Billet wheel adapters

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Muswagon

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Sorry if wrong spot to post this....

I had started with those cast wheel adapters, 4.00 to 4.50. Read alot on here about the fact that they are cast and weak. So, I bought a pair of billet ones. Nice looking units.

However, went to sell the cast ones on a local Mopar facebook page and a guy chimed in saying save someones life and throw these away...but not for the reason I had read. He is saying that he sheared off the 7/16 studs off the car, not the adapters. Did not make alot of sense to me.

Would rather not spring for a set of new rear axles right now if I can avoid it, and frankly the 1" adapters puts the centerlines with 275 BF's in the absolute perfect spot and just clears the leafs.

Am I overthinking this?
 
Personally I don't like adapters, but if I was to get some I would not choose cast.

As for shearing 7/16" studs, my guess they were over torqued.
 
Just sell them. Do it correctly. You're asking for trouble. Maybe not in a week. But you will always worry about them. Hope you don't like to spin your tires?
 
Can’t help ,,,but link to the billet ones?

758E60D4-8D06-48D9-A6E5-5DD92AAEB748.png
 
The billet spacers are fine, you won’t break anything as long as your lug studs are in good repair and everything is torqued properly.

As for the busted 7/16” studs, I’ll go right back to what I already said. If they’re in good repair and torqued properly, it’s not an issue. If you’re still rocking original studs, remember those things are somewhere around 50 years old, and have a whole lifetime of maintenance you may not know about.

Off-road types run those billet adaptors up to 3” thick with way bigger tires without issue. Proper torque and maintenance, on BOTH sets of studs.
 
factory 7/16 studs are weak, we used to have non car type customers twist off the left hand ones with the stock lug wrench all the time. " Oh, is that what the L means??"
 
factory 7/16 studs are weak, we used to have non car type customers twist off the left hand ones with the stock lug wrench all the time. " Oh, is that what the L means??"
My 1970 Swinger 340 still has the LH studs on the driver's side. I'm leaning over the tire guy's shoulder when it goes in for tires or balancing.
 
My 1970 Swinger 340 still has the LH studs on the driver's side. I'm leaning over the tire guy's shoulder when it goes in for tires or balancing.
especially when you see kids in the shop
 
One more question, How much horsepower you going to throw at them ?
Ok two questions, Auto or stick ?
 
Ma mopar put a 383 4sp and a "M" code 440 to them !! not sure of the 68 hemi cuda but then again with factory tires /most likely knowing of the spin factor:steering:
 
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Been running 1" adapters on a '71 Valiant, not radical small block, auto trans car for years with no issues. I did use lock tight on adapter nuts and checked them a few times.
 
Sorry if wrong spot to post this....

I had started with those cast wheel adapters, 4.00 to 4.50. Read alot on here about the fact that they are cast and weak. So, I bought a pair of billet ones. Nice looking units.

However, went to sell the cast ones on a local Mopar facebook page and a guy chimed in saying save someones life and throw these away...but not for the reason I had read. He is saying that he sheared off the 7/16 studs off the car, not the adapters. Did not make alot of sense to me.

Would rather not spring for a set of new rear axles right now if I can avoid it, and frankly the 1" adapters puts the centerlines with 275 BF's in the absolute perfect spot and just clears the leafs.

Am I overthinking this?


I was towing a car with my Dakota with wheel spacers. Inner lugs that you can't check with the wheel on worked their way loose and off came a rear wheel while I was going 55mph on a 4 lane divided hwy. Truck and trailer did a complete 180 from the rt lane across the left into the median facing oncoming traffic. Never again. Buy axles or get yours redrilled and be done with it.
 
All.I’d like to say is that I had slicks on those 7/16 studs with about 3600 lbs back in the day going low 12’s with a 340 stick and had slicks in my 440 dart also and never broke them.
 
Ma mopar put a 383 4sp and a "M" code 440 to them !! not sure of the 68 hemi cuda but then again with factory tires /most likely knowing of the spin factor:steering:

That was with bias ply tires and brand new studs. Add radials and 54 years of use/abuse and torque cycles and it's a whole different ball game.

If the studs are in good condition they should be fine, but how can you really tell how many times they were over or under torqued? The more the extreme the application the more important the condition of the studs is. At this point in their life span the only real safe bet is to replace them, especially for higher horsepower applications.

I was towing a car with my Dakota with wheel spacers. Inner lugs that you can't check with the wheel on worked their way loose and off came a rear wheel while I was going 55mph on a 4 lane divided hwy. Truck and trailer did a complete 180 from the rt lane across the left into the median facing oncoming traffic. Never again. Buy axles or get yours redrilled and be done with it.

Or actually check the torque on the inner lugs like you're supposed to. No, it's not convenient to check the inner lugs because you do have to remove the wheel, but that is in fact part of proper installation and maintenance. If you install spacers with their own set of lugs, you have two sets of lug nuts to torque, check and re-torque. That's the deal.

People like to blame the spacers, but it's almost always improper installation or maintenance that causes the issue.
 
That was with bias ply tires and brand new studs. Add radials and 54 years of use/abuse and torque cycles and it's a whole different ball game.

If the studs are in good condition they should be fine, but how can you really tell how many times they were over or under torqued? The more the extreme the application the more important the condition of the studs is. At this point in their life span the only real safe bet is to replace them, especially for higher horsepower applications.



Or actually check the torque on the inner lugs like you're supposed to. No, it's not convenient to check the inner lugs because you do have to remove the wheel, but that is in fact part of proper installation and maintenance. If you install spacers with their own set of lugs, you have two sets of lug nuts to torque, check and re-torque. That's the deal.

People like to blame the spacers, but it's almost always improper installation or maintenance that causes the issue.


I installed the spacers and torqued, install the wheels and torqued them as well. Drove about 10 miles and took the wheels off and retorqued spacers and reinstalled wheels. If it requires more than what I did then it is not safe in my mind. Too each his own.
 
I installed the spacers and torqued, install the wheels and torqued them as well. Drove about 10 miles and took the wheels off and retorqued spacers and reinstalled wheels. If it requires more than what I did then it is not safe in my mind. Too each his own.
100% agree
 
I installed the spacers and torqued, install the wheels and torqued them as well. Drove about 10 miles and took the wheels off and retorqued spacers and reinstalled wheels. If it requires more than what I did then it is not safe in my mind. Too each his own.

How often are your supposed to re-torque your wheels? I'll give you a hint, it's not one time only after 10 miles. With a new aluminum wheel installation it's normally after 50-100 miles. And that's just for a set of wheels, not even with spacers. For spacers it's not that different, most manufacturers recommend a re-torque after 50-100 miles. They also recommend a thread locker compound. Obviously it's best to follow the specs from the manufacturer you use, but here's a set of installation instructions http://www.ezaccessory.com/Articles.asp?ID=136http://www.ezaccessory.com/Articles.asp?ID=136

I'm sure you don't consider wheels unsafe. But if you re-visit your story and left out the part about the spacers and just said you didn't check your lug nuts you wouldn't be giving up on wheels entirely after a wheel came off would you?

Re-drilling an axle can be completely unsafe too, depending on how its done. And that's the bottom line, you can do anything improperly. Properly installed and torqued spacers aren't unsafe at all. Yours weren't.
 
How often are your supposed to re-torque your wheels? I'll give you a hint, it's not one time only after 10 miles. With a new aluminum wheel installation it's normally after 50-100 miles. And that's just for a set of wheels, not even with spacers. For spacers it's not that different, most manufacturers recommend a re-torque after 50-100 miles. They also recommend a thread locker compound. Obviously it's best to follow the specs from the manufacturer you use, but here's a set of installation instructions http://www.ezaccessory.com/Articles.asp?ID=136http://www.ezaccessory.com/Articles.asp?ID=136

I'm sure you don't consider wheels unsafe. But if you re-visit your story and left out the part about the spacers and just said you didn't check your lug nuts you wouldn't be giving up on wheels entirely after a wheel came off would you?

Re-drilling an axle can be completely unsafe too, depending on how its done. And that's the bottom line, you can do anything improperly. Properly installed and torqued spacers aren't unsafe at all. Yours weren't.

Cool story bro.
 
Cool story bro.

Kinda like "I didn't check the torque on my lug nuts and a wheel fell off" is a cool story right?

If you run spacers, you have two sets of lug nuts. Any time you would check one you should be checking both, it's that simple. It is 100% your fault your wheel fell off, not the spacer.
 
Kinda like "I didn't check the torque on my lug nuts and a wheel fell off" is a cool story right?

If you run spacers, you have two sets of lug nuts. Any time you would check one you should be checking both, it's that simple. It is 100% your fault your wheel fell off, not the spacer.

You mad bro? Enjoy your spacers. I wish everyone the best of luck. As my earlier post said, too each his own. Have a good one.
 
You mad bro? Enjoy your spacers. I wish everyone the best of luck. As my earlier post said, too each his own. Have a good one.

Please, don't flatter yourself. I don't give a single flying crap what you do or don't do. Spacers are a way to solve a problem. They have pros and cons just like anything else. I just think it's funny that guys will tell horror stories about wheels falling off when they readily admit in the same sentence that they were too lazy to check the torque on their lug nuts like they're supposed to.

If you're too lazy to maintain them properly, then you're right, you shouldn't use them.
 
Your reading comprehension is lacking. Specifically said I did torque and retorque the spacers and wheels.

I am sorry sharing my experience has caused any issues at all for you sir.

Welcome to my ingore list.
 
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