Coupe 65 rear wheel studs

[Cincy123]

I have been going over the assembly manual prior to the arrival of my Coupe kit next month. My question regards the rear wheel stud removal. I will have 18 inch Halibrands on this car (with IRS) and it looks like it will need a set of Eibach hubcentric spacers on the rear. Is it really necessary to go through the exercise of removing the rear wheel studs and replacing them with the studs accompanying the kit when at the end of the day the spacer will get mounted on these studs. Couldn't you just mount the spacer on the hub studs without removing the old ones? That seemed to work well on my 2016 Mustang GT although I did have to shorten the stock hub studs for appropriate clearance with the wheels after mounting the Eibach spacer.

[Erik W. Treves]

I had to shorten my stock studs to get the wheels on ... just a about 1/8 of an inch off with the FFR wheels (IRS) since they don't have provisions (dimples) in the back of the rim. - Just like you seemed to need to do on your '16 mustang. I am over 700hp to the ground and autox my car from time to time without issues.

[edwardb]

I have been going over the assembly manual prior to the arrival of my Coupe kit next month. My question regards the rear wheel stud removal. I will have 18 inch Halibrands on this car (with IRS) and it looks like it will need a set of Eibach hubcentric spacers on the rear. Is it really necessary to go through the exercise of removing the rear wheel studs and replacing them with the studs accompanying the kit when at the end of the day the spacer will get mounted on these studs. Couldn't you just mount the spacer on the hub studs without removing the old ones? That seemed to work well on my 2016 Mustang GT although I did have to shorten the stock hub studs for appropriate clearance with the wheels after mounting the Eibach spacer.

Yes, technically what you're asking could be done. Just to be clear, the reason for changing the studs is the 2015+ Mustang IRS parts are metric. The SN95 front hubs that are standard for all builds are SAE 1/2-20 studs. So the IRS option describes swapping out the standard metric studs in the IRS hubs to the SAE ones provided in the kit. That way you have SAE lugs nuts on all four corners and no chance to mix anything up. Swapping the studs isn't a big deal IMO. Have done it several times. Unfortunately several have had issues so it gets discussed a lot and maybe a bit of a bad rap. But I digress...

For the wheel spacers, they will come in two flavors. One with SAE nuts and studs. One with metric nuts and studs. Typically they come with low profile style nuts that bolt to your existing studs and finish at or below the outer surface of the spacer. They're a bit different than standard lug nuts in my experience. If you buy spacers with the SAE 1/2-20 studs, they're going to come with SAE nuts that won't fit your metric studs. If you buy the spacers with metric parts, will fit your existing studs but then you're back with metric studs and lug nuts. You might be able to buy the low profile metric nuts alone and then mix. But I don't know and at some point swapping the studs might be easier.

One other points. Just tried to buy the same Eibach spacers I used on my Coupe for my truck build. Eibach 90.4.25.010.3 Pro-Spacer Wheel Spacer Kit, 25mm (1 inch), 70.50mm diameter, 1/2-20 thread size that several others have used as well and probably what you're referencing here. Not sure what's happening, but nearly every source shows them out of stock. One source on Amazon was offering a pair for north of $200. Uh, no. Especially since I need them for all four corners on the truck. Found what looks like a decent option at CJ Pony Parts. There are lots of other choices. Just make sure to get hub centric spacers. That's important.

[Cincy123]

Ahh, I see now what the issue is, thanks for the clarification! Interesting issue regarding Eibach availability, lots of supply chain issues and I'm sure they are caught up in it as well.

[michael everson]

Paul is right. Technically you don't need to change them but might be hard to find the right nuts
Mike

[Papa t]

I found that Auto Zone carries there 14mm nuts. My question is why can't you use the existing 14mm bolts /nuts to hold on the wheel spacers. The wheel space studs could be 12-20 studs same as the front.

[edwardb]

I found that Auto Zone carries there 14mm nuts. My question is why can't you use the existing 14mm bolts /nuts to hold on the wheel spacers. The wheel space studs could be 12-20 studs same as the front.

Explained in my post #3 above. "Typically they come with low profile style nuts that bolt to your existing studs and finish at or below the outer surface of the spacer. They're a bit different than standard lug nuts in my experience." More details in the post.