bolt.
If what you say in the final paragraph were true then a wheel on a hub without grease would not be able to be turned by hand before the wheel were fitted.
The cone on the nut/bolt & the spigot ring locate the wheel.
The clamping force comes from the torque on the nut/bolt.
If what you say in the final paragraph were true then a wheel on a hub without grease would not be able to be turned by hand before the wheel were fitted.
I don't understand what you are trying to say here. How do you have a wheel on a hub before the wheel is fitted?
E-bmw said:
The torque is 100% transmitted to the wheel via the bolt/stud, just try transmitting torque without them.
You need the bolt / stud fitted to be able to transmit torque because they are part of the joint, but they are not the part of the joint which transmits torque.
If the torque was taken by the bolts / studs, they would fatigue in no time (and you'd never get wheels stuck to hubs because they'd constantly be fretting!). It would also raise the question of why you actually need to torque up the nuts / bolts in the first place - you could just put a bit of threadlock on them, and nip them up by hand....
Edited by Mave on Friday 11th June 19:34
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