Hey i was just wondering if anyone has put a set of fourth gen wheels on a third gen and if so what it entails. I got a set of 97' SS wheels and i have a fourth gen rear-end assembly on the way, but i don't know what to do with the front because the wheels hit the struts. My friend suggested wheel spacers but I heard they will ruin my bearings. Any ideas?

 

You need spacers for the front wheels. You should need 2" adapters to make those wheels fit on the front. Same with the back if you don't end up getting the 4th gen rear. If you do get it you don't need any. Wheel spacer's aren't going to ruin your bearings...AFAIK I have yet to see a thread about anyone complaining about any problems other than a little diffrent feeling. Kandied had some issues with his..maybe he will chime in.

 

Thanks, you wouldn't happen to know any place to get wheel spacers besides wheeladapter.com/ cuz they quoted me for alil over what i can afford right now. Thanks again

 

hey browncamaro. I might actually have a set of spacers for sale soon, and i have a set of polished 16" camaro ss wheels i'm trying to sell. I have a guy coming this weekend to look at the wheels alone to put on a 4th gen. If i sell the wheels, i'll have the spacers for sale. If not, I'll have both the wheels and spacers.

I'm in allentown, pa, which is like 15 minutes outside of phillipsburg, nj. I'm not sure where demarest, nj is.

here's a quick pic of the wheels on the car
http://www.poorformance.net/forums/a....php?pic_id=98

email me at thewraith@poorformance.net if you're interested.

 

4th gen rims

 

It will put a small amount more stress on the front bearings, but thats what, like a 5 min. job to change them? They shouldn't reduce life by to much anyways. I've been running 1" spacers on my old 85 Z (my g/f's car now) for about 3 years, and I didn't notice any extra wear on the wheel bearings when I was doing her struts/springs 2 months back. The car has had maybe 30,000 miles on it since the spacers have been on there. Like the other guys said, if you get the 4th gen rear it'll give you the proper offset.

Good luck,
Matt

 

slammnmini what offset are your rims?

 

honestly i have no idea..i got em from my buddy he had em on his 4th gen and he bought em used so i dunno..one of these days i'll be unlazy and measure it

 

Hey slammnmini what kinda rims are those. I like them alot.

 

once again..no idea..lol...i got em from my buddy and he got em from a swap meet...next time i take em off to polish em i'll see if anythings engraved..i jus know they're 18x9.5

 

They look like BMW wheels.... possibly ACs..

And they must have stuck out on the 4th gen if they fit that well on your car. 4th gen wheels generally require spacers to fit properly on a thirdgen.

 

how weird...maybe they are bmw wheels cause i had someone ask me if they were already....as for stickin out on my buddys 4th gen..they stuck away from the fender only like 1/2 inch..they look better on mine tho cause they suck way in

 

I thought there was something funny about them fitting on a 3rd gen. cause i bought 97' SS rims and i can't even get them to bolt on let alone not rub. Time for wheel spacers, oh yea thanks dennis for the rear.

 

I used spacers on my 84 Convertible w/ no problems on wheel bearings. In my opinion, the wheels bearings on the Third Gen f-bodies need alot of attention any how.

The spacers I used with my 17 X 9 SS wheels were the 2.5 inch
for the front and 2.25 for the rear. I got my spacers from a machine shop who made them from billet aluminum. He charged me $225 for all four.

The other thing I would recommend would be to re-align the front end for the new wheels. The steering on my car was very sensitive to roads whith lots of crown and roads with deep grooves from semi trucks.

I had 275 40 17 tires on mine, you may want to run something a little more conservative like 255 -45 17.

Todd
84 Z28 Convertible
1 of a very, very few

 

I see, well i'll consider smaller tires but i don't know how my car will like that after the twin turbo system is complete. Thanks for the input though.

 

Hey Slammnmini, what kind of springs and shocks do you have? The stance looks good.

 

factory shocks...2" intrax springs..ride great im thrilled with em on 275/35/18 rubber

 

Factory shocks huh!? It rides good? From what i can tell those springs lower our cars, i would say, the lowest. Close to the Sportlines by Eibach. Thanks for the reply. later

 

yea..biggest drop for the cheapest...and rides like a dream...muchhhhhh better than anything eibach has to offer..i've been in a few eibach cars thats why i went with intrax...granted they're purple..but hey..cant have everything..heh

 

slammnmini do you have any rubbing problems with the 2" lowering and the 275's?

 

nah..nothin rubs...suck in just enough so the tires dont hit the fenders....fits like a glove

 

nice, looks like im going to need lowering springs too

 

2" wheel adapters here. No problems with the wheel bearings... why would there be? The only time you run into wheel bearing problems is when you move the wheel centerline out from the bearing. Although the adapter is 2" thick, the centerline moves only a fraction of a inch. The adapter just makes up for the extra backspacing on the wheel.

Check www.skulte.com for the adapters. If the asking price is too high for your taste (not bad at $140 for only one pair) then check the classifieds. I sold a pair of mine for $115 shipped, and I've seen them go for as little as $100.

I've run 275/40r17 all the way around with no rubbing problems front or rear. Then I dropped the car a little over an inch since the pic in the sig. Still no rubbing.