1965 Valiant 4dr New Tires and Wheels

[Acatl]

Hello,

I have a 1965 Valiant 4door on which I am doing a disc brake conversion. I have been told 14’ wheels will clear the K-H 4 piston front brakes (donor 1972 Dart) I am installing. No changes to the suspension and plan none.

Wheels: I want to use 15inch wheels from Coyswheel.com, gun metal color or Matte grey, 5x4 lugs, 15x7 with 4” of back spacing. See here: http://www.coyswheel.com/coys-c5-1415.html

My choice thus far:
Tires: 205/60/15 , BF Goodrich Radial TA w/ raised white letter (height 24.7” width 8.2”)
(Part Number: BFG 71599-4)

Any objections? I have seen other posts of A-bodies of similar years with similar height/width tires and offset but different rim size. If someone has upgraded their tires and has same car, I’d like to know what you think?

 

[2 Darts]

Wow. I had no idea that Coys was making 5x4 bolt pattern wheels. Thanks for the info.

The original disk brake car had a 14 x 5½" wheel. IIRC, the wheel had a 4¼" back space. The tire in 1965 would have been a 6.95-14 (82 profile) tire. The tire has a diameter of 25.30", a section width of 7.0", and a tread width of 4.3". The latter varied a little depending on whether the tread was round shouldered or square shouldered.

I had a 73 Dart 4-door with 15 x 7 BBP wheels with a 4¼ using 205/60-15 tires. These tires have a diameter of 24.7, a section width of 8.2 and a tread width 8.0. I had no problems with this setup even on a disk brake car (which widens the front and rear track slightly).

Tire height is not going to be a problem. The front wheels will be fine, IMO, as long as the wheel clears the UBJ. The issue may be a combination of width and offset in the rear wheel wells. In fact, to get the tires on and off, you'll probably need to lift the car at the body/frame rather than the axle. The openings are small and the wheel wells are really narrow at the top. I really think you'll be ok, but I'm not willing to go out on a limb and say that all of this will work. Summit sells a wheel clearance tool that ought to settle the matter.

The slickest field expedient I've seen for measuring wheel well clearance is to cut a small piece of wood, in this case 8.2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and high enough so that when placed on the tire, the center of the hub is 12.35 inches from the outer edge of the wood. (You may want to put a wedge on the side against the tire to keep it from rotating.)Jack the car up and support by the axle. Center the wood on the tire as well as possible and secure with duct tape. What you should have is a wheel with a wooden paddle on it. Divide the wheel well into 45º segments and rotate the wheel. Pause at each segment and measure the distance from the ends of the top of the paddle to the wheel well vertically. Measure horizontally from the top as well. Once these measurements are completed, measure the distance from the rear axle bump stop to the top of the tube of the rear axle. Any of the vertical wheel measurements less than the bump stop measurement is going to be a place where there will be interference at least at full axle travel. The horizontal measurements should be a ½" or greater to preclude interference with the side of the wheel well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Acatl]

Ok, thanks, good I idea with the wood. I have 24 inch tires on there now... So I will give this a try... correcting for the change in offset from the current 4.5"bs to the new rims 4"bs. I will also need to correct for the current drum brakes... giving myself ample room for the change.

Thanks for writing all that, much appreciated. I will post pics when complete.

Best, Mike

 

[Acatl]

Thanks to 2 Darts for your help on this. What he wrote is fairly technical, but I made my way through it and then waited... a while.

I needed bolt pattern 5x4, and wanted size 15x7. I currently have 13x6.5 which won't work for the disc brake conversion that is coming. 15 inch wheels will give me a better tire selection. I decided on the 7inch width after doing all my measuring... fingers crossed. I used 2 Dart's measurements for the 65 Disc Brake A-Body in an earlier post.

Cragar SS Original
https://www.newstalgiawheel.com/shop/product/ss-multi-lug-original
Size Bolt Backspacing
15x7 5x4 4.125


I also decided to run these:
BF Goodrich Radial
T/A - 205/60R15 - Raised White Letter
Tread Width: No
Section Width: 8.20
Overall Diameter: 24.70
Load Index: 90
Speed Rating: S
Max Load Capacity: 1301@35PSI
Rim Width: 5.50 - 7.50
Tube Type or Tubeless: Tubeless

I like the raised white letter tires on cars of this era. I have yet to order the lugs (2x left had thread and 2x right hand thread).

I will post pics when complete and on car... this will occur when brake retrofit is also complete...

Happy 4th!