7umberjackZac
Go Kart Newbie
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Car(s)
- Gti
I'm sure plenty of you will still use spacers which is fine, just be warned. Something happens and it doesn't matter if you grease them.
I put a set of flush out spacers on my stock wheels Summer of 2017.
From amazon because all the bolts were different lengths and I'll always go for cheap. Cheap anodized aluminum spacer you get it. In the fall 2017 I did my brakes and they were rusted to the rotor pretty good but rubber mallet and they come off.
Greased them up really well, painted the rotor and hub greased them too.
Fast forward Winter 2018, I have a stud set, Porsche calipers, pads to install and the spacers are not coming off. After a weekend I get them off and after putting on studs, put the spacers back on.
You are literally stuck with a binded spacer over these rotors, you won't be able to unscrew the retaining nut without drilling. I believe I was running 16in steelies and needed the spacers to clear them.
The lip that forms on the center hub is the problem. The lip and debris slowly grind away at the spacers. You can see all the pitting. I almost think the spacer with grease held water around the hub better than if I had just left it alone.
March 2020 Those spacers have to come off for new wheels to fit. Plus I had a terrible vibration from them at this point.
I spent a week trying to figure out a way to get these spacers off my rotors and normal methods all failed.
Even drilling out the retaining nut, because I don't wanna ruin these studs, rotors, or hub I'm left with one option. Use gallium to structurally decay the aluminum and break the spacers. It was really easy. Drill some nice fresh holes in the aluminum put some drops of hot gallium in and wait overnight. I added heat a couple of times to spend up the reaction. $20 Amazon for 100g still have half of it.
Gallium destroys aluminum and a number of other metals. Be warned about getting it on anything metal, it will spread through your entire aluminum; floorjack, wheel, engine block in a few days. Fortunately the damage depth to steel is .002" over several weeks so it won't spread into a steel rotor or steel studs. But those spacers turned to cookie crumbs with just a couple of hammer taps. Gallium solidifies below 85* so it was safe and wouldn't splatter everywhere. Some got on the rotor and it was discolored until I wore it down.
Here is the center hub and the enormous lip that had formed to bind it on.
Dumb enough to do it, smart enough to get myself out of it.
Bust that lip off every 6 months with wire wheel if you wanna run spacers.
I put a set of flush out spacers on my stock wheels Summer of 2017.
From amazon because all the bolts were different lengths and I'll always go for cheap. Cheap anodized aluminum spacer you get it. In the fall 2017 I did my brakes and they were rusted to the rotor pretty good but rubber mallet and they come off.
Greased them up really well, painted the rotor and hub greased them too.
Fast forward Winter 2018, I have a stud set, Porsche calipers, pads to install and the spacers are not coming off. After a weekend I get them off and after putting on studs, put the spacers back on.
You are literally stuck with a binded spacer over these rotors, you won't be able to unscrew the retaining nut without drilling. I believe I was running 16in steelies and needed the spacers to clear them.The lip that forms on the center hub is the problem. The lip and debris slowly grind away at the spacers. You can see all the pitting. I almost think the spacer with grease held water around the hub better than if I had just left it alone.
March 2020 Those spacers have to come off for new wheels to fit. Plus I had a terrible vibration from them at this point.
I spent a week trying to figure out a way to get these spacers off my rotors and normal methods all failed.
Even drilling out the retaining nut, because I don't wanna ruin these studs, rotors, or hub I'm left with one option. Use gallium to structurally decay the aluminum and break the spacers. It was really easy. Drill some nice fresh holes in the aluminum put some drops of hot gallium in and wait overnight. I added heat a couple of times to spend up the reaction. $20 Amazon for 100g still have half of it.
Gallium destroys aluminum and a number of other metals. Be warned about getting it on anything metal, it will spread through your entire aluminum; floorjack, wheel, engine block in a few days. Fortunately the damage depth to steel is .002" over several weeks so it won't spread into a steel rotor or steel studs. But those spacers turned to cookie crumbs with just a couple of hammer taps. Gallium solidifies below 85* so it was safe and wouldn't splatter everywhere. Some got on the rotor and it was discolored until I wore it down.
Here is the center hub and the enormous lip that had formed to bind it on.
Dumb enough to do it, smart enough to get myself out of it.
Bust that lip off every 6 months with wire wheel if you wanna run spacers.
Attachments
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