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I am the type of person that learns things the hard way. I am also the type of person who likes to try to save people from making the same mistakes that I have.
I've learned a lot about spacers in the past couple of weeks and would like to share my new found knowledge to keep people from wasting time and money.
1st off I'd like to say that with a lift kit on your bike, spacers are very nice and makes the bike less likely to tip.
I bought some spacers that were CNCed from one solid piece of aluminum. They are very well made, but I want to give you guys some warnings...
They cover your front drum brake adjustment hole, and you need to remove the rubber grommet from the hole to mount the spacers. This allows muddy water in your drums which reduces brake life. It also makes it a pain to adjust your brakes. I thought hey-no big deal-just take off the wheels and adjust the brakes.
Well, that leads to the next warning. You only need to SNUG the bolt that secures this type of spacer. I must have overtightened the nuts, which caused the aluminum to deform just enough for the spacer to lock onto the stock wheel studs. I couldn't get them off. I'm going to have to remove the whole outer drum and drive the studs out if I want them off. That will probably destroy the stock studs.
Next up are the "stand-off" type of spacers that simply screw to each stock wheel stud. No problems with the front brake adjuster with these. No problems with them getting "locked" onto your factory studs, either. I must have overtightened the conical nuts on the ends of the spacer studs when mounting the OEM rims, because when I took them off today to swap rims, the OEM nuts galled the spacers' threads. I think I can salvage them by chasing them with a 10mm x 1.25 die.
So, after all my rambling, DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN YOUR WHEEL SPACERS!
I hope I have saved someone some grief.
I've learned a lot about spacers in the past couple of weeks and would like to share my new found knowledge to keep people from wasting time and money.
1st off I'd like to say that with a lift kit on your bike, spacers are very nice and makes the bike less likely to tip.
I bought some spacers that were CNCed from one solid piece of aluminum. They are very well made, but I want to give you guys some warnings...
They cover your front drum brake adjustment hole, and you need to remove the rubber grommet from the hole to mount the spacers. This allows muddy water in your drums which reduces brake life. It also makes it a pain to adjust your brakes. I thought hey-no big deal-just take off the wheels and adjust the brakes.
Well, that leads to the next warning. You only need to SNUG the bolt that secures this type of spacer. I must have overtightened the nuts, which caused the aluminum to deform just enough for the spacer to lock onto the stock wheel studs. I couldn't get them off. I'm going to have to remove the whole outer drum and drive the studs out if I want them off. That will probably destroy the stock studs.
Next up are the "stand-off" type of spacers that simply screw to each stock wheel stud. No problems with the front brake adjuster with these. No problems with them getting "locked" onto your factory studs, either. I must have overtightened the conical nuts on the ends of the spacer studs when mounting the OEM rims, because when I took them off today to swap rims, the OEM nuts galled the spacers' threads. I think I can salvage them by chasing them with a 10mm x 1.25 die.
So, after all my rambling, DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN YOUR WHEEL SPACERS!
I hope I have saved someone some grief.
