Marcos Maniacs

Hi Paul
  I bet it looks great, are you going to Bronte on Sunday I am 
definitely gonna be there this year without a car though ,next year I 
hope to bring the Marcos........
          Cheers Dave#5577






--- In MarcosManiacs@yahoogroups.com, pauldransfield@i... wrote:
> Hi guys,
>  
> Well, I finally got my new wheels and tires mounted, and they 
really do look
> quite spiffy, even if I say so myself. I was changing from 
185/70R13 tires
> on 13 x 5.5" rims to 205/45ZR17 and 215/45ZR17 tires on 17 x 7" 
rims. The
> slightly larger tires were put on the rear to correct a speedometer 
which
> was over-reading. In retrospect, it would have been better to have 
had a
> bigger backspace on the rear wheels because the tires protrude 
beyond the
> wheel wells a little more than I wanted. They don't protrude beyond 
the
> width of the car but they definitely could have been more inboard 
by 3/4" or
> even an inch. The front wheels look exactly right. The car tended to
> understeer on hard cornering so I always thought the old wheels 
needed a
> smaller backspace. There again, maybe the understeer was due to the 
higher
> profile tires.  The handling has dramatically improved with the car 
feeling
> even more like it's on rails than before. I need to raise the back 
of the
> car a little (by adjusting the shock seats) to avoid fouling on the 
rear
> wheel arches under hard cornering. I'll then be able to determine 
what
> became of the prior understeer.
>  
> Even though the tire profile is a lot lower, the only time it feels 
harsher
> is when I drive over severe ridges on the road surface. My old 
tires must
> have been in a terrible state internally because the new ones feel 
like I'm
> driving on glass, without a twitch or tremor, especially on the 
highway.
> During a test run, I surprised myself when I was up to 100mph while 
it felt
> like I couldn't be going more than 60. In comparison to before, the 
car is
> now a pure joy to drive.
>  
> Putting it all together was actually a lot more work than I 
anticipated. The
> hardest part was replacing the front hubs because there was 
insufficient
> clearance for the back of the new aluminum hubs to clear the bolts 
holding
> the backplate assembly. On one side, the brake caliper was fouling 
on the
> hub as well. I resolved the problems by using my trusty Dremel tool 
to grind
> down a couple of mms off the side of the problem bolt heads and 
about 1 mm
> from the caliper body to provide enough clearance. I had another  
problem
> when I found that the old hub body had threads tapped into it and 
the brake
> rotor was attached by bolts. The new hub was drilled and recessed 
for nuts
> and bolts. I had to get some stainless steel bolts and cut them 
down to the
> correct size so they wouldn't protrude beyond the wheel mounting 
face.
> Fortunately the recesses for the bearings were the correct size or 
I would
> have had a serious problem. Replacing those was quite 
straightforward. It
> took 3 3/4 hours to do the first side and 1 1/4 hours to do the 
other.
>  
> The rear wheels were relatively easy because the stud holes were 
already
> drilled for a 4.25 bolt circle. I just had to drive out the studs 
and
> reposition them. The brake drums were also pre-drilled. It took an 
hour to
> do the first side, mainly because one of the studs wouldn't 
cooperate and I
> had to remove the brake shoes to get at it properly. The other side 
took 20
> minutes.
>  
> I'll have to get my hands on a digital camera and take a shot for 
the web
> site so you can see how it turned out. It may appall purists but I 
think the
> car looks significantly better with the larger wheels.
>  
> Regards,
>  
> Paul Dransfield
> 3 litre Volvo