Marcos Maniacs

----- Original Message -----

From: pauldransfield@...

To: MarcosManiacs@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 2:13 PM

Subject: RE: [MarcosManiacs] (no subject)

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

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