I know you are sick of ? about wheels...............

[Guest Anonymous]

Here's the deal, I have owned this 85 gt mustang too long, it has 17x8 96 cobra wheels (5 lug) and 1000.00 worth of tires. I have a 260 z that I want to swap ALL of my driveline and wheels onto. 275-40-17 in rear, 255-40-17 in front, 5x4.5 lug pattern and 5.72 back spacing. What will make it work? I am VERY new, put all the coil over and spring height and length into terms an idiot can understand please. Car is bone stock but not for long. Please help........

[Guest scca]

FLARES.........(245 is the max size unflared that i know of)

 

5 lug conversion obviously....

 

check out www.blkmgk.com for pics of his 5 lug conversion, probably the best for the newbie to start at...

do a search on 5 lug here you will find TONS of info.....

[pparaska]

255s are the largest I know of - on my car:

http://members.home.net/pparaska/wheelstires.htm

 

Then again, the fender lip still is too close to the tire, even after rolling it, so 245 is probably a better way to go. I may have to slit the wheel house and pull the fender out, then weld in a small strip to widen the rear of the fender opening to get enough clearance. I haven't driven it yet, so I don't know if it will ever rub. But without a spring, I can push the wheel/tire up into the rolled lip fender and it hits, but not until only 1.3 inches of side wall is showing below the top of the fender lip.

 

Go with 245s - that extra 10mm is not worth the effort, IMO.

 

But offset is incredibly important on this setup.

[Evan Purple240zt]

I am unflared, and running 245s with no problems. Offset is critical, and im smart enough not to spend another two weeks trying to mash another 10mm worth of tread in there LOL.

 

Anyways, 245 fits nicely!

 

Evan

[BLKMGK]

Pete, my drag radials actually rubbed a little on one side only My lips are NOT rolled yet. I've raised the back of the car up a bit but haven't driven it again. I could remove a spacer but then I think it'll hit on the inside - we'll see. It's pretty close to fitting. I had the wheel lip righ down on the tire - it's up about 3/4 of an inch now - coil overs rock!

 

260Z - do a search and look at some of my postings where I was beating my head against the wall trying to get it to fit. 5 lug is obviously a must but even then I'm not sure if this would fit for you - tire width in the back is certainly too wide without flares and coil springs. Recognize too that offset on a 7inch compared to an 8inch isn't apples to apples - you'll have to do math. I think that was in my old posts too. If you get really stuck let me know and I'll try to help.

[Guest Fast Frog]

Like BLK MGK says, 5 lug 15"+ size wheels are almost a must. I did a ton of research by tire size, manufact'r and performance. The only tire that has decent street traction, decent dimensions(24.7"dia and 9.4"tread width), and decent performance rating(VR) that fits a 15" 4 lug wheel is Dunlop SP8000. Yokohoma AVs makes a much wider 15" tire-up to 275 and 300-but it's only 23.9"+/-dia. and screws up your speedo reading. The Dunlop SP8000 245/50/VR15 fits nicely on 10" wide 15" dia 4 lug Centerline wheels. To get a wider tire with decent dimensions and/or with less bias, a 5 lug wheel is the answer-IMHO.

[BLKMGK]

Heh, half the reason I went with what I did was the availability of the Nitto 245 45 17 drag radial Most of the wheels I looked at that I liked were 5lug in FWD offsets. I didn't want bolt on spacers either and MikeSCCA's brakes looked SO good (and LIGHT) on Mikelly's car that I just HAD to have them

[Guest Anonymous]

OK guys I guess this means the 275's are in the bargain bin. What is the offset of a 17x8 that will work? Maybe I need to just ditch the whole deal and start from scratch. I'll browse through and see if I can figure out how low, what springs etc, and go from there. If I run into questions, I'll give a shout. Thanks.

[Guest Anonymous]

By the way, ANY pics would help.......

foxbody@ticnet.com

[Guest scca]

BLKMGK has done the most work in regard to measuring and actually writing it down..

 

if you want 17x8, you will need

1) coilovers

2) 5 lug conversion

3) 20mm and 40mm offset rims (to minimize spacers)

 

4) small spacers for clearing strut tubes

 

how thick are yours in the end jim?

 

oh - the 5 lug rear requires rear disks. its just NOT allowed to be drums under a 17" rim! this aint no honduh site!

 

i use the 7.5" NA 300 rims and that meant a 1.25" thick spacer on the rear and a 5/8" up front.. and i used ARP studs all around for this...

[BLKMGK]

260 - hit my WEB site fo rpics. ANYTHING you want a pic of that you don't already see just say the word and I'll work on it. I host my own server andhave a digital camera so it's not a real big deal usually.

 

The wheels that I'm running are meant for a MUSTANG. It's possible that the wheels you've got might work. I've got the 94-95 tri-spoke wheels on my Mustang and I used them to help me figure out what would work on my setup. My head scratching is documented here if you search Do me a favor - measure yor wheels. I need to know distance from mounting pad to rim lip and lip to lip. I hate math and doing this before made my head hurt but I'll try to compare what you've got with my present setup for you to see how it comes up.

 

Spacers on my setup is the thin stuff you get at Pep Boys, hardly a spacer at all! Without it the tire barely rubs the strut tube at full droop in back. It's possible that I don't need the spacers and I actually need to try this on the back since my tire was barely rubbing the fender lip. A future test I guess!

 

Oh, and as I recall the +40mm went up front and the +20mm was in back. Sounds weird but the 300ZX hubs pooched out the front track a little. Weird to see a deeper dish in back but there ya' go (shrug). Lemme' know how I can help and I'll do what I can....

 

P.S. Mazda wheels fit and so do Supra if I recall. My RX7 wheels almost ended up on the Z but they're only 7inches wide

[Drax240z]

Actually Jim from a suspension design point of view it makes a lot more sense to have a higher positive offset wheel in the front. Basically this is done in the front to adjust the lower ball joint closer to where the centerline of the wheel is, reducing scrub radius, and steering effort along with it. Take a look at some F1 cars wheels sometimes and you'll think that yours look just right after that.

[Guest scca]

speaking of scrub radius...

on my 200sx race car i have 13x7" wheels with a SIX inch BS..

 

talk about out there... only lousy part is i cant buy anything but 3 piece rims...

not cheap at $300 each...

[Drax240z]

Mike have you tried looking at Keizer for wheels? They will make 3 piece, 7.25lbs 13x7 wheels for $166US. Very reasonable! However IIRC they can't go more than 5" BS for some reason.

 

BTW, cheque is in the mail.

[Guest scca]

yeah i tried keiser.. they dont have front rim halfs that will allow that shallow a backspace..

 

the $166 price did that include the nut inserts? as keiser charges extra for those...

thats theyre cheaper center section too. they have a nicer one and its in the $250 range.

the rims i have now are BOgart... WD pricing is like $270 per rim, racer net is $299 and retail is $340. adds up when you have 3 sets.

[Guest jens]

Is it possible to relocate the rearstruts a inch or 2 to make room for 275 tires with a modified struttower or would the tire hit somethere else like the innerfender or rear control arm?

[BLKMGK]

You'd probably have to do some surgery elsewhere too. As it stands right now my 245s are hitting slightly on ONE side and they're about as close to the strut as I can reasonably get. I'd need to move th estrut at least an inch or two in order to fit a 275 and then I'm not sure how the rest of the wheelhouse would handle it without flares. Flares would probably be as easy as moving the strut, probably more so....