Fatrat progress

Those 14" wheels look pretty neat, what are they?
Ed's problem is the Corsa kit which has fiberglass portions wrapping around the front of the wheel arch which reduces the clearance even more.
I think 145/80/13 tires would solve the problem and a massive adjustment to get the caster pointing the strut bottom back which would move the wheel hub back, creating more front wheel arch clearance and totally mess up wheel alignment. Useless advice free of charge.

The 205/60/13 BFGs on my 8" rims interfere with my flares at the front and back so much that I can only turn the front wheels about 10 degrees! My Dremel with cutoff wheel will be making an appearance soon.
 
carl said:
a massive adjustment to get the caster pointing the strut bottom back which would move the wheel hub back, creating more front wheel arch clearance and totally mess up wheel alignment
Click to expand...
That is actually easy to do by changing the relative position of the forward end of the trailing (torque, radius, brake) rod, to move the rod rearward (effectively making it longer). Just replacing the bushings with different thickness or shimming them would do it. But as you say, that changes the caster and will have a negative effect on the handling (would make the front end very nervous and twitchy, not wanting to stay going in a straight line).

It is a bit odd on the X though. If you look at the stock position of the front wheels in relation to the fender openings (wheel wells and arches), they are sitting forward and not centered. Almost as if someone realized the initial design had too much negative caster, or they miscalculated the correct location of the fenders, or some other design screw up and had to change the length of the trailing rod after the fact to correct for it...but didn't bother to change everything else accordingly.
 
carl said:
Those 14" wheels look pretty neat, what are they?
Ed's problem is the Corsa kit which has fiberglass portions wrapping around the front of the wheel arch which reduces the clearance even more.
I think 145/80/13 tires would solve the problem and a massive adjustment to get the caster pointing the strut bottom back which would move the wheel hub back, creating more front wheel arch clearance and totally mess up wheel alignment. Useless advice free of charge.

The 205/60/13 BFGs on my 8" rims interfere with my flares at the front and back so much that I can only turn the front wheels about 10 degrees! My Dremel with cutoff wheel will be making an appearance soon.
Click to expand...
If you’re talking about my wheels, they are 13”. I was told they were lotus but have no markings! Also told the centre caps were custom made???
 
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Pic
 
When the Xs first came out they had tiny sized tires on skinny rims by today's standards so clearly the clearance issue was not a problem. It's fun to read old FAZA literature and see what Al considered fat street tires, pretty much 165s! If Fiat blew the location of the front tires in relation to the fender opening, they certainly were not going to tell anyone and it didn't warrant the assignment of a special investigator.
 
I would be happy with a straight, clean set of phone-dial rims.... Does anyone have a set they would like to part with?

I went through a number of combinations of spacers, no spacers, different brands of tires etc and then just decided it wasn't worthwhile. My advice? Try someone else's setup before you buy... Tire brand, suspension setup, body kits all impact whether or not larger rims and tires will work..

Ed
 
ecohen2 said:
I would be happy with a straight, clean set of phone-dial rims.... Does anyone have a set they would like to part with?

I went through a number of combinations of spacers, no spacers, different brands of tires etc and then just decided it wasn't worthwhile. My advice? Try someone else's setup before you buy... Tire brand, suspension setup, body kits all impact whether or not larger rims and tires will work..

Ed
Click to expand...
How about 4 Trons with hub caps?
 
Get some nice 4.5" X13" rims from an early X and some skinny ass tires and you won't have any problem....except for Todd and me laughing at your car.
 
I hear a nice X on cold rainy nights are very prone to unintended drifting.....as in swapping ends.
 
I have 205/60 Federal SS-595s on the back, and can tell the difference in feel on wet streets (we get a lot of them in Portland); gets very 'tossable' around corners for sure!
 
carl said:
Get some nice 4.5" X13" rims from an early X and some skinny ass tires and you won't have any problem....except for Todd and me laughing at your car.
Click to expand...

Those remind me of the mini-spare tires that come on cars..
 
Not to change the subject but there has been work done on the fat. I made a patch panel for the firewall just below where the dizzy access panel is (never seen major rust there on other Xs) and the engine bay is now ready to receive the drivetrain. Hopefully in the next week I'll have it in but have to get my son over to help me drag it up from the basement first. Rebuilt pedal box from the rat is in and all lines hooked up. Fabbing some upper mounting brackets for an early grill and when that's done I can install the radiator, also from the rat. Installed the reservoirs and Tygon hoses for them but got unhappy with the fact that they won't lay flat and thus the reservoir is not the high point in the hydraulic supply circuit. Since I had to cut out a large section separating the front trunk from the cowl area due to rust and deciding not to run wipers, I'm making a bracket to mount the two reservoirs right where the wiper motor/mount goes and thus provide for a very short hose run. You really can spend two days trying to fab a mounting bracket that works and that you are happy with....about 1/2 day out on that.
 
ecohen2 said:
Those remind me of the mini-spare tires that come on cars.
Click to expand...
That would be really fun; mount 4 of those super skinny, rock hard, "space saver" spares with their maximum air pressure (I think it is close to 100 psi). Then go drifting. :cool:
 
carl said:
I'm making a bracket to mount the two reservoirs right where the wiper motor/mount goes and thus provide for a very short hose run.
Click to expand...
Definite improvement. I am using three of the small cube "clutch" reservoirs and mounting them on the left (driver's) side, next to the hole the hoses feed through. Not quite as high up as your choice but I will be retaining the wipers (this is for the "nice" car, not the outlaw). Still a much shorter run and less chance of the hose ending up as the high point. For the outlaw I'll look into what you described.
 
When I was trying different locations on the rat, I found that if you intended to store the targa up front then you were severely limited by where you could put the reservoirs if you wanted them in the front trunk as yo could not get them to fit under the stored top and still have them higher than the MCs. If you don't store the targa in it's space then the sky is the limit. While I don't plan to use wipers (at the moment) I would like to be able to store the top.
 
This was discussed some time ago. By using the smaller reservoirs, it is possible to mount them far enough to the left (driver's side) of the spot where the hoses pass through so they won't interfere with stowing the top. There is a little pocket off to that side (behind the strut tower) you can use if the reservoirs are arranged right. On some models there is a solenoid or relay or something located there, so it will need to be moved over. And on the later cars with the very large windshield washer reservoir, it will need to be replaced with a smaller one. So it isn't a free exchange, but certainly can be done and should be a huge improvement over the stock set up. But I agree, if you are eliminating the wiper assembly then going up there is even better - due to its elevation.
 
Here are some pics of the reservoir relocation. Hoses have not been moved as I already have a set of shorter hoses I need to install.
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