John Buchtenkirch
Well-Known Member
Being a long time hot rodder I have always believed that “stance” (tire size and the way the tires fit the wheel openings) makes or breaks the look of a car. It’s always bugged me the track looks too narrow on the rear of our coupes compared to the front track so I finally got around to installing 6/10ths wide wheel spacers in the rear as well as longer ARP 100-7715 wheel studs needed for the spacers.
The problem is the longer wheel studs will not fit between the flange on the hub and the sheet metal shield for the emergency brake. I didn’t want to disassemble things more than I had to so I removed the spring & adjuster assembly from the E brakes and bored a 3/4” hole thru the E brake shield just behind the E brake adjuster I had just removed. Look at the photos for a better understanding of what we did. The problem is the hole in the axle flange is too small for a ¾” drill so assembled a ¾” hole saw from my Rotabroach set #11075 right inside the space behind the stub axle flange. We tacked a piece of water pipe to a C-clamp to press out the old studs, a few needed a light hammer in the direction of the yellow arrow to break free. When done we plugged the ¾” holes with rubber plugs. If you can’t find plugs at the local hardware store a package of # 9600K516 from McMaster-Carr will work fine.
Little Frank & myself started this job after lunch and lowered the car down by 5:00, that including rolling up the rear wheel lips and painting them with clear POR-15. Neither one of us is a mechanic but we were both body men in former careers. The final photo shows the Rotabroach kit. Also shown is the right angle vise grip type tool plus the right angle paint brush I used on the wheel lips.
Finally I have a question. Someone told me the E28 rear end assembly is 1 ½” wider than the stock E9 rear……… is that measurement correct ? Thank you in advance. ~ John Buchtenkirch
The problem is the longer wheel studs will not fit between the flange on the hub and the sheet metal shield for the emergency brake. I didn’t want to disassemble things more than I had to so I removed the spring & adjuster assembly from the E brakes and bored a 3/4” hole thru the E brake shield just behind the E brake adjuster I had just removed. Look at the photos for a better understanding of what we did. The problem is the hole in the axle flange is too small for a ¾” drill so assembled a ¾” hole saw from my Rotabroach set #11075 right inside the space behind the stub axle flange. We tacked a piece of water pipe to a C-clamp to press out the old studs, a few needed a light hammer in the direction of the yellow arrow to break free. When done we plugged the ¾” holes with rubber plugs. If you can’t find plugs at the local hardware store a package of # 9600K516 from McMaster-Carr will work fine.
Little Frank & myself started this job after lunch and lowered the car down by 5:00, that including rolling up the rear wheel lips and painting them with clear POR-15. Neither one of us is a mechanic but we were both body men in former careers. The final photo shows the Rotabroach kit. Also shown is the right angle vise grip type tool plus the right angle paint brush I used on the wheel lips.
Finally I have a question. Someone told me the E28 rear end assembly is 1 ½” wider than the stock E9 rear……… is that measurement correct ? Thank you in advance. ~ John Buchtenkirch
