Spaced out!

It's a matter of taste, but I think the flow of the Evo's side profile is a bit compromised by the

wheels bulging beyond the arches. An Evo arrived here with spacers fitted, I whipped 'em off.

I thought wheel spacers looked great on my Mini van.

Things are a bit different now, I'm older and wiser.

Well, older anyway!

First of all jack the car up on solid ground, it looks a bit

wonky outside our lock up, but it's solid enough.

Use axle stands and make sure the car is safe.

Remove the wheels, the long studs can make it difficult

to slide the wheels off, wiggle them and they'll come free

With the wheel off, the spacer is revealed. Due to electrolytic action, the alloy spacer will be stuck to the steel hub,

you'll need to give this a few bangs with a lump hammer,

then get a bar behind and lever them off.

spacer stuck to brake disc

Removing the long studs really needs a stud extractor socket,

I have a useful little set of them. The studs can be very tight

and rusted, so a good grip is required

A very useful socket

Taking the spacer off first makes room for a good length of wood to be inserted between the studs to lock the hub. With the wood in place push the socket onto the stud, turn a strong bar anti clockwise to break the stud's grip in its hole, do this to all the studs first before removing them, this will allow bracing the hub in all positions.

2 x 4 timber brace

You'll see that there's not much depth of stud thread into the hub, We haven't mentioned safety, but there's a lot of leverage at this point when the car's in action.

When all the studs are out, clean the hub face with a wire brush. Then give it a very light smear of copper grease, or even a wipe with an oily rag, just to avoid alloy to steel corrosion.

There's a threaded pin which screws into the hub, this holds the hub in line with the disc so you can

insert the wheel bolts correctly. The wheel bolts go through the disc into the hub behind it, this pin also allows the wheel rim to mount on the hub in the right position. You'll see that this hub doesn't have the pin,

sometimes it has to be removed for the wheel spacer block to fit. It's not vital, because the wheel

holds the brake disc in place, but a small bolt in this hole will hold the disc and hub in line for

easier wheel mounting.

Open the bag of new wheel bolts from AECar, bang the wheels on and tighten up the bolts, lower the car to the ground and dog the bolts up to 86Nm torque if you can, good and tight if you can't.

Then stand back and admire the car as Lancia intended it!

A goodie bag