Hey guys, I'm gonna start searching the threads right away but I'm kind of in a rush if these rims and tires will work.. They are 14x8 with a 4" backspace and have 215/70/14 tires on them. The bolt pattern is 4x4.25". I believe my car (a 71 stock non-grabber) has a 4x4.5" bolt pattern... can I make this work with spacers? I'd have to buy the spacers before going to test fit them. it's only $100 for all four rims and tires. It's not exactly what I was looking for but if I can make it work it will get my mav on the road permanently (running rusty rims and bald tires right now) and I can find my ideal rims at my leisure. I'm really excited right now that he even got back to me! Thanks in advance for all the help!
The bolt pattern you posted is not the same. Spacers are used to move a wheel out not move the bolts around.
well that stinks. thanks for the info. the craigslist dude told me the exact name of a shop by him that sold adapters to do it too lol. Glad I checked first. I guess I'll call him back and say a no go... Thanks again for the speedy response!
Adapters are different from spacers. An adapter will shorten your studs to bolt to the adapter and then move the pattern on the adapter to work with the new wheel. Since you need about another 1/2 to 1" of backspace to make them work, I think an adapter plus the 14 x 8 on 4" backspace would probably work out just fine.
I be very leery using spacers and adapter. They are not safe, you be asking for wheel and bearing failure. Spacer/adapter throws the balance off the center line of the bearing and stresses the wheel lugs. You don't want your wheels to fall off driving down the road.
ok. now I'm really confused. so the bolt pattern can be changed? I just called the guy back to let him know that I didn't think it would work out...
just saw your post. if this is the case then I guess it's a no go. safety first. I was sooo close to having wheels too thanks for the help guys.
i was leary of adaptors when i first started seeing them on cars about 8 years ago. ive worked on lots of cars and trucks with them over the years and have not seen any cases of failure or any that are about to fail. they are usually 1 inch thick and cost about $100 each. the price may have droped in recent years but im not sure. if you were to go with the adaptors i would recomend geting some newer mustang wheels. the only problem i see is that you have 4 lug. i dont know if there are 4 lug to 5 lug adaptors.
Most wheels have the wrong offset in them already, so an adapter isn't going to cause huge durability issues. The centerline of the wheel should be in the center span of the two tapered roller bearings. Most older wheels had a zero offset, or a slight negative offset to give them a nice "deep dish" and avoid the shock/spring. All newer wheels, you'll notice, have a large positive offset. This places the wheel centerline at the center span of the bearings to help with vibration and handling and wear and all kinds of neat stuff. On newer cars that use a combination roller/ball sealed bearing, the centerline of the wheel placement is very critical, becasue this bearing arrangement does not work well as a cantilever at all. It will react vertical loads through the rollers and axial loads through the ball, but will NOT react a moment load very well. This bearing arrangement usually requires 4 individual bearing element in order to properly constrain the hub, but you can get away with just 2 elements. However, this type of centerline alignment is not necessary as long as the two tapered rollers are doing their job and the wheel is mounted tight to the hub. The two tapered rollers act as a 4 element ball/roller and fully constrain the hub through all degrees of freedom. In conclusion, using a spacer or a negative offset is just fine on tapered roller bearings that we use in RWD application. The rear axle uses simply supported beam principle to constrain the rear wheel, typically accomplished with a single ball element. Roller elements can also be used, but the designer just need to keep edge loading in mind.
Why dont you just pick up a set of stock steelies with tires for $50 and run those until you can find a good set of rims that will work...then turn around and clean up the steelies and sell them for $25 each as spare tires or something? lol just tryin to come up w/ideas
the only 4 lug steelies I could find were on summit for $50 a piece without tires... Tried 4x4 shops around me and salvage yards. I think I'm just having bad luck. Please and thank you, I appreciate the ideas! Steelies were my first choice if you can believe that.... figured they'd look mean with my crappy flat black paint job.
the wheels were old mustang 4 lug wheels according to the dude, so I'd be staying 4 lug. $100 a piece for adapters would take away the whole benifit of getting these wheels instead of new then....
Can't use the tires on my wheels... different width and my rims are probably the rustiest thing on my car lol
I'll get back to this post after dinner. I've read it like three times. Still google searching to try and understand everything. I'm a greenie. sorry... -need to learn how to quote multiple ppl in one reply too.
