Magnum 500s and Turner disc brakes

[Footer]

In past posts, Gunslinger told us that two of his Magnum 500 wheels had clearance issues with his newly installed Turner disc brakes. The other two wheels fit over the brakes fine. I’m wondering if there might be any difference on factory installed Magnums vs. wheels purchased separately.  According to Bob Johnstone’s registry, my car was originally equipped with wire wheels but now wears a set of Magnums with center caps that say “Magnum 500”.  Any theories as to whether factory installed wheels vs. aftermarket fit different, or is it basically a crap shoot?  Mike

[Guy]

I have Turners on one of my Avantis and it needs spacers on front stock wheels in order to clear calipers. I cant speak for magnums, the clearance issue is one thing I dislike about the Turner set up.

[Gunslinger]

My conclusion was that two of the four 500s on my Avanti had slightly different offsets and came from different construction lots.  Avanti Motors would simply order 15"x6" Magnum 500s which were duly shipped to them and could have come from various production lots.  Since they fit the stock Bendix brakes there was no issues to be concerned about or even know about.  If I remember correctly...the tech who installed the Turner kit on my car said it was about a 3/8" difference in offset...enough to cause the scraping between the caliper and the rim.  

I had two solutions...they could grind the high spot on the calipers or...what I did do...keep the offending rims on the rear of the car and two that didn't scrape on the front.  At the time it was about forty years past any warranty concern.  

More modern sport rims are likely far more able to fit without issue as they would have been designed with clearances for more modern calipers.  But one never knows until a test fit is done.  

[Michael Phillips]

I am using Cobalt calipers and pads. These are reengineered Girling/ Dunlop type new parts, that were intended for the Jaguar XKE etc. market. They fit with no modification other than removal of the separator piece under the pads in the caliper bracket. there are no clearance problems with the stock steel wheels that came on my "69 as the dimensions are the same.

 

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[Dwight FitzSimons]

There are two different Turner front disc brake kits: 1) the older kit with GM calipers, and 2) the newer kit with Chrysler minivan calipers.  Clearance issues would be different between the two.

-Dwight

[Footer]

I bought my Turners a few years ago, might be the GM version.  Don’t want to tie up a lift if my Magnums won’t fit. Mike

[64StudebakerAvanti]

IIRC, when I installed Turner's kit, the instructions said to grind off the high spot on the GM calipers.