My '85 came with sawblades. Right now I have no spacers/adapters so they don't sit right on the car. I never entertained the idea of spacers, I don't like the thought of that at all. How about adapters though? Are they safe? I've never seen C4 adapters in person. It would be nice to get the proper spacing in the front, then maby some ZR1 11" rear rims.

thanks,

 

Spacers? Only ricers use them if they wanna put a 245 sized tire on their Civic!!!!! Not to mention the stress the lugs get, with less lug, the wheels are bound to pop right off when the studs break!

Adapters are fine. On my 89, I run them on my rear wheels to give my C4 a more agressive stance with 275mm tires. Drag raced with them several times, and have put over 20+ passes on the local 1/8th mile. Haven't had a problem yet!! Just periodically torque them down to 100 ft-lbs and you should be fine.

 

I didnt think there was a difference between spacers and adaptors for C4 rims,fitting etc..I thought they meant the same thing.

Ive seen them called both in catalogs that ALLOW newer rims to fit to older Vettes and etc.

Am I off or on the right track?What are you trying to do?

 

Well, I meant the adapters that bolt on your rotor and from the studs off the adaptor you bolt the wheel to. Not the half inch ones that just have holes on them. Those are dangerous for a stock lug length, unless you are just spacing for something less than 1/4th inch. I'd say I'd feel better if our C4s came factory with studs a bit longer for that purpose.

 

Bill, they are confused and interchanged incorrectly regularly.

This is a wheel spacer:


This is a wheel adaptor(hub-centric in this particular case, note the center extruding lip which the wheel slides onto):


The wheel spacer has the advantage of being able to be used in very small increments (i.e. 1/8", what is supposedly required on newer C4 Vettes to allow clearance of a C5 caliper inside a stock sawblade wheel). However they depend on that stud to hold everything in place. Now I am not engineer, and I won't pretend to be, but basically the stud is more prone to break in this scenario. They are also cheaper.

The wheel adaptor allows for the studs in the bearing to be bolted to the adptor which then has it's own studs in it, which in turn bolt to the wheel. These are generally regarded as much safer. The drawbacks are: they are more expensive and you need to make sure they are compatible with your current wheels. What I mean by this, in certain applications of adaptors. The adaptor is too thin to have the original stud(bearing)/lug nut flush or sunk in the adaptor piece. In this situation your wheels have to have space in those locations for those
to sit otherwise you can't put your wheels on flush.
Sawblades:


Generally stock wheels have these. FYI, you need a 3/4" 5 on 4.75" spacer for your early C4 to late C4 wheel swap. However, 3/4" are rare and (I run them) the 1" adaptor is much more common, cheaper, and I think sits just flush with the body. So there ya go...



...breathe....

 

Could you tell me where can I find a reasonable priced adapter that is 1" thick, has a flush surface for aftermarket rims and has a lip like this:

 

I used a 1" adapter on my '85 for about 3 years when I was driving on a set of '93 sawblades. No problems at all.. You can buy them from Ecklers, MAD, etc...

 

Other than Ecklers, CorvetteCentral and so on, you can try these guys:

http://www.skulte.com/adapters.html

Looks like they have some nice products.

Good luck,
Dino

 

I have adapters on my 86 with a molds, have driven the car to 158 mph on a few occasions with no hint of vibration, and the car has 60k miles with the adaptors on with no problems.

 

VtVette,

Have you considered getting a set of ZR-1 style wheels with the correct offset instead? If you already have 17' tires, you're halfway there... AFS is just one company that offers them at right around $500, that's not a lot more than a good set of adapters will cost, without any of the issues associated with them...
http://www.afswheels.com/v2/ecommerc...&StepaFlag=yes

Good luck... GUSTO

 

If this is concerning ZR1/5spokes, get the wheels from AFS.

Otherwise, call VetteBrakes and get their adapter.

 

I've been running 1 3/4" adaptors to put Y2k's on my 87 vert. Had no problems what so ever. I would steer clear of the spacers though.

 

I have ran and drag raced with them before. I bought mine from Vette brakes.

 

Ecklers, Mad and Corvettecentral only sell adapters for factory rims. They are not flush and will not fit many aftermarket rims.

 

Some aftermarket wheels don't have the relief in the rear of the mounting flange between the mounting holes for the lprotruding ug nuts of the adapter to fit into. This was noted in the pics of the previous post. When the adapter is mounted onto your car the lug nuts that screw onto your existing studs stick up beyond the mounting surface of the adapter. This is especially true on 3/4" adapters. So unless the wheel has a relief for the lug nuts to stick into you won't be able to mount aftermarket wheels that don't have the reliefs. I'm sure this is what the previous posts are detailing, I'm just putting it another way. I ran 3/4" adapters to mount '90 wheels on my '85. They worked fine.

Art

 

I used the adapters from Mid- America (as pictured in this thread) to facilitate 17' A-mold wheels on my '87. I'm quite sure they are 3/4"n ot 1" and I've had no problems.
I do admit the larger tires and wheels are a bit noisier than stock - but acceptable. I've read other posts from owners that also report extended use with no difficulties.
Since I can't post pictures here, you can see them on arizonavettenet forum...same screen name

 

Been running mine for 10 years...no problems.

 

I found out the hard way when I bought adaptors from VBP and ended up sending them back. They wouldnt work with my Y2k's

 

Thus another reason to go with the cheaper 1" ones.