I just had an idea.

I believe my rear end has a bent shaft or something, because it hums and whines REALLY bad at speed.

Anyway, I've been looking at some 4th gen rears, as I don't want the small rear discs from the pre-89 cars and the only other 89+ rears that I've found are trashed.

ANYWAY, Here's my idea.

Most people say that because the 4th gen rear sits out so much farther, just get 4th gen wheels and spacers on the front... well... as much as I'd like to waste $150 or so on spacers... I hate all 4th gens wheels. They don't do much of ANYTHING for me.

Soooooo... Wheel companies make the same wheels for many cars... Don't quote me on this as it is just an example and I may not be 100% correct..... Why not buy for example, 2 Torque Thrust II wheels for the front, made for a 3rdGEN and then 2 of the same wheels, but made for a 4thGen??

Is there any problem to that? Would that ultimately correct the issue of the 4th gen rears w/o having to use spacers or 4thgen wheels?

Later.

 

that would work to buy 2 3rdgen fronts, and 2 forth gen rears.

the problem is, rotating is out of the question. and in case you have ot use a spare, you may have issues.

 

exactly.. rotating is out of the question, and spare is gunna stick out a little..

 

This will probably be a bit of a stupid question.....

Can you rotate the IROC wheels?

I was under the impression you couldn't because they are marked REAR and FRONT.

 

i know u cant rotate the rims on my 85 trans am , who cares if you can rotate them , if you dont drive the car every day then your tires wont wear out. thats a good idea with the tires for the front and rear , i never thought of that .

 

The only thing I can think of (besides the rotating thing, which is usually a non-factor since a lot of us use directional tires or have OEM front/rear specific rims in the first place - yes, I realize that you can still go front to rear on the same side with directionals, but it doesn't really "rotate" the tires properly...) is that the rims may look a little different front and rear since the backspacing is going to be a lot different for the front versus the rear. In other words the mounting surface of the wheel being farther in on the 3rd gen front setup is going to make the wheel have a larger 'lip' portion in comparison to a 4th gen wheel which will have much more offset. If that difference in looks doesn't matter to you - then it doesn't matter to you .

 

Has anyone out there done this yet?

I talked to some guys at the local rim/tire shop today and they too mentioned the offset deal... where the 3rdgen looks deep-dish and the 4thgen looks flush/flat.

I dunno - How much of a difference is there really between offsets?

 

no way.. if there is gunna be a dish on mine, its gunna be the rear ones. I mean, its a good idea and it would save you $250 in spacers for the front. Try it and be the first..

 

Well at this point, its just a concept. I haven't actually priced anything.

Has anyone tried to shorten a 4thgen rear? If so, how much was it?

 

You could get the ultra-wide rear wheels to make up for the offset difference. Say, 17x9 front and 17x11 rear.

 

Offset on the front of a 3rd gen is 0 (as in the mounting surface is centered in the width of the rim). I believe the 3rd gen rears are 14mm (outward from the center) and 4th gens are usually 50-55mm depending on the manufacturer and width of the rim (17x9 or 17x9.5 that is....).

 

The ROH Snypers for the 3rd gen and 4th gen are the same.




We are planning on doing the 3rd gen front and 4th gen rear offset on my friends 92 Firebird after we do the LT1 swap in it.