Issues with 13" wheel clearance on De Dion Caterham

[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.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/wheel-dedionissue.jpg

 

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?

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/Caterham8spokes.jpg

[MichaelD]

Nice looking car. Did you buy it form an owner in Maeyland?

 

You might try gringing down the edge of the DeDion ear.

[MoPho]

It will never fit, sell the wheels to me!

 

(They look great on your car though)

[yellowss7]

Michael's right. It's a common issue. BlatChat recommends grinding down the dedeion ear enough to fit.

 

Tom

[blubarisax]

Man oh man, they look great on the car. The dedeion ears in the link below look like they might fit and are not to expensive. I have had good interactions with http://mog-racing.com They sell ears in various configurations and I am sure the owner, Joachim Westermann could advise you if they will help.

 

http://www.westermann-motorsport.com/shop/product_info.php?info=p288_Dedion-setup-kit.html&XTCsid=cb77b153261ac2b97165995339d1c2f1

 

Here is something on BlatChat:

 

As Neil says, the rear tyres for the 8" rims are very big. I had to reverse the position of the rear ARB droplinks as well as grind a bit of material off of the DeDion ears to fit the wheels. http://blatchat.com/t.asp?id=198016

Edited February 20, 2011 by blubarisax

[supersportsp]

After more research and fiddling I deduced that it is the De Dion tube itself that is rubbing. JohnCH found this for me on BlatChat: http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=61518

 

How very Caterham to produce wheels that don't fit without modifying something.

 

Looks like my next step involves an angle grinder.

[JohnCh]

How very Caterham to produce wheels that don't fit without modifying something.

 

Yet those wheels fit Westfields just fine

 

-John

[supersportsp]

Well, after a trip this afternoon to buy an angle grinder, the car is now sitting on its news wheels. It took about 20 minutes of cautious grinding on each side to get enough clearance. It is tricky because if I ground too much I started to grind into the welds for De Dion tube to its end plate.

 

I still need to go back in and do some more surgical work, perhaps with a file to free up a little more room for safety, but I just took it for a spin and all was well.

 

I can tell you that the big sticky ZZR's on roads still coated in some sand and rocks from winter makes a hell of a racket. Going slowly down a local street I could actually see rocks being picked up by the front tires and being flung in the air.

[Kitcat]

And into your lap, bouncing off your face, etc. And wait til you see what that little sand blaster does to your paint job!