R/T wheels on a pre '97

From: durling@attglobal.net
Date: Thu Feb 03 2000 - 23:47:12 EST


I thought I would share this with the list. A long time ago I had a line

on a set of R/T wheels for my '96 dak but let them go due to the price
and the fact that the offset doesn't work. We'll to make a long story
short last week when I went to have my tires rotated and balanced I was
talking to the guy at my local tire shop and he offered me a set of R/t
wheels for $500 bucks and would do what he had to do to make them work
or he would take them back.

They have some junk tires on them but you can still get a few hundred
miles out of them so we are experimenting with them on my truck. The
rear fits fine but to get them to work in the front you have to use a
1/4" spacer to get them to clear the upper a-arm and the center caps
that I always felt stick out 5 miles anyway. We tried some ETA lugs
which go into the lug hole on the wheel to make up for the shortned stud

sticking through. The problem is that they don't make them in a wide
enough seat so the lug itself digs into the rim and keeps loosening up.
What we have found to do is drill out the holes a 1/16" of an inch so it

will not weaken the wheel and use some special lugs from enkei that are
open all of the way through and have a piece that looks like an
extension to a ratchet set that fits on the inside of the lug and hooks
up to your standard 21mm socket. I have to tell you these lugs grab more

of the stud than the factory lugs did on the original wheels. I know
there are some of you who don't agree with the spacers but I must say
from experimenting that this setup is really solid. Hope this is useful
for future considerations. When I get a chance I will take some pics for

Jon to update for older pics on the pics page. The only thing I am goin
to have to do is find some good looking fender flares to coverup the
1/4" of tire that sticks past the top of the wheel well.

Sorry for such a long post but I thought it might help

Jeff Durling
'96 RC Sport 5.2

BTW, tires are damn expensive!!! Looks like around $800 bucks for
Pirelli Scorpion Zeros or Michelin Pilot H/T's mounted and
balanced.....ouch!!



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