13" wheels don't fit the rear

[SuperSportSP]

I bought some 13" Caterham 8 spoke wheels (13x8") to put on my '97 De Dion car. I have the stock 15" Prisoner wheels on it now and wanted some smaller wheels and stickier rubber for some track duty.

Put the fronts on, no problem. Put the left rear on and problem, no clearance between the De Dion tube and the inner wheel rim. You can see in the photo below that the De Dion tube is dragging on the inner rim about 1/2" from the inner lip. It is the dark line you see.



This is a bit puzzling to me since these are Caterham wheels. Did Caterham change the design of the tube or ear assembly so that the older cars can't run the Caterham 13" wheels?

[Doug Liedblad]

You an probably grind off a bit of the dedion tube where the interference is. I'll post a photo of mine from a 2001 build date.

It looks to me like the part of the dedion the aluminum ear mounts to is a bit longer than mine.

These are 14" wheels. I use 13" Kodiaks as well. They are close but do clear OK.

Doug

dedion ear.jpg

[moosetestbestanden]

email the pic to CC for an opinion. Can't hurt to try.

By the looks of the photo Doug's right. Just grind em down a bit. Even though you have a very nice looking car, there's no Concours d'elegance for Caterhams, particularly track driven ones. :D

[magnusfeuer]

Agree with the grinding. If the ears protude outside any load-bearing structures (such as the rear hub or the tube itself), the excess material can probably be removed.

Gert, our finite element analysis guy, can you confirm this?

/Magnus F.

[Doug Liedblad]

If you look at the chunk of metal that needs to come off it's hanging out there doing nothing.

Hack it off and drive.

That's my FEA solution.

[slomove]

Agree with the grinding. If the ears protude outside any load-bearing structures (such as the rear hub or the tube itself), the excess material can probably be removed.

Gert, our finite element analysis guy, can you confirm this?

/Magnus F.

Hey, I changed jobs within the company after I found R&D management a frustrating proposition after 25 years.....

I am now responsible for Industrial Engineering and Logistics and know shit anymore about FEA

Seriously, I don't think you need finite elements for that. As Doug said, if there is some meat left around the bolts and the additional material does not connect to anything, grind it off!

[Elv15]

...and you'll be adding lightness. :)