Wheel spacers

[Johnny Danger]

Originally Posted by lmw

I found this image on the website, it looks to me like the fingers ,or whatever you call them, that make the spacer hub-centric, match and lock the spacer into place with the hub not allowing it to spin.

Is it really possible for the spacer to spin under load even with the wheel torqued down properly. The wheel is mounted using the studs which go to the hub so the wheel cant really spin under load if correct lugs are used correct? doesn't that mean that the spacer would not be able to or have no reason to spin? there is no torsional load being applied to the spacer other than what the wheel is putting on the spacer, so any spinning that would happen would happen regardless if the spacer were there on not?



The reason I am asking is I am looking at these for my track 986, and there are a lot of crappy wheel spacers out there and it seems everyone has different views on the subject.

I have no idea what that image is. But, in any case, I think you're making this issue far more complicated than it needs to be. Imagine having a wheel, that instead of having lugs that are correctly match to the hub specification (i.e.. bolt pattern), but rather there were a series of elongated slots to mount the wheel to the hub. What would effectively hold the wheel in place ? Certainly not the torque of the lugs bolts alone. Furthermore, if neither the wheel or spacer has a center bore that's specific to the hub's center bore, then the interface between the two will not be hubcentric. Same principles hold true for the spacer. The spacer essentially acts as an extension of the wheel/hub in order to augment offset. Beyond using a 7mm spacer or so, there's no longer enough exposure of the hub for the wheel to effectively seat. Therefore, a properly designed spacer will have a hubcentric collar that acts as an extension of the hub so the wheel will interface correctly. The machined countersink tap is a nice touch that more or less keeps the spacer in place so it's not moving while you're trying to line up the wheel and hub.