Wheel spacers and offset

[NoYouRelax]

I just purchased an '86 Turbo and as part of the deal, the wheels were going to be swapped out to turbo twist and new rubber. The wheel and rubber are fine on new the 17 x 7.5" (ET 52) front and 17 x 9" (ET 47) rears. However, the offsets are way off and spacers are required. I need to let the PO know that I believe he is on the hook to cover the spacers of my DIY install. The question is, what are the ramifications of running the new wheels without proper spacers? Alignment issues? Or is it just the bad appearance thing of bad wheel well fit? The alignment seems way off.

Thanks in advance for all opinions and advice.

[v2rocket_aka944]

youll need a 7/8"/22mm spacer for the front and a 2" spacer for the back to bring those wheels out to where a standard 7ET23 would have fit on your car.

it looks bad and puts strain on the wheel bearing since the centerline of the wheel (center of weight) isn't in the right orientation relative to the wheel hub. spacers just make everything line up again.

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

Take a look at the link below, it's a great guide on wheel fitment and spacing/offset. Quite comprehensive, but easy to follow and good general knowledge. Hope this helps!

Wheel Fitment & Spacing Guide

[DannoXYZ]

The 944-FAQ has errors for this model.

The '86 951 is oddball creature with 23.3mm wheels, but missing rear spacer of early NA cars. This makes rear wheel more inset than normal and doubly so with late-offset wheels. Since that's a 17x9" rear, I would use only 20-25mm spacer. This will allow 275/40-17 tyre to fit without rubbing fender-lip.

Alignment shouldn't be affected by wheel-offsets. If it's off, that's different and independent issue.

[v2rocket_aka944]

Danno..
As I recall the spacer of the early (steel arm) cars was to widen the track out since they were using ex-924 (ex-Beetle) IRS.

Since the aluminum arms were a whole new design didn't they just build the offset into the hub? Recall that the hub was the only part that changed on the rear from 85.5-86 to 87+, the arm remained the same.

[DannoXYZ]

That's why the '86 951 is such a strange creature. It had 23.3mm offset wheels, but the rear was always inset more than other 944s & 951s of other years (early or late offset). I finally fixed by installing spacers & longer studs from early 944.



Your spacer suggestion does a similar thing by incorporating the missing rear spacer into the thickness:

Front: et52 - 22mm = 30mm offset
Rear: et47 - 51mm = -4mm offset

The rear of OP's car would be similar to factory 23.3mm wheels with 1" spacer added.

[bumflick]

Dani is spot on.

My 86 951 required spacers and longer studs to fit late offset wheels. (Converted front to Iate offset) I went with a 10 inch wide rear wheel, so had to play with a couple different offsets to get it to fit without rubbing.

[FrenchToast]

The best fix is getting wheels with the correct offset.

Those twist wheels require adapters which use a second set of studs/nuts. The second set of lugnuts cannot be checked without removing the wheels.

Not sure why the person is putting wrong offset (not even close) wheels on the car.

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

missing rear spacer of early NA cars

I was under the impression the spacer was only present for the cars equipped with Fuchs. Incorrect?

[DannoXYZ]

Hmmm, first I heard of that. Any '82-85 944NA I've seen had that rear 21mm spacer. With Cookie Cutters, Phone Dials & Fuchs.

My '86 951 came with Fuchs, no rear-spacer and sucked in rear-wheels!

[flash968]

spacers are never a good idea, unless you change the studs to regain the length. porsche generally sets their studs to be exactly the minimum safe thread engagement. standard engineering practice sets that at 1.5 times the diameter for steel nuts, and twice diameter for aluminium nuts.

spacers with the second set of studs are particularly unsafe. as stated, you cannot check the torque without removing the wheel. yes, many people use them. you won't find them on my cars though.

[bumflick]

Sematics. I define spacer as a bit of round metal (or other appropriate material) that fits between hub and wheel. Studs pass through.

The things that have their own bolt holes are adaptors, in my opinion. And yes, it now means you have 10 bolts/nuts on each wheel that could come lose, and you have to remove the wheel in order to check 5 of them.

Malcolm