[HWYSTR455]

Originally Posted by Joe-Touring

Why would a wheel spacer affect the caliper? I spose if you spaced the rotor out, but the wheel?

Not sure what I was thinking there, was probably drinking at the time! Heheh!

I’ve been thinking about converting my 12 bolt to ford housing ends. I believe there are tapered bearings available to better handle side loading, would these also help with kickback?

There's 2 Moser housing ends for 12 bolts, the 7900 and the 7900FM. The 'FM' one is 'flush mount', and is used with disc brakes, so you don't have to use the spacer that makes up for the backing plate.

Tapered bearings I believe are available for the Ford large bearing ends, but don't believe they will help with kickback, they require a slight amount of clearance. Newer ball bearing bearings are better than the older bearings that would wear (and in extreme conditions fail) faster than a tapered bearing.

Twice I've run into buying 120.65 listed wheels and the were not quit 120s or 120.65s, but that was in the 80s/90s.

And yup, when it comes to big(ger) brakes, it 'depends' on the wheel used. I have the C5/6 Koe3 setup all the way around on my A body with Bandit 18s, and it's very close to the 'spokes' on the wheel.


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[HWYSTR455]

I run the Raybestos Element-3 hybrid pads on the A-body, and really like them. They bite good when cold and manage heat very well, with little dust.

https://www.raybestos.com/element3-pads

I've tried a lot of pads, and IMO the Hawk's are overrated.

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[jhein]

I decided on the Nitto Invo for the front and NT01 for the rear. That should be a nice combo.

[JLMounce]

Any reason why you're not going with the NT01 in the front as well?

I've had Invo's and they are a nice tire. Quiet and comfortable with still a decent amount of stick. Their tread design picks up and flings rocks a good bit though.

The sidewall is a bit too soft for my taste, but it's designed for performance sedans where ride comfort is more important than lateral feel, so I get that.

[jhein]

Originally Posted by JLMounce

Any reason why you're not going with the NT01 in the front as well?

I've had Invo's and they are a nice tire. Quiet and comfortable with still a decent amount of stick. Their tread design picks up and flings rocks a good bit though.

The sidewall is a bit too soft for my taste, but it's designed for performance sedans where ride comfort is more important than lateral feel, so I get that.

My reasoning was that I'd get more life out of the Invo and I could live with a harder compound on the front vs the rear. Soft sidewall doesn't sound great.

Also, the NT01 does not come in the 255/45. The closest would be a 265/40 which is 26.34" tall which would be OK. 265 should fit on the front, yes?

Have you had the NT01?

[JLMounce]

I have not run an NT01, so I can't make any claims for or against it. It, like the INVO is a somewhat older tire design. It's one of the original 200 treadwear performance tires before companies started making stuff specifically for autocross. I remember at the time, lots of people raved about them.

Then went out of favor when the BFG Rival came out, and now there's 200 treadwear autocross style tires all over the place.

[jhein]

Originally Posted by JLMounce

I have not run an NT01, so I can't make any claims for or against it. It, like the INVO is a somewhat older tire design. It's one of the original 200 treadwear performance tires before companies started making stuff specifically for autocross. I remember at the time, lots of people raved about them.

Then went out of favor when the BFG Rival came out, and now there's 200 treadwear autocross style tires all over the place.

Do you think a 265/40/18 would fit on the front?

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by jhein

Do you think a 265/40/18 would fit on the front?

On a car that isn't significantly lowered and has a wheel offset the favors moving the wheel outboard slightly, I think it can be made to work.

a 265 would want to be on a 9 to 9.5" wheel. If your current wheel and tire setup is rub-free currently, you can get a lot of mileage out of this tool.

You can play with wheel and tires sizing to your heart's content and it will tell you what kind of space requirements are necessary for the changes. Then take those measurements to your car and see if you run into any issues.

https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/

That said I do know of some people that claim they are able to get a 265 on the front of some first gens. In general the 2nd gen has a bit more room front and rear for tires.

On 14" through 16" wheel sizes, in general the first points of contact in the front of these cars is the tie rod ends and the upper ball joint. As wheel hoop diameter increases, the tie rod ends and upper ball joint starts to slip inside the wheel hoop, giving you the ability to run wider wheels and tires.

As HWYSTR mentioned, drop spindles are a bit of a nono. Not that there is inherently anything wrong with a drop spindle. It has some advantages and disadvantages, but because it moves the wheel up relative to the suspension, you start running into issues with wide wheels and hitting the lower ball joint. These are more popular as drag car parts because you can get the front end low without reducing compression travel on the shock, which is advantageous for many reasons.

The best way I've found to check this stuff on the front end is to get the nose off the ground so that wheels are in full droop. Measure clearances lock to lock at full droop. Then, using a small jack, carefully jack up each lower control arm until the full weight of that corner is on the suspension, then measure lock to lock again and see what has changed.

Ideally you'd do the same thing with the spring out of the car and measure lock to lock at full compression, but that's typically not practical to do and most full compression situations come when the wheels are pointed mostly straight anyhow.

[HWYSTR455]

Yes, 265s should work, that's what I run.


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[jhein]

OK, I got the tires mounted today. What kind of pressure should I run in these? 255/40 18 front 275/40 18 rear.

[HWYSTR455]

I start at max psi from side of tire, and dial it in from there. Others may have other approaches, but that seems to work well for me.

Diff aspect ratio, construction, and compound tires vary on what max is, and there are good reasons for that. There is a formula to determine the recommended psi 'range', but would have to look that up to be sure. It's a basic guideline for the most part, so...

I think it's like you don't want to or need to be careful once you go below 30% of max psi, but again, would have to look it up.

My 555s say max 50 psi, so 30%, 15 psi, the LOWEST you should ever run is 35. That's pretty low, and personally would probably run more in the 40-45 psi range.


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[HWYSTR455]

The range calculation is 75%-90%, depending on driving conditions.

This assumes you are running standard load rated tire, and not exceeding standard vehicle loads.

So for a 50 psi tire, the range works out to 37.5 - 45 psi.

'Spirited' driving where loads are higher, you run closer to the 90% range, and if you're a grandma, 75%.

The max tire psi on the side of a tire is based on cold settings, and accounts for psi increases with heat. General range of heat from 'conditions', be it 'spirited driving' etc, are 6-8 psi. So even at 45 psi, you can safely drive even in extreme conditions for extended periods.


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[Gator67]

In the sizes we run, we're typically at 32-37#. Adjust based on how the car feels and the tires wear. If it starts to wear in the middle more than the outside it's over inflated. You can also paint a thin stripe across the tire and see if it's wearing more towards the inside than outside. The only time I pressure the tires to max psi is when I won't be driving the car for a while (so I don't get flat spots).

Another thing...I kind of lost track of what tires you bought, but if it's a summer tire heed warnings about not driving the car below certain temps, most often below 40 degrees. The compound gets hard and you lose traction...this can happen when the road is perfectly dry, so you're not expecting it...I've had a close call with my '70, and an even closer call with my 18 ZL1...and temps were only in the low 30s'.

[jhein]

Thanks guys. Yes, Gator67, as I was shopping for tires I saw several that had temperature restrictions for cold conditions. I ended up with the Nitto NT01 rear and the Invo front. The NT01 did not have any prominent warnings like other brands did. So I called their tech support and they said there was not such restriction. Then on closer examination I found something listed under "additional information" on their website which says 15 deg F for the NT01. But for my driving season, I won't be below 40 F.

[HWYSTR455]

A tire that is inflated to max as outline on the sidewall is not overinflated, and will not cause uneven wear, just to comment.

Steering response improves with more psi (to a point), and traction can improve with less (also to a point).

When a tire is underinflated it can cause issues with sidewall and belts, depending on the sidewall, can actually hinder traction. Example, compare a drag slick to a modern exotic car' tire. Drag slick sidewalls are constructed to handle low psi, the other not. (exception is a street-sticky radial to some degree).

A tire that is inflated less than 65% of max is technically underinflated. To determine if it's underinflated, after a 15-30min highway drive, pull over and place you hand on the sidewall. If it's hot, the sidewall is being compromised.

With that said, the wear pattern adage of low=outside wear/over=center wear still holds water, but unless it's an extreme, by the time you realize it, it's too late.

Once you install a tire that is not what the car was originally equipped with, that sticker on wherever calling out the 'recommended' tire psi goes out the window.

Compounds, yes, careful driving in cold weather, just like shallow grooves and rain.



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[jhein]

Ok, I got the new wheels/tires mounted on the car. The good news is that I take back everything bad I said about the look of the 18"wheels. I think they look pretty good. The bad and the ugly is that I have a rub on the left front at the rear on the outside. The reason for that is that when I changed the front calipers to the Wilwood D52s, they needed a 1/4" spacer so the wheel would clear them. As a result, they installed longer wheel studs. I tried to see if I could mount these without the spacer but the studs are too long. So I need to ditch the spacers and get some factory length studs. I hope that will be enough to fix it.

[jhein]

Better yet, I just ran down to the tire shop and they had some open end lug nuts that will work for a temporary solution. They're gonna get me some longer closed end ones as well. Hopefully this will fix the current rub and not create a new one on the inside...

[JLMounce]

Setup looks great! I'm sure you'll be pleased once you get that rub situation dealt with.

[HWYSTR455]

I'm guessing that's a front tire rub?

If it's that's close toward the front of the wheel opening, you have way too little caster, should go to a more performance/modern alignment.



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[jhein]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

I'm guessing that's a front tire rub?

If it's that's close toward the front of the wheel opening, you have way too little caster, should go to a more performance/modern alignment.

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Edit: It's actually the rear outer edge of the left front tire. It's a lot better after removing the 1/4" spacer that was on there. It's close now but doesn't make contact. The Tire shop guy did mention alignment. I'm gonna talk to my car guy about that.