What exactly was done in the front wheel area of the GTA's to eliminate this. I put these rims on my 1983 trans am which originally had 14 inch wheels and they rub beyond belief. did pontiac re-design the wheel housing area/subframe changes to accomodate these wheels. I realize the front to rear differences and thats not the problem either. My car doesn't seem to sag from worn out coil springs.

 

Are you sure you have the have the wheels in the right location? GTA wheels are designed as fronts and backs. If you put wheels intended for the rear in the front, they will rub.
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Never mind, you already knew that. This is what happens when my coffee machine is broken

 

Yep, you either have the fronts on the back and the backs on the front or a set of 4 fronts or 4 backs, which if that's the case go kick the *** of the person who sold them to you.

 

it's not front/rear related ....... did GTA's use any type of wheel spacers? .... about they only tires that dont rub is 215/60/15's the 14's never rubbed at all. Both the front and rear edges of the tires rub badly when turning and thats why I asked if inner fender areas were different. backs seem fine though .... Or is this related to the fact I don't have a performance type steering box I see later models have 2.5 lock to lock boxes mine is more like 3.0. were the bump stops on the A-arms different in any way as well as the spindles.

 

All of these cars are REAL BAD about rubbing with larger tires on the front.

The usual culprit is the outside edge of a tire rubbing on the very bottom of the fender at the opening, when the wheel is turned toward that side and the suspension is in "rebound". It's worse when backing up, and on most cars, seems worse on the left for some unknown reason. It occurs the most at somewhat less than full lock, so it's not a matter of the wrong steering stops. So the worst possible scenario is backing out of a driveway with the wheel cut ¾ of the way to the left, sideways, at such an angle that the left tire is in a lower place (the gutter, say) while the right front is still at a higher level (on the driveway ramp). The next worst is taking off quickly from a stop in a sharp corner, like turning out of a driveway, where the wheels can end up in the same kind of level difference.

If that describes how your car behaves, you'll just have to learn to live with it.

A good "performance" alignment makes it worse; the more positive caster you crank into it (lean the top of the strut back) the farther rearward the tire moves, making it rub more.

The fenders are the same in that area from 82 to 92, so it's nothing to do with the year of your car.

 

Wouldn't the reason they rub be from different steering stops? I thought 16x8 wheels had different stops than the cars with smaller/skinnier rims. Anyone want to confirm/deny this?

 

I'm not sure... whaddya think?

I think the REAL problem is, modern tires are "squarer" at the edge, than the OE ones were. I could be wrong though. Well I am wrong, but mistaken about that particular thing, as well. I do know that different tires I've had have been either alot better or alot worse than others.

 

No spacers used on the GTA's. I'll assume that tire size you posted is a typo. GTA wheels are 16x8, so no way you're getting 215/60/15's on them.

Also, 215 is too narrow for an 8" wide rim.

Got any pics you can post? Might help pinpoint the problem.

 

I have real old tires on my car, but they dont rub at all. And they are 16x8 formy wheels.

There are factory spacers on the back, but they are thin and probably useless. Are you sure you didnt get 4 rear wheels, because rears will rub on the front, but fronts are OK on the rear, making the fronts more desirable.

 

Hmm, maybe I skimmed through your post a tad too quick. I wasn't aware that it occurred before full lock, first time hearing that. I remember having my wheels cut to the right last weekend and it wasn't rubbing (245 yokohama tires), so maybe your on to something with the shape/size. I still stand by my original comment though - if someone will validate it for me that is

 

Cars that came from the factory with 14" or 15" have different front a-arms than the cars that came with 16" wheels. It has to do with where the steering stops were on the control arms. I think this is your main issue but otherwise you may have to modify your inner fender a little.

 

Are you sure they came with different a-arms?

Hawks doesn't think they do:

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/in...OD&ProdID=1874

Funny, GMPartsDirect shows different for 16 and w/o, however looking at the diagrams they all say w/o.

 

The GM parts catalog lists two different part numbers for 15" wheels and 16" wheels as well as the bump stops for them as well.

Look at parts 35 and 38.

 

The run is NOT because of the different steering stops; it occurs at LESS THAN full lock. IOW, full lock is BEYOND the rub, so changing it won't affect it.

What changing the stops WILL affect though, is whether the inside sidewall of the tires rubs on the sway bar. The issue with the 16" combo is NOT the outer diameter, since the 16" tires are actually SMALLER OD than the 15" ones. The problem is the WIDTH, 8" vs 7".

 

Ok I didnt think of that. Thats the problem I have because my spohn a-arms have no steering stops and the inside edge of my tire rubs the sway bar.

 

just a fyi.. the 90-91-92 cars did use a lil different plastic inner liner.

 

suprised this hasn't been brought up. from some of the research i have done, the cars equiped with 15 inch wheels got one steering box, now if you were to compare them with the better suspension box they got the better gear...12:1 if i remember correcty...15" version was a 2.5 lock to lock, and the 16" version was a 2.25 lock to lock. please correct me if i'm wrong, there may be other little minute differences in the other details, but to my knowledge it had a lot to do with the steering box and the bigger gears used and different internal stops to avoid the frame rub.

 

Ok .... I have been doing some reading of other articles on what size tires others and came across this one. He says he just put 315/xx/xx tires on his front. My attempt was with 235/55/16 tires and rubbing was bad. So how is this guy clearing? Later this week I will take pictures of where it is literally rubbing paint right off of stuff. ........................ https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...some-315s.html

 

I really hate that so many threads are inconclusive. Kind of makes the search function somewhat redundant. Has anyone come up with a solution to this? Im not so fussed about rubbing on the fender but rubbing on the swaybar is annoying...

 

Modify the steering stop. Simple solution

 

Use your brain.

Don't turn the wheel so far.

ALOT less work than modifying stuff.

 

i have 4 "rear" GTA's on my 86 Camaro, and they don't rub. it's just a base car that doesn't have any of the good factory suspension stuff- it's just all the basic V6 stuf.. i'm currently running LS1 front brakes with an additional 3/16" spacer, but they didn't rub at all when i was running the stock front brakes with no spacer with the exact same wheels..