having a hard time figuring out what size tires to run on the front that will clear the front SS spoiler valence.
went from 237 75 15
to
225 70 15
to 215 65 15
the last ones will fit but there is a chance the tire may hit the spoiler when the wheels are turned to full lock
what size tires will clear these stock 80s SS elkies?
what are you running on yours?
why were there no 15" options on the 78-up el caminos? all wheels were 14" these years this model
why?
i see ppl running 15" wheels on these all the time here especially the old steel camaro rallies
no problem
what size front tires though??
before we stripped the car down and totally restored it. tarp is because my brothers s-10 pickup bed was next to it and fell over on it and busted out the glass haha, yeah it was fun putting a new one in, oh boy....:
day after putting in the rebuilt original 305 bored 030 over engine i personally built from scratch with my brother. and before beginnint to strip it to nothing for restoration. new seat, new dash, new door panels, new carpet, all new rubber everything on entire car, reset the quarter glasses, you name it..
we drove it around town in a lawn chair because the seat was at the shop getting rstored at the time:
Try a 65 series tire, I had to drop down to a 205/65/15 on the front of my camaro to keep the stance i wanted. Every thing else would rub, I think 205/65/15 should fit.JMO
Problem you are fighting is not the tire size but the fact that you are trying to fit 8" wide wheels with only 3-3/8" backspace. You need a 7" wide wheel at that backspace, or 4-1/4 to 4-1/2" backspace with the 8" wheel. The increased width with small backspace makes the wheel sit out farther from the spindle centerline between the ball joints, making the outside edge of the tire swing a bigger arc when turned. This is why it is fouling the SS skirting.
A 60 series tire may get the job done, but I can't say for sure from a distance.
The 8" rim with 3-3/8" backspace also won't fit real well on the rear without jacking the car up to keep the fender lip off the tire sidewall.
All G-body's from 78-82 have 14" wheels, after 1982 it was 15" on performance models like Monte SS and Buick Grand National and Hurst Olds/442. Most standard low performance models after 1982 still had 14" wheels. It's just the way GM did it, don't know why.
never have this problem on any other vehicle. so thats why i assumed it would be fine on this one
it figures that it had to be this particular vehicle that this problem occurs on...
hmmmm
well shoot
but i still dont see how it would make a diffference only 1" narrower wheels(only 1/2" narrower both sides of the wheel)if you dont change tire width height that only sucks in the width at the tire beads
and not the tread width, where it may rub the spoiler fascia whatever thing
so what the heck?
im just not seeing how rim width is gonna make tire tread move or clear the lip any better or differnetly.....
i dont like elkies any more now..... what a pita car......truck... thing... whatever it is..
i alreayd hated it when we went to start trying to find new parts for it and omg its a nightmare no one makes new parts that you need for these, wow..... you have no idea how much of a nightmare it is to find so many parts for these things wow..... it took about three years to finally find the last piece, except for a new oem style radio antenna in which we still have not found one of....
grrrrrr....
im glad i dont own it or id have shot the damn thing with a 410 or a 12 guage by now(i dont own a gun though) or put it into a tree or off a gravel pit ledge or something....
i looked up today on the carpart.com junkyard parts search site for stock wheels for these and they dont evne give an option for any 15" wheels at all.
only 14x7 plain steel, and the 14x7 s-10 style steel rallies these have,. like ours has, and both my s-10 trucks out here have...
why is that?
and on the door sticker of this elky its 14x7JJ
No luck on my end, But it looks like you found what the problem might be with the wheel size instesd of the tires Hummmm never thought about the wheel size you are trying to use.
The difference between the 7" stock wheel and the 8" wheel you are trying to use is that they both have the same(or nearly) backspace, so with the 8" wheel the total difference is on all the outside half of the wheel, 1" wider. Since the rotor, caliper and wheel pivot around the line drawn through both upper and lower ball joints, that means the outside lip of the wheel swings in a larger arc when steered from lock to lock. The 8" wheel would fit just fine with a 4.25" to about 5" backspace, which would put the added width mostly, or all, on the inside half of the wheel.
The '83 Monte SS my mom had was 15 x 7" factory Sport wheel that looked almost identical to the 14" wheel you currently have on the Elky, just the colors are reversed, wheel is silver with black accents around the shaped holes. They were 3.5" backspace IIRC which is perfect with a 7" wheel. It had 215-60/15 Goodyear Eagle GT's on it from the factory, and Eagles tend to run shorter on sidewall height compared to other brands the same size we put on later in the cars life.
You might get the 8" wheels with too little backspace to fit but it will take a low profile tire to do it - 215-60 or 205-55, 215-55.
You size problem with 8" wheels without enough offset is common to most GM cars, my '72 Nova will not take an 8.5" wheel unless the backspace is 5", which leaves 3.5" on the outside half of the wheel. ....Recognize that familiar 3.5"-ish dimension again?
Using 215/60R15 as an example,..... the "215" is tire width in millimeters(25.4mm = 1") measured at the widest bulge of the sidewall(known as "section width") when mounted on its recommended rim width(7" in this case). 215mm is 8.46". The "60" part of the number is sidewall height in percentage(known as "aspect ratio"), a 60 series tire is 60% as tall as it is wide, in this case 5.08"(60% of the 8.46") from bead seat to top of tread. Overall tire height is the 15" rim plus TWO sidewall heights(one top, one bottom)5.08" x 2 =10.16", for a total height of 25.16".
This is how the math is, but tires true sizes vary a good bit from brand to brand. Don't ask me why, it is a pet peeve of mine, the tire companies have a standard for measurement but tires seem to vary (up to an 1" in both height and/or width) for the same size between two different companies.
The 215/60R15 in this example will be slightly wider at the sidewall when on a 8" rim, maybe 8.75" instead of 8.46". If you look tires up in a catalog they all give a recommended(or measuring rim) width for each size tire.
In your case it is not the width that is the total problem, it is the height, which is why I suggested a low profile percentage like 50 or 55 to get it to clear. A 215/50R15 will still be 8.46" wide across the sidewalls on a 7" rim but will only be 23.46" tall because of the 50 series profile.
That valance is the problem. The G-body cars I've had, either had:
78-82 15X8 Vette alloys 225/60-15 (front), or
15X7 reversed Cragar SS 195/65-15 (front)
The tires cleared lock-to-lock. The tire (w/the cragars) would rub only if I hit a good bounce (at the upper/inner fender, not while turning). The vette rims cleared.
P.S. Leave the valance off. It looks better without it. And it solves your tire dilemna.
215/70 is not narrow and short, it is the same 8.5" wide(sidewall) but taller than a 215/60. 70 or 75 series tires will be even taller due to the aspect ratio. A 60, 70, or 75 series tire in 215 width is still 215mm wide, only the height is different.
When going to 15" in place of 14" you are already gaining an inch in diameter just from the wheel, so the aspect ratio has to be smaller to maintain the same overall diameter as the 14" tire was so it will fit in the wheel opening designed around the 14" tire. This is why short tires like 195/65R15(25.98" tall, not really short enough though), 205/60R15(24.68"), and 215/55R15(24.31") have been suggested.
The 215/60R14 is nominally 24.15" tall, real close to the 215/55R15(24.31") is.
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