lugoismad

The old wheels and tires on my 2wd 94' pickup sucked bad.

So, this week I bought a set of 16" 5 spoke "pony" Mustang wheels from a 98 mustang and a set of new continental tires for them.

I get them mounted yesterday and drove to work. On the way there, every time I'd hit a sharp hill, on the other side when the suspension would "Drop" away from the truck, I'd get a nasty popping grinding noise.

I assumed it was ball joints, and took it to the shop this morning to have new ones installed while I was in class.

I picked it back up this afternoon, and they explained the problem and showed me exactly what was going on.

The new wheels are too wide, and sit to far back over the steering assembly. When the weight would come off the suspension, the back side of the wheel would rub on the top of the ball joint. You can see on the wheel where its rubbed at.

The only solution I see to this is a 1" wheel spacer on the front of the truck, to fix this problem. Something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/WHEEL...spagenameZWDVW


However, I'm afraid this may create more problems. Already my tires rubs the inside of the fender if I hit a sharp bump at high speed. With the spacer, I'm afraid it'll sit too far out, and maybe even touch the lip of the fender. What happens then if I hit a bump? hell, it might rip the damn fender off, haha.

Right now, my front end sits kinda low, the truck slopes down towards the front. If I were to crank up the torsion bars so it sat level, then installed the spacer for the wheels, do you think this would solve my problem?

OR, is there another better way to solve this?

I'd really appreciate any help.

AxleIke

If you crank the torsion bars, you will only gain a stiffer ride, and not solve the problem of either the fender rubbage, or the BJ rubbage.

You can do several things

1. Get rid of the wheels for something with different backspacing.
2. Get the spacers, get a body lift. It it difficult to tell how much you need since you haven't told us what size tire you have.
3. Get the spacers, get smaller tires. Since you just bought new tires, I'm guessing this isn't a great option for you.
4. Get the spacers, and put a number of washers under your lower bumpstops. This will GREATLY decrease the uptravel of your suspension, and probably create a harsh ride. It is likely the cheapest option.

lugoismad

I'll go with number 4.

Could someone provide a picture of where the bumpstop is at so I can do this?

AxleIke

It is the round rubber piece to the left of the shock.

You will likely have to shim it until you have almost zero uptravel, depending on how close your tires are to the fender. Good luck.

Jeenyus04

cranking the torsion bars and the wheel spacers could help. the torsion bar would give you a little bit of a taller stance and it is rougher there for your wheel may not drop down as much. plus you can always reverse that easy enough. just make sure you count your turns as you crank them. you may not even need wheel spacers unless its jus the inside lip hitting otherwise it prob wouldnt make enough of a diff.

personal opinion -> go 4wd

AxleIke

Cranking the torsion bars will not solve the issue of the tire hitting the fender, or the ball joint. It will ONLY make the truck sit higher.

lugoismad

I have atleast 4" of travel before the fender and the top of the tires.
If I crank the torsion bar so the front and rear fenders sit even distances from the tires, I'll have about 6" of travel.

I'm going to measure, and get the smallest spacer I can use. a 1" probably won't cause my wheel to stick past the fender, but will fix my problem.

lugoismad

I forgot to mention, the tires are 225-60-16

I just ordered a set of 25mm spacers. I measured, and I don't THINK its gonna make my wheels stick out past the fenders.

I want to make sure these things work before I drop another 100$ on a set for the rear.