MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - wheel clearance

OK, ive got my new (secondhand) wheels,
They are 13"x 5.5J alloys with 44.5mm offset and fitted with TOYO 350 165/65 tyres.
my current wheels are 14" x 5.5J with 49mm offset and 175/65 tyres.

cant fit them to my hubs yet as i have to fit new bearings first however, using my tape measure i can see i'm going to have some trouble...
inside dia of the wheel is approx 12" tapering towards the back. The 12" diameter part is about where the rod ends will be once the wheel is fitted.
measuring from the centre of the spindle to the outer edge of the top of the rod end thread its just over 6 inches.....
ive read elsewhere that this is a common problem and that the cure is to replace the castle nuts with nyloc.. but mine are already nyloc.
i'm thinking to put some spacers between the steering arm and the stub axle to push it back a bit, but i only have about 5mm of thread left on the steering rack arms.

There is a locknut which locks up the rod ends, i could remove that to give myself some more space, or maybe cut down the rod ends somewhat......

apart from doing this ... is there anything else that people have done ? for example machining the top of the steering arm where the rod end goes through it so that the nut will go down further and cutting the excess threads off....

or anything more radical like replacing rod ends with rose joints... (ive seen that somewhere)

Not sure which car these wheels came off, but they look similar to minilights and were cheap.... 120 pounds incl the partworn tyres....so i dont mind having to do some work to make them fit...

The shop that sold them to me said they were called "Banana wheels" as the spokes look like small banana's


Andy Phillips

Yo Andy,

They are some funky looking faux-minilites!

Another thought... Are you sure the PCD is correct? midget is 4" (101.6 mm). A lot of wheels are 100 mm PCD. Close but not quite, and ends up with the wheel studs getting bent and the wheel nuts to seating properly.

Cheers,
Mal.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Andy,
If I have understood your problem, I had the same difficulty. i.e. TRE contacting the inside of my 5.5J wheels (not minilites though) The simple solution in my case was to add a 5mm wheel spacer.
Guy Weller

The PCD is 100mm on two of them, and 120 on the others... maybe another reason they were cheap.
I did plan to get them redrilled, but i have spacers/adaptors on the back which are 100mm pcd already, and as i have the front hubs off i drilled them to match the 120pcd....


Andy Phillips

All over it! ha ha. Good stuff.

Bet that would confuse the folks in kwikfit if you went in and asked for a complete set of tyres!

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

They do look a bit "Front wheel drive", don't they? The 5.5 Minilights on mine have the rims much further out, if you see what I mean. Not sure if it is my imagination.

[IMG]http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j279/foggythomas/DCP00890.jpg[/IMG]
r thomas

Andy,
I've got four Toyo 350 155/80/13 fitted fairly recently, IF your size (and type for area) tyres have the same characteristics as mine then I found mine to have very upright sidewalls and I had reduce the tyre pressures back down to book settings otherwise the ride was too hard for what I wanted and use (on my car with it's non-standard suspension)

the grip is reasonable but not nearly as good as the previous Yokohama a.drives I had fitted
Nigel Atkins

Nigel,
I think Andy's problem is with the wheels, rather than the tyres.
The offset certainly looks odd!
Guy Weller

Tyresave.co.uk have a really useful guide for alloy wheel fitment. Years ago I bought a set of 5.5" Revolutions for the frog when i sprinted and hill climbed. It was explained to me that the track rod end runs very close to the inner wheel rim and the offset is critical. Spacers can help but they increase the stress on the wheel studs and hubs. A 1" spacer induces approx 25% more stress on the hub, studs and bearings. Don't ask how I know!!
Bob Beaumont

yeap I know the problem is with the wheel but I'm giving info on the tyres to give an overall picture to how much it's worth going on with the package

(same as you with compression test on other thread, you'll never be on my wavelength for which you may be very grateful:) )
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed on 11/04/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.