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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - wheel offset

Hi, hopefully a quick question this,

in the local paper tonight, saw a set of 13 inch mini alloy wheels for sale, cheap enough to take a risk on, so I bought them,

They are 6.0j x13 and have an offset of ET15

I know I struggled with 5.5J wheels under SWA rea on my last midget, but figure that these are more inset so won't have that problem.

However, I've not got a car to try them on yet as my midget is on wires and I've got no axles on my next project yet.

any ideas/views on if they will fit or if they will be too inset and hence too near to springs etc.

Thanks
John


John Collins

Forgot to say, they are made by compomotive and should have centre caps. At the minute, they have 165/60 or something ike that, but they look stretched on the rims,

I was thinking keep the rim silver and spray the 5 spokes anthracite or similar dark colour?

Or if no good for a midget, I'll stick them on evil ebay

John


John Collins

John,
Nice looking wheels! But if they are heavily inset, then you are likely to have problems of clearance at the front with the TRE. Using spacers may get around this but then with 6J you may have clearance issues on the outside. You maybe lucky and get away with using spacers on the front and not on the rear.

Guy
Guy Weller

Im not certian, having been thur this myself, it appears doable....the area thats looks like trouble to me is the PCD and it also appears to be a 7/16" lug nut hole as well.

PCD=lug hole distance from center hole to center hole.

Most likely your going to need a panhard rod to keep the rear wheels rubbing on the inside of the arches.

Prop


Prop***The End in 2012

There is a guy in Hinckley with some Cosmic alloys (from memory) that are on Midget and would a nice period wheel if you are after something different.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

Prop, these came off a mini, so should be the same pcd, I've got mini wheels on my trailers and I then put midget rostyles on it with no problem as I wanted more ground clearance,

I will try them on my spare rear axle tomorrow or saturday and take some pics, I can also fit a spring to the axle to check for clearence there too.

These will go on my k-series project, so rear axle location will be an issue anyway.

Daniel, I do like cosmics (I had some on a sprite a while back - see picture), but am trying to keep this project as low cost as possible & would guess that they would be more expensive than what I paid for these, although I'm sure that I could sell them for more than I paid.

John


John Collins

If your PCD is the same, your half way home, congratulations, I wasnt that lucky...agian, nice looking wheels

Like Guy was pointing out, I think most of your issues and problems will be on the front not the rear, I ran into difficulty with the tire rubbing at full chock but resolved itself with the centering rings I had to have made because of the diffreant PCD, the other area was the wheel balancing wieghts rubbing on the top of the kign pin. all easy fixes with enough imagination.

What rear axle set up are you going to convert to, the ford corinthia??? I think its set up on a 4x4 pcd IIRC for some of Mark T. threads....I cant even imagine how short a life span a midget rear end would have with a K-series engine...provbably about as long as the stink stays on a fart in the wind...lol

prop
Prop***The End in 2012

I used Revolutions on my Sprite and needed spacers to clear the tre. I got a kit from Peter May
na munn

Today I got my bodyshell off my trailer and loosley bolted on the rear axle and springs.

The wheels fit on the rear fine, they are not too close to the springs and they should clear the arches, however with a 175 section tyre the arch clearance will be a bit tighter!


John Collins

However, I'm now not too sure if I like the design or not.

Also I have no front end suspension on the shell to try them either.


John Collins

IME the front wheels 'stick out' further than rears - at least for RWA. I have a set of Cobra Slots for and it's noticeable that the font wheels are v slight proud of the arches compared with the rears, which are snug. A little -ve cambe helps reduce the impact...


A
Anthony Cutler

Quite like them John

as the fit doesnt look too bad and the shell is far from "paint-ready" why not roll the inside of the rear arches to get extra clearance and keep to those wheels in that configuration?

Or get drastic with arch extensions...
Bill

Regarding wheel offset,

The 5J Minators with 175 x 13 tyres fitted to my car gave clearance problems on the rear wheel arches.

I have now fitted the original rostyles with 165 x 13 tyres and the clearance problem is solved.

What I would like to know is - Do the 5J Minators have the same offset as the rostyles, in which case I can refit the alloys but with 165 x 13 tyres?

Dave
Penwithian

Thanks for all comments,

However, I've decided that I didn't like them as much as I thought I would(will explain in a minute) so stuck them on ebay, within 5 hours, I had a few phone calls, and a guy turned up and bought them for cash (a bit more than I paid - so thats gone in the midget fund)

The decider really came when I was having a tidy up in my shed and finally got to the back of the shed and found something I'd forgotten about - see the picture!


John Collins

I'd forgotten that I had these wheels, and they were in the shed all along - been there a couple of years covered over after I had a few issues with them on my previous green midget.

They fitted fine at the front with no TRE issues, but they caught at the rear and I wasn't going to risk the paint by rolling the arches.

However, not a problem with this new project.

Picture below shows side view, as Anthony says, the fronts sit out a bit proud




John Collins

another view of the wheel, they had 165/70 x13's on them


John Collins

OH GEZ John,

I HATE THEM!!!! Get rid of them fast, You dont want those, You want someting like the anniversry roystle wheel....Much more midgety. LOL

Seriously no one else should even look, its not worth the click on the mouse....LOL.


Oh Im sick, If you put those wheels on, Ill no longer be the cool kid, with the awsome wheels, on my midget. Oh, My raign of the coolest wheels on the planet is seriously at risk.


All kidding a side, Those are VARY NICE, I LIKE THEM!!!, My wheels stick out about the same, but to me thats a good thing, give alot more aggressive look, I think if you add some wheel flares (not alot of flare), that will really set the entire car off,

Id recommend a panhard rod, even if you have round wheel arches....it just really locks down the axle, and eliminate all rubbing, mine are just as close as in your photo, and the only time I had rubbing was at the Auto cross at the lake Ozark last year because I was running 10-12 PSI in the tires....(Never thought to check tire pressure in about 9 months)...


But yeah, I love them....definatly a keeper

Prop

Prop***The End in 2012

Hi John

Exactly same offset as mine; the -ve camber on BRB makes an aggressive stance...

A
Anthony Cutler

<<" got to the back of the shed and found something I'd forgotten about - see the picture!">>

The whole car! How could you forget about a whole car!! How big IS your shed?
Guy Weller

Those wheels would be brilliant on a high gloss black Arkley with gold racing stripes. :)
Trevor Jessie

its a time warp in that shed

John had you really forgotten those wheels?

I hadnt...

So

roll the arches a tad

or flare nicely and use them as "found"

I liked them first time around
Bill

Prop glad that you like them!

Guy, I knew someone would say that I lost the whole car...

Bill, seriously I had forgotten about them, I had new tyres put on them to try, then had the tyres taken off them and fitted to the minilites that I fitted instead, then I put these wheels in the boxes that the minilites came in and they went at the back of the shed and other stuff got put on them etc. and I just forgot them.

Trevor, agree with you comment about a black arkley, but in this case, I think they will look ok on a red midget?
John Collins

Well you know I'm having my 50th birthday here real soon and was kind of thinking about asking the family for new wheels for my Midget...

You still have those boxes John??? :-)
Rick Bastedo

This thread was discussed between 15/01/2009 and 27/01/2009

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