Wheel spacer ?

[Rickysnickers]

A P.O. on my truck installed an MII front suspension, TCI I think. Anyway, the front wheels are sunk deep into the fenders. Measuring, they are four inches from the wheel well lip. Looking at some of the photos of other TF trucks, I have seen the wheels flush or nearly flush with the front fender. I was considering putting a couple of 2" spacers on. What are your opinions? Thanks.

[dsraven]

wheel spacers are gonna put your steering geometry outta whack but lots of guys use them. hypothetically, if you did a dry steer and looked at how the wheels turn you would notice the front wheels would then turn in an arc pattern on the floor rather than simply in a circle. this means you need to ensure you have clearance in the fender wells for that motion.
you may have noticed I am not a fan of wheel spacers, especially on a steering axle. can you get a wheel with more offset? longer control arms and toe rods? check with TCI for their suggestions?

if you draw an imaginary line through your upper and lower ball joints and make a mark on the floor, then drop a vertical line through your wheel centre the lines should end up at the same mark on the floor, roughly. there are other factors to consider as well. check out the first link for a little better idea of what I'm talking about, post 6 I think. it is for sports cars but the theory is the same.the second link is possibly better but has other considerations as well. changing the wheel offset or tire size that the front end was engineered for will change how the vehicle drives, responds to bumps, responds to brake input, wears tires and suspension parts and even has an effect on the spring rate. too much offset one way or the other can make a twitchy ride or one with too much "feel" or not enough "feel".

https://rennlist.com/forums/racing-a...-handling.html

a quick youtube on the effects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWijfooeSyU

the youtube guy has a few videos on car stuff that help ecplain things in layman's terms.

hope it helps

[Coupeguy2001]

I am using spacers on my 57.
The spacers require heavier springs since the tire is farther from the center of the upper and lowerr control arms.
The truck drives great, and corners really good since the footprint is wider.
1. My front end is a clone of a G body "metric" (78-87 GM midsize. ie El Camino).
2. I used the G body front end because the G bodies are 4500 lb cars, where the mustang II are 3200 lb cars.
Some things I did was :
3. used the tall ball joint to allow the wheel to make an arc when the wheel meets a bump, instead of starting the arc after the bump, allowing the tire to not contact the fender in a turn, negotiating the bump.
4. used tubular upper control arms that had 3 degrees of caster built into the ball joint location.
5. used 450 lb springs because of the wide track.
6. used a bigger sway bar to limit body roll, so the tire isn't as high in the fender during a turn.
7. used "flat wheels". I used 1996 Impala SS Wheels that have a small wheel lip, but have a huge backspacing so I would have the wheel in the wheel well in the proper location.
8. used QA1 coilovers.
You can try wheels that work for you, and have a look you want.
Initially, I was concerned that the spacers would crack, and the lugs would pull out.
I have about 10,000 on this combo, and after checking the spacers every few months, I am convinced they are strong enough.

[_Ogre]

using spacers is no different geometry wise than decreasing backspacing on a wheel
i'm just not a fan of using them due to the load on oddball studs
you are better off to get the correct backspacing on the wheel
unless your truck is stock height you'll need some inset to work the suspension
my 58 truk is in a few inches, not 4 but a few

[dsraven]

it would be best to find the specs on the front end to see what wheel size and offset is recommended. if you get outta whack with the tire scrub radius it can cause some erratic steering. it has to do with the tire contact patch and the steering axis inclination and where those 2 lines intersect compared to where the original set up would intersect (the original or whatever the new front end is set up for).
read the link on scrub axis and you will see what I mean. if you stay with a 27" tall tire and a fairly generic offset you will likely be fine.

here is a calculator that may help you figure it out if you have the specs

https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?whe...cl=50mm&sr=0mm

[dsraven]

here is a comparison that is real, just for laughs
the original tire was a 245/65r17 it is 29.5" tall
the tire I want to use is a 235/55r17 it is 27.2" tall

with a stock 7" wide wheel which has 50mm offset the scrub radius is 0. vehicle drives like any other stock chevy.
with the same stock wheel but the new tire diameter the scrub radius is 9mm. this will drastically change the handling and braking characteristics. to get around this a wheel with a different offset would be recommended.

http://www.car-engineer.com/suspensi...icle-behavior/

[mr48chev]

Without seeing a photo of your truck with the wheel and tire combo it is hard to say.

I am always seeing someone spew nonsense in that the AD 3100 trucks are too heavy for a MII front end specs show that curb weight for a 53 3104 is 3265 lbs with 1845 on the front wheels and 1420 on the rear wheels.

Mustang II were lighter at between 2700 and 3000 lbs shipping weight but if you have ever compared various chassis parts on the stock MII front ends you find that the upper ball joint is the same as Lincoln MK IV and most Galaxies from those years and several other pieces were borrowed from other Ford cars. Outside of the stamped steel crossmember all the pieces are pretty stout. I have never seen where a stock MII suspension failed in a rig it has been swapped into but have seen a number of cases where the aftermarket Tube A frame stuff has failed but that is mostly because some outfits used too small of tubing or used Volarie upper ball joints as lower ball joints because they were a few bucks cheaper.
Still the stock track width and I think that is center of tire to center of tire is 55.5 on MII and "stock" front tread width is listed as 56-3/4 center of tread to center of tread on a 53 3100. That would mean if you had a 0 offset rim your center line of the tire would be in 7/8 or so of an inch from stock providing the front end had stock rotors. I think some of the 11 inch rotor swaps move the wheels out about an inch or so.

The simple solution might be swapping wheels to something with a deeper offset and maybe even borrowing a wheel and tire from a buddy to bolt on and stand back and look at it and see if something like that works.

If you go billet spacers make sure you are getting US made billet wheel spacers and check the company out. I can't find the link right now but there is one in Texas I believe that shows photos of their machine shop and spacers being made on their web page. This is one place you don't go cheap.

[mr48chev]

Here is the link to the outfit I was thinking about on the wheel spacers. https://www.uswheeladapters.com/ They will make spacers to get the exact spacing you want too.

[Coupeguy2001]

Part of my decision to run the wheels I did, is because I used a 1972 GMC truck rear.
Everybody will tell you that they don't fit.
Well, they do if you select the right components, and roll the fender lips.
You will notice that the wheels are '96 Impala SS, and they are 5 on 5.
Speedway sells front discs that fit the G body metric chassis and are 5 on 5.
Tires are 255/50/17, and are 11 inches wide, and 27 inches tall. All 4 are the same, which allows me to rotate them.
You will notice that the front tires are about an inch and a half out from stock location, and fill the wheel well.

[Jesse Z]

Remember the 1970s with tires sticking way out past the fenders and rear ends jacked way up to accommodate them? Similarly, wheels out flush with the fender lips is no longer the style. If you grew up in that era and you like it, that's fine, but using bigger diameter wheels (18-22") and tucking them way under is a much more modern look.

[Coupeguy2001]

I never liked that look.
Photobucket is locked, so can't show pics.
My truck has 3 inch drop springs, and I made my own shackles, 1 1/2 inches longer, so 4 1/2 inch rear drop in back.

[dsraven]

hey coupe, the pics worked last night. wish I could see them again.
nice truck by the way.
when you say you aren't a fan of that look did you mean the jacked up '70's look or tires close to the fender lip?
to each their own but to me the tires sitting waaay back inside the fender opening looks weird. they say I'm weird though so take that with a grain of salt.

[mr48chev]

I don't like that tucked way in look either and the guys here know how I feel about way oversize wheels so I'll leave it at that.

Coupeguy2001's truck looks pretty good with those wheels. Classy and not overdone.

On the photo thing I have had to save a number of old photos I have on Photobucket back to the laptop and then attach them here to make it work. Pain in the tail feathers but one does what one has to do.