No wheel centering register on rear axle!

[GetMore]

I've installed the brakes onto the rear on my car, and the "caps" on the rear axles are not deep enough to catch the center hole on rims once the rotors are installed.
So, I basically have a flat surface for the wheels to seat against.

This is only the rear axle, not the front, but I know it's not a good thing.

How bad is this, and what can I do?

[Jeremy]

I had the same problems and had to have some aluminum discs made that pressed into the center of my axle with the right OD to center my wheels.

[Zanie]

I'm a little cornfused as to your problem. My 72 monte carlo has wheel vintique brand steel 15X8 steel corvette rally wheels. they have dual bolt paterns and a larger center hole (register). the register doesn't touch anything. The 5 lug nuts center the wheel.

The same thing goes for my 56 chev with vintage CP200 wheels:the register doesn't touch anything. The 5 mag wheel type lug nuts center the wheel.

[Jeremy]

For me, the wheel style I am using did not have lugs that centered the wheel, hence the need to make sure the register did.

[GetMore]

Zanie, the problem with just using the lugs to center the wheel is that there is a possibility of breaking the lugs, and of elongating the mounting holes in the wheel.
Most people don't have any problems, but some do.

I have a set of wheels (for another car) that a kid had on his Honda, and he didn't use centering rings. The lug holes on the front wheels are elongated because of that.

I don't know of ANY OEM wheel that does not center off the hub. There is a reason they do this.

[WS6]

The differences you speak of are hub centric(centered) and lug centric(centered). You're dealing with hub centric rims it sounds like and Zanie is dealing with lug centric. Cragar SS rims are lug centric and require the lug nuts with a washer and a shank on them. The snowflake rims original to my TA are also lug centric.

If your rims are hub centric, you must do something to have a hub there for them to mount onto. If your rims are lug centric, you must use the correct lug nuts and you also need to have the wheels balanced accordingly. If you notice how a wheel shop does balancing, you should notice they are balancing it based on being hub centric. This will cause an imbalance issue.

For what it's worth, hub centric is way better and easier to deal with.

[GetMore]

Trey, I know what you are saying, but I don't know of any shop that does a lug-centric balancing. I would hope (and am assuming) that the lug pattern is concentric with the center hole, so it is the same method to balance either setup.

[WS6]

I had this same issue with a customer's car that we put Cragar SS rims on. I had never used SS rims before and hadn't heard of lug centric eventhough I owned my TA at the time. The SS rims were balanced to old fashion way and it's not bad but at certain speeds it gets a little vibration in the wheel. I was told that an adapter is needed to connect to the typical spin balance machine to do lug centric. This won't be an issue for you since you're hub centric. You'd also think that the lug holes would be centric as well but it only takes a small amount to be off and cause an issue.

[Restomod]

Your main problem is that you have axles made for drum brakes not disc brakes. Get a pair of axles for disc or order a pair of Moser axles with a longer center hub to reach the wheel.

[GetMore]

Unfortunately this wasn't something that I knew to ask for when I had the rear built. I've got new (Strange?) axles in it now, so swapping axles isn't much of an option.
I guess I could see if there is a way to change that piece on the axles, or find out what that piece is, anyway.

[Skip Fix]

The snowflakes are also hub centric and fit the hub of the rear or front tightly. I just added Wilwood front braked and used some lugnuts the some OD as the snowflake/Turbo wheels. There is 0.030-0.040 difference in the lugnut and the hole on these(the same on my ProStars).You can slught mice the wheel on the hub just using the lugcentric approach. The Wilwood hubs are tapered so it woul tough to use a centering ring.

[MonzaRacer]

Some of the companies sell hub spacers for wheels with larger than stock hub holes.
As for when spin ballancing you only need the lug adapter to keep from scratching rims.
If your wheels were balanced properly then you wont have vibrations.
Check around for a wheel shop with a Hunter DSP or GSP balancers as they can do both spoke alignment balancing and split weight balancing.
The GSP is also called Road Force balancer, but unless your tires are out of round/flat spotted the Road Force balance is not really required.
WE had a DSP balancer at the Firestone MasterCare Store(Expert Tire is also company owned) and I could balance just about any thing even bent rims.
The neat thing with split weight feature it allows rim/tires with heavy weight issues to have larger weight packs split apart and get better balance.
I especially like being able to hide sticky weights behind spokes for better looks and no weights outside.
AS for lug centric big trick is to use board or prybar and hold wheel fairly centered then lightly seat lugs(make sure lugs have big enough shoulder)then use torque wrench and back off and reseat each lug one extra time, then torque to spec.
Now for the fun part, dont use oil on studs ,use silver antiseize, it wont affect the torque values and will keep the lugs/studs from damaging themselves.
Oh and for the most part GM/Ford/Chryco wheel studs use a 100lb/ft torque and recheck after driving till the torque stays right.
This also lends to the practice of spending 20-30 bucks on torque wrench and thinwall socket and extension and keep them in car.
If you want a real high quality thinwall flip socket Grey Pneumatic makes one for about 8 to 10 buck with no warranty and I use one nearly every day at work.
A little patience installing wheels ,kind of like having to sit on ground, and center up old Cragarr/Keystone unilugs to get oval washers in proper area and lugs started while balancing wheel/tire with legs.
always fun on hot black top with cars wizzing past,,haha ah the memories.