One Rear wheel closer to the arch than the other?!?!

[Chris_944]

Hi all
Changed my alloys this week to 17's and in doing so noticed that the wheel on the passenger rear is closer to the front of the arch than on the other side.

Any ideas what might cause this? would it be the torsion bar or could it be something to do with the shock itself?

Cheers Chris

 

[petrolhead944]

hi you will find all porsche 944 are like that.don't worry mate.

 

[Hilux]

Disagree, mine wasnt!

 

[Big Dave]

Not all of them, just some.
My S2 had some differences in clearance from the drivers to passenger sides...
And it wasnt because of damage. Its how some came out of the factory...[8|][8|][8|]
You might find if youve fitted replica wheels. The passenger side rear wheel/tyre may well catch on the body...
Replicas 9/17 had an offset of 49 i think, and the original 9/17" wheel is 55. Making the reps stick out farther...

 

[bazhart]

All 944's were manufacturered from tools made before CNC 3 axis machining and in those days all press tool panels were hand finished and different.

Those are quite right who state that the near side rear wheel is closer to the wheel arch than the off side and it is the wing that is in a different position - i.e. to the centre line of the wheels.

I know this because 12-15 years ago when we noticed that most the customers who fitted 17" wheels had them hit the near side wheel arch - we measured a car all over to find the cause - it took hours - and we concluded and proved that it was the outer body shape that was not central and they were all the same (as they would be of course).

Of course the setting of the camber and rear toe etc makes a difference and later cars had the inner reverse wheel arch lip formed upwards @ about 45 degrees (instead of the original 90 degress) to help clear bigger/wider/different profile tyres. More camber and too much toe all helped so some cars may have still missed the inside edge but had different geometry. Also each car was likely be slightly different in how it came out of the body shop - but not so much that some were spot on equal both sides - just better or worse than each other. It made no difference to the wheels fitted standard and when different wheels/tyres were fitted they changed the lip angle.

Even when they were making the 993, the main chaissis body was hand finished in the "old fashioned" way and never as accurate as later production models.

However forgetting all that - the body of the 944 was made/built off centre to the centre line of the chassis at the rear.

Baz

 

[Neil Haughey]

Thanks Baz, has confirmed what I have thought for many years.

Whilst on the subject how difficult is it and what are the options for renovating/replacing the rear torsion bar tube mounting brackets on the body of a 968?