Here's a head's up on a few products

I was going to install a Superatv 2" lift kit and MB Seven X 13" wheels yesterday. Life lessons have taught me that things that seem simple can get tripped up pretty easily.

Superatv 2" lift kit

I thought this would be a pretty straightforward mod--until I opened the box. A quick measure showed the strut spacers are actually 3" tall. How this translates to a 2" lift, I don't know. Also, the shackles on my truck measure about 2.75" (center bolt to center bolt) the shackles in the kit measure 7". In retrospect, I should have gone with new springs and made my own shackles. Yesterday I ordered a pair of 10" 200lb springs from Jeg's. I went with the lighter springs because my truck is older and lighter. Come to think of it, I am too Superatv said I can return the kit for a refund. I think I'll exchange it for a hitch bumper.

MB Seven X 13" wheels

I thought for sure I could do this mod in my sleep. I went to Walmart and bought brand new 155/80/13 tires and had them mounted on the new wheels. At the very least I figured I could just put them on and see how they look. The biggest concern when shopping for new wheels was finding a wheel with a center bore that would fit over the Aisin manual locking hubs which are about 71mm. The box on the wheels say the center bore is 73mm, so far so good. When I went to install them, I realized that the opening on the outside of the wheel where the center cap goes is about 68mm :frustration:

Unless someone can offer up a good alternative, I can only come up with two solutions:

1. Have a machine shop bore out the outside part of the wheel to 73mm.
2. Install 1" or 1.25" spacers so combined with the 73mm part of the wheel's center bore (a little over 1") would allow me to fit the wheel over the locking hub.

I'm not too keen on permanently altering the wheels, but I'm not sure what other issues may arise if I push the wheels out with spacers. Before I take the next step, I'd like to hear from the experts on how they would approach this.

One other thought. Would it be possible to remove the locking hubs and leave the front axles in the locked position?

Thanks for any help.

 

Rottyfan, first off, WELCOME, and let me say, that it's guys like you that make this site as great as it is.
You take the time to share the information that you have, and ask your questions, after. Clear and concise information and questions, again, welcome.

I see that you have a signature there, for type and options, great, but change your info to indicate your general location. Should I direct you to CanTire, or Jegs?

You're in a good situation, as far as I can see, with the "locking hubs". A lot of guys would love to have these, me included, for "off-roading". You can lincolin-lock your front diff, problem free, as you can always unlock the system at the hubs, for problem free high-speed pavement operations.
Eliminate them? I'll trade you for my "electric axle-lock, no problem.

Your wheels, you're close, with the hub. Close enough, that you can go out and get a cylinder-hone set. Use an electric drill and some "cutting-oil". It will take you about 15min/wheel. Forget the machine shop and or spacers.
As long as these wheels have "camphors" at each wheel nut to "center" the system onto the hub.op:

Forgot about the rear lift; I made up some 5.0" on center rear shackels, that gave me a 1 3/4" rear lift to match the front 1 3/4" lift from the 250# 10" afco's in the front. Just general for you, as I have a 93.....as you can see below...

 

Thanks for the welcome, I actually registered back in September, but my account was accidentally deleted along with the few posts that I made. I'm going to send the kit back and I have a pair of 10" 200lb springs sitting in my garage. Now I have to find some suitable metal so I can fab up some longer shackles.

Thank you for the welcome and kind words and advice. There are a bunch of very knowledgable guys on here and I'm going to do my best to contribute some useful info.

I did go to Sears and bought a cylinder hone and last night I gave it a shot, but after about an hour I only took off maybe 2mm. I'm going to make another trip to the hardware store tonight and buy a flush router bit. I'll report back with my results when I'm done. Stay tuned, it's either going to work out great or I'll have a really mangled wheel

I'm thinking 5" on center shackles will work for me too since my stock ones are about 2.75" on center. The factory shackles look like a heavy gauge sheet metal c-channel. Do you think some steel flat bar from Home Depot is suitable for new shackles?

 

The saga continues with the MB Seven X wheels. While shopping for these wheels, I found there was a lack of detailed information about these wheels. Hopefully this post will give prospective buyers more information to their specific application.

As I previously reported, the manufacturer states that the wheels have a center bore of 73mm, but that is only good for a little over 1" before the opening is reduced to a 68mm lip to enable the center caps to snap onto the wheel.

Pictures are always helpful so this is what it looks like. I took pictures from several angles to give you an idea of how deep the lip is.





I really liked Spaner's advice on using a cylinder hone to open up the center bore. Unfortunately the cylinder hone is not designed to remove that much material. Here is a side by side comparison after about an hour trying to open up the center bore. The wheel on the right is the one I worked on and I took off about 1mm at best.



Close up of my efforts:


vs. an untouched wheel:


As the saying goes, "There's a right-sized tool for every job" so I went and bought a 1/2" X 2" flush router bit. Then I found out my rarely used router only accepts 1/4" bits so a search on craigslist turned up a Dewalt router for $40.


Here is my disclaimer: Do this mod at your own risk. Most people are not willing to take a router to their brand new wheels, myself included. In my case I didn't have much of a choice since the tires were already mounted and there ain't a whole lot of other 13" wheels with 4x114.3 bolt pattern to choose from. Then again, the purpose of this post is to inform the members on here before they pull the trigger with their hard earned money.

Please wear a dust mask, eye/hearing protection, and gloves when you do this. You do not want to breathe in aluminum shavings nor have them embedded into your eyeball. I cannot stress that enough. Did I run into any problems? Of course--I would have found it strange if I didn't lol. Not once, but twice the bearing fell off the router bit. The first time it left a nice gouge and the second time I got away with a smaller nick. This occurred on the second wheel. It took less than 5 minutes per wheel.

Last, but not least, here is a comparison of the modded and untouched wheels.

 

Another important detail that shouldn't be left out. In order to save some money, I chose to reuse my stock lug nuts. The stock nut just fits into the hole and you will need a paper thin socket to tighten them. I went on eBay and bought some lug nuts that use a hex on the open end of the lug nut to tighten them.

This is what the lug nuts look like: http://www.ebay.com/itm/250892482564?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

 

Yea, I wouldn't recommend using a cylinder honer on aluminum, I missed that some how and thought that you had steelies. The aluminum will just coat the stones and require cleaning every 30 seconds. Might work under very high tension and very low speed, but probably not.
You got it figured out though, should be just fine.

For any shaping work on aluminum, I would recommend 1/4 drive carbin bits, run below 2TRPM. They "chip off" flakes of aluminum, they don't "grind" the aluminum.
In any case, you'd still have to make a guide of some sort, otherwise, it's just free-hand. Looks like the router did just fine.

 

Learn something new everyday. Had no idea the cylinder hone wouldn't work well on aluminum. The flush router bit made a perfectly smooth enlargement and the bearing did its job by using the wheel's center bore as a guide. The mod would have been perfect if the bearing didn't fall off twice.

Hopefully the new lug nuts will arrive tomorrow or the next day. I'll post up pics when I mount them on the truck.

 

Turned out I ordered the wrong size lug nuts. The 12x1.5mm lug nuts did not fit. Got the correct size 12x1.25mm lug nuts today and bolted on the new wheels and tires. Even with the stock suspension there is no rubbing while driving on paved roads. I still plan to install the 200lb springs sitting in my garage as soon as I get some longer shackles for the rear.







I am really pleased with this mod. It really gives the truck an updated look and the ride feels much smoother and more planted.

 

Really nice job, you gotta be happy with that. If I ever have to cut aluminum rim centers, I'll do it your way.

Old-timer-tip: (my dad's) for the hub-locks, get yourself some tube steel, "club" length, inner hub lock switch area diameter, and cut a grove in the end of it. Get a petal-bike handle bar grip and put it on to the other end of it. You just built yourself a hub-locker tool.
Really saves the fingers and provides a "positive" lock. Plus you can use it to beat-off any car-jackers.
BTW, that front end is just cry'in to get Lincolin Locked.

Merry Christmass

 

Thanks, spaner. I spent a few hours this afternoon messing around with the truck and driving around. The router is definitely the way to go if you need open aluminum wheels.

Thanks for the tip for making a hub tool. Thankfully the Aisin hubs on this truck are really easy to turn. Whoever owned the truck previously took pretty good care of it. I don't see a Lincoln Locker in this truck's future--it'll probably see 99% on-road driving

And a very Merry Christmas to you!

 

Another Tire & Wheel solution

Rottyfan

Nice job on the Wheels. I also wanted to go with something larger than the stock 12 inch wheels for my 1990 Carry. After lots of reseach I was able to find 14 inch Wheels off of a Nissan Axxess (it has the same 4 x 114.3 bolt pattern) I had found some 185/70-14's that I thought might work as well but wasn't sure everything would fit. After the initial test I determined that a 1/4 inch spacer on the fronts would be required. Check out the pictures......turned out alright and definately some extra clearance and a smoother ride. No loss of power and more top end!! I made up my own Center Caps....hope Suzuki doesn't mind.....lol Now my Maxxis offroads will be saved for the serious fun.

 

Thanks, Acerguy and Papagator.

Papagator, nice find on the wheels, they look great on your truck. Is your truck lifted? It's a good thing I didn't go with 14's on my truck because I barely have enough side to side clearance in the front wheel wells.

 

Rottyfan

Thanks for the props....I was really happy with the way things turned out as well. Indeed, my Carry has a 2 inch lift. The 185/70-14s are about as tall as I can go without serious interior rub problems. The 1/4 inch spacer doesnt sound like much but it provides just enough clearance for everything to work. Given that I wont be doing any serious offroading with this setup, they will do just fine. When I replace these it will probably be with 65 or 60 series 14s. Heres a picture of the Carry with my offroad wheel & tire set. The Maxxis 23s are definately a smaller diameter but give me that much more clearance for bouncing around.

 

How did I miss this thread??? excellent write up on the rim mods Rotty...both trucks look great guys

 

I'm late to this party but nice work!!!