got a screaming deal on a set of five dayton 15x7 for the '66 3.8 S. one problem though is the front lower ball joint cap and its two outside bolt heads are binding the wheel. anyone had this problem to address and what did you do? spacers or machine (grind down cap and replace bolts)?


spacers are 1" and from back face of spacer to the rim edge is 5 1/4 "

 

PM Primaz, I think you have issues with the offset, but without knowing what wheels you have bought it may be difficult to tell.

Primaz is running some huge wheels on stock setup pretty well, so he may well give you a simple answer to this question.

 

I only had issues when I lowered the car and put the widest wheel setup; that was solved by a custom lower control arm. This was when I converted the front to coil over design.

What he describes sounds like the wrong wheel offset. If you go to any tuner shop or quality tire/rim store they should have the tool (it cost around $100 or so) that will measure your available offset to maximize your tire / wheel that will fit without rubbing. I would sell those rims and measure the space to find the ideal offset so you can maximize the widest tires for handling. On my 1963 3.8s I am running 17 x 8.5" wide wheels with 245 45 series performance tires on all four wheels with no rubbing now and it really makes the car handle well and the body has not been modified at all.

To me I continually read that Jaguar owners seem unfamiliar that you can order wheels with custom offsets. You can get wheels with positive or negative offsets, etc. sot that you can maximize size of your tire without issues. This is done commonly on many performance cars. Remember the size of your tire is an important aspect of handling as is the other two variables quality of tire and suspension set up.

 

Thanks Primaz, that was my thoughts, Stuart, you can measure the backspacing easily enough yourself, see this link for reference, and let us know what you have.

MWS

It should be about 3 3/4" roughly, much less than 3 1/2" and that's where the problem lies. ( Sorry should read much more than 3 3/4")

 

I would recommend to measure it and find what is the widest wheel that will fit so you know the offset that will work. There is NO one setting as the stock wheel placements usually allow for a lot wider wheel with the right offset without modifying the body. As an example I am running a 245 wide tire on my Jag with no body modifications versus stock is what a tiny 175 wide tire? My 240Z is the same way I am running a 245 versus the stock 175 wide tire with no flares, etc. and other Z's have run as wide as a 285 with some suspension mods but no body mods.

 

Stuart please take this as friendly. First remove each of the inset adaptors and check the spokes. I will be surprised if you do not find nipples falling out on the ground. I cn not tell if those are the early version of Daytons or later. I am not sure of what deal you got but several years ago you could have loaded up your car or truck with sets that were going to scrap. Be very careful--they look wonderful but those bolt ons have been the cause of a lot of problems from their introduction. They were a huge profit maker for dealers as well as alignment shops. Jaguar issued many bulletins to the dealers about them which boiled down read--"you are cautioned and on your own".

 

Primaz, I am not saying that wider wheels won't work, but as a quick check on Stuarts existing rims, if the backspacing is significantly greater than stock and with a stock diameter wheel, there will almost definitely be some issues with suspension hardware fouling.

It is easy to measure the backspacing of the wheels Stuart has acquired to see if there is likely to be an issue without checking what could possibly fit, if he has 7" rims with a 1" inset, the backspacing will be 4.5" and will almost definitely cause an issue.

Hypothetically I think I am right in saying (please correct me if I am wrong) that one could have a 15" wheel with a 4" backspacing that could foul yet a 16" with 4" backspacing could clear so there would be several different combinations of diameter/offset/tire that could fit any given car, and also many more that would not.

With the correct measuring tool the options can be confirmed prior to ordering rims.

 

well i had used these on the '75 xj12c with aggressive driving and no issues. all spokes and nipples appear good. the 3.8 will not see any of the highjinks the coupe did. if i keep these wheels they may end up on something else or if sold, no harm no foul. just doesn't look like a proper jaguar to me without wires. (big sigh!) thanks once again for the expert info. fyi - it was great to see the coupe again after all this time and the owner had rewired it, installed a 4 row aluminum radiator, dual fans and lattice wheels. biggest perk was having him tell me i did a great job on it (STILL have sellers remorse):


boy do i miss this car

 

Pretty close Jon,

First of all wheels with custom offsets are generally three piece but sometimes popular setups are done with two piece wheels to save money in producing them. A multi-piece wheel will allow either the inside or outer portion to go in or out. The offset can be negative or positive so that you can get either the inside or outside to go where you want to clear. Yes, then the diameter of the wheel will increase spacing, in general the larger the diameter it will give more clearance for brakes, steering arms, etc. Also these multi-piece wheels are better quality construction and materials than cheap one piece wheels. I hope this helps.

 

I've now encountered the same issue. I've inspected the wheels and they are structurally sound, but they're not quite fitting. It similiarly seems that the inset spacer may be the wrong size, and I think currently they're just like yours when you started this thread. Would love to hear what you did.

 

'Back in the day,' binding of the rim against the lower ball joint cap was a problem when upgrading a Mk2 to XJ6 wheels. The solution was to grind a little of the cap. Whether this can work with the Dayton wires depends on the level of the interference.

 

Balancing. Dayton is wrong even with their own wheels. Do not use outer side of centre lock wheel internal cone when balancing. Friend brought a set back from the US with him a few weeks back. Listen to MWS. Put the wheels with top tyres (Michelin) on a Hunter Balancer. Same old trouble. Wheels could not be balanced or huge weights required. Fetched my Smoothride kit (Cass also has a set). All now fine. Half a ton of self adhesive lead weights in the bin. Jaguar splined hubs are 52mm. e.g Aston were 42mm until the DB6 MkII where larger hubs were fitted in line with Jag. The expensive MWS kit will do a number of different cars & is really for a tyre shop.

Dayton nonsense provided with their wheels:




Motor Wheel Service (MWS) correct. V





https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/m...ancing-231701/

Smoothride wire wheel balancing cones:

Understanding offset. Useful for those that fit different wheels to standard. Offset seems un-intuitive to some. As the ET number becomes smaller the wheel protrudes further & vice versa. ET = “Einpress Tiefe.” which has become a standard which is used by most wheel manufacturers.