The original cars had 15” rims so the carrier was designed to carry a 15” space saver wheel.
But over the years getting hold of a new tyre was almost impossible as they seemed to be phased out but you can get 16”
so a while back I got a good 16” wheel and made it fit ( ie stopped it moving about underneath) by using 15mm pipe insulation which was ok but never going to be a permanent solution.
So yesterday I looked to remedy that and find a permanent solution and used the 2.8 as a guinea pig……
And an idea I had been thinking about worked…albeit with a few wrong turns along the way
so this morning did the same mod on the 1.9, but in the right sequence (unlike yesterday ) and also this time took some pictures.
Both times the car sat on the ground but had it been raised it would probably been a lot easier….although today was a lot quicker than yesterday..
First… drop the spare down and remove the cage… ( didnt do this till a lot later in the procedure yesterday)
And really easy with the new tool
Then remove the rubber plugs (3 of them, although on the 1.9 one was missing )
Really easy to pull out, then comes the mod…
3 M6 pan head screws, 3 black rubber door stops ( mine came from Screwfix as pk of 10 @ £2.99/pk)
Washers and M6 Nyloc Nuts ( same as used on tank straps )
the two rear ones are fairly easy to do but I used some double sided tape to hold parts together to fit them in
Then just a case of screwing them in and tightening them
I ended up using an open ended spanner or you cant remove it ( well not with the length of screws that I used.)
The front one is more awkward as the opening is not as wide
I had a real problem trying to get this fitted so changed the washers and nyloc nut to a nut/washer assembly ( they were in the spares box so are used somewhere on the car)
I also jammed it in the spanner with some tape ( open ended end as I found out after not being able to get the spanner out)
And that worked so just tightened it up.
Reinstalled the cage
Both mine were easy as the drop wire can be undone with my fingers as both have been greased… so I undid them to move the cage out of the way, but you may not have to
one thing I did notice is that the other fixing point on the right does hit the rubber buffer when the cage is raised and lowered, but not that it causes any problems
And thats it … when locked back in its position the spare doesn't move.
So both my cars now have spares with 16” rims which makes getting new tyres far easier ( I should have at this stage put the tyre size , but I forgot to write it down and cant be ar**d to go and find out now. (unless anyone really wants to know )
For anyone wanting a 15” tyre on a rim I have one going for free
( its kept its pressure for over two years )
Back face could do with a clean
But over the years getting hold of a new tyre was almost impossible as they seemed to be phased out but you can get 16”
so a while back I got a good 16” wheel and made it fit ( ie stopped it moving about underneath) by using 15mm pipe insulation which was ok but never going to be a permanent solution.
So yesterday I looked to remedy that and find a permanent solution and used the 2.8 as a guinea pig……
And an idea I had been thinking about worked…albeit with a few wrong turns along the way
so this morning did the same mod on the 1.9, but in the right sequence (unlike yesterday ) and also this time took some pictures.Both times the car sat on the ground but had it been raised it would probably been a lot easier….although today was a lot quicker than yesterday..
First… drop the spare down and remove the cage… ( didnt do this till a lot later in the procedure yesterday
)And really easy with the new tool
Then remove the rubber plugs (3 of them, although on the 1.9 one was missing )
Really easy to pull out, then comes the mod…
3 M6 pan head screws, 3 black rubber door stops ( mine came from Screwfix as pk of 10 @ £2.99/pk)
Washers and M6 Nyloc Nuts ( same as used on tank straps )
the two rear ones are fairly easy to do but I used some double sided tape to hold parts together to fit them in
Then just a case of screwing them in and tightening them
I ended up using an open ended spanner or you cant remove it ( well not with the length of screws that I used.
)The front one is more awkward as the opening is not as wide
I had a real problem trying to get this fitted so changed the washers and nyloc nut to a nut/washer assembly ( they were in the spares box so are used somewhere on the car)
I also jammed it in the spanner with some tape ( open ended end as I found out after not being able to get the spanner out)
And that worked so just tightened it up.
Reinstalled the cage
Both mine were easy as the drop wire can be undone with my fingers as both have been greased… so I undid them to move the cage out of the way, but you may not have to
one thing I did notice is that the other fixing point on the right does hit the rubber buffer when the cage is raised and lowered, but not that it causes any problems
And thats it … when locked back in its position the spare doesn't move.
So both my cars now have spares with 16” rims which makes getting new tyres far easier ( I should have at this stage put the tyre size , but I forgot to write it down and cant be ar**d to go and find out now. (unless anyone really wants to know )
For anyone wanting a 15” tyre on a rim I have one going for free
( its kept its pressure for over two years )
Back face could do with a clean
