Bolt lengths

[dylan8]

Hi All,

Just going to buy some longer bolts to run spacers with my stock wheels. at the moment the spacers are only 5mm, so in theory i only need bolts 5mm longer...

But if i buy longer bolts in case i buy longer spacers in the future, will there be a problem fitting them to the smaller 5mm spacer i currently have?

I cant see why not but thought id ask the question.

Cheers, Dylan

[Tim]

yes. If you go too long the wheel bolts will poke out the other side of the hub and foul on anything in its path

[dylan8]

thanks tim. silly question but what is at the back of the hub for it to hit. just went and screwed the bolts in without the wheel or spacer on and they all seemed to all the way in.

the stock ones dont go the full depth of the hub with the wheel on do they..?

[Preen59]

Rule of thumb for most things generally is no less than 1 diameter of thread engaged. So in other words, if you have a 10mm bolt, you need to have 10mm or more of thread screwed into the hole.

[Golf Loon]

thanks tim. silly question but what is at the back of the hub for it to hit. just went and screwed the bolts in without the wheel or spacer on and they all seemed to all the way in.

You can hit abs rings, or sensors. Grooke into the driveshafts or hubs at the front.

On a car with drum rear you can hit handbrake cables or brakes.

Quite a lot can go wrong really. Thats why you should have the correct length bolts to hold your wheels on.

[dylan8]

Rule of thumb for most things generally is no less than 1 diameter of thread engaged. So in other words, if you have a 10mm bolt, you need to have 10mm or more of thread screwed into the hole.

cheers, i picked the brain of my boss (structural engineer pretty much his whole) and he said the same thing. I think the smaller bolts (12mm) you can get away with 1 or 2mm less like you said, and the bigger ones get worse (24mm dia you'll need say 26mm to get full strength).. according to his book anyways.

You can hit abs rings, or sensors. Grooke into the driveshafts or hubs at the front.

On a car with drum rear you can hit handbrake cables or brakes.

Quite a lot can go wrong really. Thats why you should have the correct length bolts to hold your wheels on.

thanks, thought i might as well ask, 33mm bolts it is if there is such a beast