[b-man]

Originally Posted by JC455

Will the 17" Rally II's fit on a '64? I don't have the backspace specs on them...

Now that we know the 17X8s have 4.5 backspace and the 17X9s have 5.125" I can honestly say to forget about the 17X9s.

This leaves the 17X8s, which have exactly the same backspace dimensions as the 17X8 steel wheels I used to run on my Tempest. See a couple of my posts above for my comments on tires.

They'll fit, but they will definitely limit your tire sizes to 235/45 front and 245/45 at the very most in the rear and they'll be very close to the rear fender inner lips. This assumes you'll be running a stock width '64 -'66 narrow rear, if you've swapped to a 1" wider mid-'66 and later rear end those wheels are a poor choice due to the somewhat shallow backspacing.

It sickens me a bit seeing all these nice aftermarket wheels being offered with backspacing that's simply too shallow by at least 1/2" to 3/4" for proper fitment on out '60s and '70s classic GM cars.

Quite frankly I see it as stupidity, why haven't these wheel makers actually tried out these wheels on various A-body and F-body cars and adjusted their specs?

I've seen nice-looking 15X7" American Racing Torq Thrust wheels offered with a ridiculously shallow 3.75" of backspace. You'd be lucky to use a tiny 225/60-15 tire on them without them tearing up the sidewalls, I just don't get it.

[JC455]

Thanks, Bart!
When you had the 8" rims w/ 4.5" BS, did you have drums on the front, or already changed over to disc brakes?

[b-man]

Originally Posted by JC455

Thanks, Bart!
When you had the 8" rims w/ 4.5" BS, did you have drums on the front, or already changed over to disc brakes?

At the time I was running '78 B-body spindles/12" discs using Hotchkis upper arms.

Note the junkyard 12" B-body rotors that have been redrilled from the 5 on 5" GM big car pattern to the 5 on 4.75" GM intermediate pattern.

[Cardo]

So can we run a 245/50/17 on a 17x8 rim with 4.81 backspacing? That's a 26.6 inch tall tire. I'm planing on running a American Racing Torque thrust II wheel with that tire, and the Scarebird front disc brake conversion with my stock 65 rearend.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Cardo

So can we run a 245/50/17 on a 17x8 rim with 4.81 backspacing? That's a 26.6 inch tall tire. I'm planing on running a American Racing Torque thrust II wheel with that tire, and the Scarebird front disc brake conversion with my stock 65 rearend.

In the rear, yes.

Up front I think you'll have a big problem with the tires rubbing, simply too tall and too wide.

Buy them for the rear only at first and do a test fit on the front.

Let us know how you fare.

[footjoy]

B-Man can you tell me what lower control arms you were using in this post?
Up front the problem you will encounter is the tire wants to contact the rear lower 'point' of the wheel opening on tight turns, like a right turn on a city street. This pretty much limited the tire height I could use, 235/45s (25.3" tall) were all that would work without interference. To combat this and enable you to run a larger diameter tire you need to use a pair of aftermarket lower control arms that move the ball joint 1" further forward. This adds caster and moves the wheel about 1/2" or so forward in the wheel well, giving you the clearance you need for a taller tire and adding high speed stability. I had been running stock lower control arms and B-body tall spindles on my car, but since then I have swapped to SPC lower arms/ATS aluminum spindles and 18X9" wheels.

It seems I could get better control arms and suspension instead of spending 300 a wheel on backspace.

I think

thanks

Greg

[b-man]

Originally Posted by footjoy

B-Man can you tell me what lower control arms you were using in this post?
Up front the problem you will encounter is the tire wants to contact the rear lower 'point' of the wheel opening on tight turns, like a right turn on a city street. This pretty much limited the tire height I could use, 235/45s (25.3" tall) were all that would work without interference. To combat this and enable you to run a larger diameter tire you need to use a pair of aftermarket lower control arms that move the ball joint 1" further forward. This adds caster and moves the wheel about 1/2" or so forward in the wheel well, giving you the clearance you need for a taller tire and adding high speed stability. I had been running stock lower control arms and B-body tall spindles on my car, but since then I have swapped to SPC lower arms/ATS aluminum spindles and 18X9" wheels.

It seems I could get better control arms and suspension instead of spending 300 a wheel on backspace.

I think

thanks

Greg

Greg,

The tubular aftermarket lower control arms I went to are made by SPC, they move the ball joint forward by 1". The price I paid for them was $548 for the pair back in 2009, none of this stuff is cheap.

Bart

Suspension build thread:http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=610357

[footjoy]

b-man can you use the control arms with out the spindles?

[b-man]

Originally Posted by footjoy

b-man can you use the control arms with out the spindles?

Been so long since I purchased them I'm really not sure, but make a quick call to Mark at SC&C and he will surely answer your question:http://scandc.com/new/

[Cardo]

I am getting ready to order my tires..... found a pretty good price on the ones that i want. I am going to go ahead with the prevailing wisdom here and go with a 245/45/17. Tempest1964, could you post a picture or 2 of your wheel tire combo, i'd like to at least see a picture before i order. I am planning on using a 17x8 American Racing Torque Thrust II with 4.81 back spacing.

[tempest1964]

Hope this helps. Car is at paint shop now. Don't have any other decent pictures.
Tony

[Cardo]

That's exactly what i needed to see. I appreciate it. I also see that your're just up the road from me.

[tempest1964]

Yup. Ever in Indy for a car event or whatever let me know.

[highrisk]

Here is what I decided on. The left tire is a 245/50/17 (10.3" wide 26.7" tall) the right tire is 215/55/17 (9.2" wide 26.3" tall). They are Kumho Solus TA 71 and got really good reviews on TireRack.com. The only area where they did not do real well was snow and ice, for some reason I don't see that as a problem. If you take off the additional backspace for the disc brakes on the front and the 69 rear end and disc on the back I went with a 17x7 with 4.5"BS on the front and a 17x8 with 5"BS on the rear. My wheels actually had 17x7 with 4.75"BS on the front and 17x8 with 5.75"BS on the rear. They seem to fit in the wheel well very nicely and I don't expect any rub issues up front, plenty of room. I probably could have used .25" less BS on the rear to pull the wheel to the outside edge more, but the way it is the tire is almost perfectly centered in the wheel well which is fine to me. It would allow a wider tire in the future if I decided I wanted to go wider. But I like the looks of the combination I have. If you look at the picture of the tire from the rear you can see the edge of the fender where it bends in to judge where the tire comes too. Once I get the car back and get the wheels on it where I can put it on the ground I will post better pictures.
Dale

[tempest1964]

Man those are some good lookin' wheels!

[highrisk]

Originally Posted by tempest1964

Man those are some good lookin' wheels!

Thanks, I like how they turned out. The center, which is the hardest to polish and keep looking nice on polished rims, is actually chromed. The barrel of the rim is polished. The polished part cleaned up very easily with a little Mother's and hardly any time.
Dale

[rohrt]

How tall are the wheels?

[highrisk]

Originally Posted by rohrt

How tall are the wheels?

17"

[rohrt]

Originally Posted by highrisk

17"

Ha Ha...I meant with the tires on.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by rohrt

Ha Ha...I meant with the tires on.

The wheels are still 17" - even with the tires on...

Oh, you mean how tall are the tires...

245/50/17's should be about 26.6" and the 215/55/17's about 26.3", depending on the actual tire, but those numbers should be within a tenth or two.