I was told that the earlier style 72 & 73 were a smaller diameter hole because of the drum brakes. Then in 74 they went to manuel front disc brakes & the diameter was bigger. Also was told that the earlier rims won't work on the later disc brakes because the caliper hits the inside of the rim... Go figure.... Someone will set me straight, if I'm wrong...
Oh wow, thanks for the info. I'll have to confirm about the calipers hitting before I go any further. Can't imagine throwing even "more" money into this project, only to find out yet another problem..... If anyone has details on this (calipers hitting old style alum rims), please jump in.... Thanks!
That's what I have heard also. When you said the rear I thought maybe you had already tried the front. You could be looking at all new rims ... But it will be NEW rims
It's not the caliper, it the diameter of the hub on the rotor for the disc brakes, it is lager than the hub on the front drum brake, also the end of the axle on the rear grew larger in 74.
Bartle You can't do better than Weldcraft Wheels. Been to the shop many times when I lived in Livonia. Stu did everything to wheels. It's just off of 275 and 96
Would probably be cheaper to just go ahead and change out to earlier axles and brake drums. Ford was bad about changing the hub center sizes. I ran into that on a Bronco II that my oldest son wrecked and the Ins co was going to total out. I had a Ranger parts truck I was going to swap the wheels with the Bronco II because I wanted to keep them and the new tires it had on it. The Ranger hubs were smaller, so I took a 6" grinder to the center hole. Didn't care what they looked like,as they were going to the junkyard anyway. Took all night, but finally got all four cut out and bolted on. Ins man never said a word about me changing them, just wrote me a check. He had looked at it before I had taken the good wheels off, the roll back driver didn't know or care, either, lol.
The calipers will clear fine. If there is a problem, it is because the caliper has some extra "slag" on it that can easily be ground off.
Factory hole size... Does anybody know what the exact factory size was for the center hole in the "second gen" alum wheels? If I get this done I'd like to be sure and make mine the same.... Thanks, appreciate the help guys...
Those are Mustang Wheels ... that's why the don't fit .... You can have the center machined out larger. I have an NOS Mustang Rim still in the box ... gonna get it machined out someday so I can use it as a spare ...
Dave, if you can get a measurement I'd really appreciate it. Dan, you could be right, they may be Mustang wheels? I bought them from a forum member here who said he had them on his Maverick (you can see his car in the background of the photo he sent to me, could be one of the earlier Mavericks). I don't know where he got them, I assumed they came with his car, and two of them had Maverick center caps as well?
I actually checked the parts book after I posted my comment above. Turns out 1973 Mavericks and Mustangs did use the exact same part # for these wheels ..... the part number didn't change until 1974 with the larger hubs.
I figured they were the same, but I bet they were way more common on Mustangs. If it can wait till this afternoon, I have to move a car, to get to my wheels. I'll get you the measurements, and maybe take some pictures of the difference.
Dave, No rush, take your time. I "was" going to try and have these on before the event this Friday, but I've flushed that, too many things going on this week for me. Whenever you can get to it is fine. Thanks again for checking the measurement!
