Year one 17 inch ralleys
Hey Nu Blu,
I have seen a few of your posts while looking up info on putting 17"s.
I just bought a 71 Swinger and am looking at upgrading to 17 inch rallye wheels.
I am thinking of doing the PST drop spindles and 11 3/4 brake swap and putting in an 8 3/4 rear.
I really don't want to mini tub the car.
Any suggestions as to what will work with this combo?
Thanks for any advice.
Mike
The 11 3/4" disks won't be an issue. They require 15" rims, but other than that they have the same offset and everything as the 10.87" 73-76 disks. The drop spindles will limit the amount of backspace you can run. Basically, with a 2" drop spindle and a 17" rim your tie rod end clearance will be the same as a 15" rim. For most people what that means is no more than about 5.6" backspace in the front.
Now, with the 17" year one rallye's that isn't an issue, because they only have 4.5" of backspace. What will be an issue is the 17x8" rim and only 4.5" of backspace. Its going to be tight for clearance on the fender, and I'm assuming if you want to run drop spindles you want the car LOW in the front. That will be your hang up. To make that combo work I'd keep the tire in the front limited to a 225/45/17 or 225/50/17. You might be able to clear a 235, but a 245 will rub for sure. You can also trim the inner fender lip or run a little more negative camber in front to give you some extra space.
In the back you shouldn't have any issues with an A body width 8 3/4". The 17x8 with a 4.5" backspace is pretty close to ideal for the stock 8 3/4 and stock location springs. You should be able to run a 245/45/17 back there with no problems. You could probably even get away with 255/45/17 as long as the axle is centered well, you might have to trim the inner quarter lip a bit for clearance to be safe though.
So, with the 17x8" 4.5" backspace rallye's I'd say a 225/45/17 front and 245/45/17 rear would be relatively "safe" for clearance. Those are pretty short tires though, 25" and 25.7". A 225/50/17 (25.9") front would work too, but that would be taller than a 245/45/27 in the back, so you'd have to find a 245/50/17 (26.3")
A 235/45/17 front and 255/45/17 rear would probably fit, but you'd be pushing a little bit for clearance. I think it would work, but it would probably involve some tweaking of camber in the front and trimming of fender lips front/rear.
With the standard disclaimer that all of these cars a little different, and the lower you go for ride height the bigger your clearance issues will be.