Club 80-90 Forums

would like to get a set of alloys for my 16 inch syncro, favorite at the moment are merc ml 16 inch and i`ll probally put quite an aggresive tyre on just to create the look i`m after.

i will then restore the origonal steels and fit them with road tyres.

my question is, can i swap between the two easily? i`m guessing i`ll need longer bolts for the alloys but i dont want the bolts to stick out stupidly when i fit the steels so that the van looks origonal.

all coments on the ml wheels welcomed as i cant find info on offsets and widths.



cheers lee.

Can't comment on the actual fitting in the VW, but having had a Merc with alloys, the thread length of the alloy wheel bolts needs to be longer (I had to carry a set of short bolts for the steel spare). The shorter bolts are needed for the steelies as the thread of the alloy bolts is too long to tighten fully with steels.

i thought as much. i might have to space the steels out if changing back to them but then they may stick out too much.

stud conversion on the front, so you`ll be on same nuts all round, then you`ll just need spacers and another set of nuts to suit the steelies when fitted.

its running studs and nuts all round i think its std on the syncros (probaly wrong) my concerns are if the ml alloys need spacing then i`ll have to fit very long studs front and rear which will be fine with the alloys but then i`ll have the option of useing even wider spacers with the steels or running open end nuts and having the threads stick out too far to use the std vw nut caps.

does anybody know if these 16 inch ml alloys need spacing, i`ve seen them on a few vans whilst tralling the pics on the net and have found some for sale so i have to make a decidion soon.

thanks lee.

ML's I have fitted at work have needed spacers, you need to check the ET of the wheel, I think from memory it's 37 but in all fairness I see loads of wheels and I can never remember.

thanks simon will ring the guy tomorrow to see if he knows the sizes.

..lee.. wrote:its running studs and nuts all round i think its std on the syncros (probaly wrong)

You're not wrong. Syncro's do have studs on the front and back. Also lengthening the studs really shouldn't be necessary but make sure if your wheels need tapered nuts, use them and if they need rounded nuts, well then OK you may have to get longer studs but I have alloys on my bus and the studs are standard and after 25000 miles the wheels havent fallen off yet. I got the proper nuts though.

I think Russel of syncro-nutz fame knows pritty much all there is to know about ML wheels; pritty sure he was telling me something about them afew months ago but I've forgotten the details. Worth asking him!

I think he reconded it was one of the easyest and cheepest ways of fitting 16" alloys to a T3 as they aren't a bad size and are not the drug dealer sizes most ML drivers desire these days so can be pritty cheep on eBay.

sorry for the late reply guys and thanks for the info. i`ve comitted to buying 7 of this guy and should be collecting them tomorrow or sunday, hopefully number 8 should follow soon.

plan is 4 for van, 2 for trailer and 2 spares. lets hope it works out.

thanks again lee.