Italic Ian

the car:
97 maxima
stillen brake upgrade (4 piston AP racing calipers, cross drilled cad plated rotors)
previously had 17" TSW VX1's installed

the problems
I tried to install Volk Racing Gram (lites?) on this car using a wheel spacer (my friend said that it went with the wheels. I don't know the size.) The spokes on the wheel don't clear the bleeder screw on the AP racing caliper. The other problem is the fact that there is only half a thread or so left on the wheel stud to torque the lug nuts down on.

Proposed solution:
Another spacer to clear the caliper? This should work except now I am worried about wheel offset. Is it going to be a problem?

I would need to install longer lugs. They hammer out and install from behind, right? On my car, the new stud is inserted from behind, into the hub and pushed through. One can then use a ratchet on a lug to pull the stud through the hub until it is in position. Any different with a maxima?

My other question:
The rotor hats on the Stillen rotors are raised away from the surface of the rotor. This uses up stud surface area. Is the OEM rotor like this? I am worried that we won't be able to find studs that are long enough.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

Solo950

Yeah the procedure is basically what you described. You have to disassemble the brakes (no bleeding though) and then hammer the old studs out from the front. Then put the new studs in from the back just like you said above. I replaced one of my studs last weekend and it was pretty easy. I did a search for "wheel stud" before doing the replacement and there is a LOT of info on it, including a howto by Daniel B. Martin. It is going to take a few hours if you are doing this for all of your studs.

Good Luck.

Italic Ian

Thanx...I need to find out if she has OEM Nissan studs and if I can find any longer ones...Did you get your studs from a stealership, or at a parts store? Were they the same length as the ones that you replaced?

thanks again
Ian

KWheelzSB

iTrader: (1)

Depending on the amount of additional clearance you need to clear that bleeder screw, you may be able to do this with a thicker spacer. (I wouldn't "stack" more than 1 spacer on top of each other though - kinda got the impression that's what you were considering. It's just not safe.) Check out H&R spacer kits, they come with the appropriately longer studs to match the increased thickness of the spacer. (I have the 5mm H&R kit on my rears) They also have an 8mm kit. These aren't cheap, but the reality is, in a perfect world with no budgetary constraint's, you need larger wheels. I'll assume you're not planning on that, for sake of argument.

Stud length: You definitely need longer studs whenever you get spacers. It's very dangerous not to have the correct longer studs on there.

Also, you should remove the hub assembly to pound out & replace the studs. Not only will it be much easier to work with that way, (holding the hub assembly in a vise), you won't damage the wheel bearing by pounding on the hub assembly when it is attached to the car.

To completely draw the new stud bolts into their seating surfaces, I used an open nut and a flat washer as well as a deep socket to crank them into place. Tighten to approximately 95 ft./lbs. each.

(FYI, if you plan on ever using the OEM stud bolts again, use a large nail set or blunt punch placed in the center of the end of the stud bolt and hit that with the hammer or small sledge [instead of pounding directly on the end of the stud bolt to remove it]. If you don't, you can easily damage the starting threads and won't be able to get a lug nut on there in the future, unless you use a die kit to recondition the threads. (Trust me: learn from my mistakes ) Also, if you have ABS, be careful on the last couple taps when dislodging the old stud bolts, as you do not want to damage the ABS "toothed" wheel running around the back of the hub assembly - when the stud is close to coming out, a few light taps will work best to avoid this potential problem)

On the rotor hat thickness, I'm not sure. Is this a big-brake kit, or are the rotors OEM sized? If the flat "hat" (wheel-mount surface) of the rotor is thicker than OEM as you seem to indicate, you may need to allow for that (in addition to the spacers) when calculating the appropriate stud length. Get on the phone w/ stillen & verify any difference in thickness & go from there.

If you can solve the problem this way and keep the offset within reasonable tolerances, then I'd say go for it. If not, you might want to consider a different wheel package.

Good luck!

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

NISMO makes longer wheel studs for such situations

OgreDave

iTrader: (1)

spacers suck, especially on the front. youll get nice vibrations at high speeds unless you get custom made ones (ala H&R's) with the longer threads built in.

i have the same problems with my wilwood bigbrakes. i just bought bigger wheels (wider) instead.

97MaxGurl

iTrader: (17)

10mm H&R spacer kits(new) are available for Maxima application. It'll give me about ~7mm clearance bet. the wheel and caliper.

Cost: $140 (the shop where I got the wheels from would pick up $40 and shipping costs)

Ian- Lemme know if next weekend is good for you. I don't know how hard/easy it is to hammer out the old studs.

Ange

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I guess you're talking about Ange. At first when I saw the post, I thought how weird it was to have two people with an almost identical problem.

97MaxGurl

iTrader: (17)

buhahahaha

Seriously... I called up H&R and they say they don't make 8mm or 10mm kits for Maxima...I'm getting conflicting stories here! WTF

Italic Ian

I will chat you up on AIM...Studs are easy..might take some time to do all 4 corners..

Ian

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

all you need is a hammer ( and torque wrench when you put the wheels back on)