Hi all:
I remember recently seeing someone (besides me)wondering what was
involved in widening the rear track on our cars. Don't recall who it
was, but I thought I'd share my experiences:
1. I went to a "speed shop" and purchased a set of 7/16" National Fine x
2 7/8" long wheel studs. They come in packs of 5, and while I don't
remember the part number, I think they are relatively common. I think I
paid about $25.00 for all ten studs. Problem: the shank where the
splines are is larger than our stock studs, so one can't re-install the
stock items later. It might be possible to purchase some shorter studs
with the larger shank diameter or do as I did: I bought 2 spare hubs for
about $20.00 each.
2. I drilled out the holes in the hubs using a 17/32" bit, then used a
0.540 ream. I tried just the 17/32" hole on a piece of scrap steel
plate and no way could I press one of the new studs in! As Smitty
pointed out, the hubs are slightly softer than plate, but after I reamed
out the holes on the hubs I still found it needed 4000 psi in the
hydraulic press and I had to "bounce" the press to about 7000 to get the
things to fully seat. Smitty says this is an appropriate amount of
"interference fit"!
The new studs weren't "square" with the world, so I had to put a nut on
the end of them and tap it with a brass hammer to tweak direction so
that I could get the wheel on over them (did this on the bench rather
than on the car).
3. I got 3 pairs of 1/4" thick aluminum wheel spacers from Rick at
Specialties, bolted 3 of them together and had Smitty tack the edges.
That gave me a solid spacer of 3/4" on each side of the car.
4. Smitty has a special Subaru tool that he uses for pulling the hubs
off--don't know HOW it's done otherwise. Unfortunately, Subaru doesn't
have the tool available anymore--or I'd have bought one! We swapped the
hubs today, put in the spacers and I've now moved from a 48.5 inch rear
track to a 50 inch rear track.
I'm running the stock steel rims and I've still got the 155-80-13 tires
that came with the car, so there's still about 1" clearance to the inner
lip of the rear fender. I'm thinking of getting another 2 pairs of
spacers from Rick, but leaving them "loose", since I don't know if I'll
have a clearance problem when I upgrade to 175-80-13 tires. There's at
least 3/4" clear thread on the studs after the nuts are tightened down.
To me, the car looks a lot better now. Somebody wrote earlier that
widening the rear track will increase understeer. I do notice that the
tail seems less squirrely going into corners now. If that's understeer,
great!
Hope this wasn't too long.
Regards
David Sosna
65 S4 GT V6 with a wider rear track
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