I'm posting this all in one place for those that might be considering using these wheels. I realize the look is not for everyone. I actually prefer the deeper dish of the older mags myself but, for the money, I think these worked out pretty well. They are factory 17 x 8 Ford wheels off of a 2005 Mustang. These are 45mm offset which is 6.272" backspacing. The factory 2004 and earlier wheels are also 17 x 8 but are only 30mm offset 5.681 backspacing. Unfortunately, the early and late wheels do not look exactly the same. For my application, the shallower backspace was not going to be enough for the rear even though it works better on the front. I list the car specs below to try to make this as easy to read as possible. You will have to open up the center bore of the wheels slightly to fit a Mopar hub. Even though I am a machinist by trade and have access to the proper equipment, I ended up carefully sanding the center bore with a Dremel sanding roll. I was afraid of damaging the pretty side of the wheels if I attempted to set them up at work to bore them. I also found that the Gorilla brand lug nuts pictured work well with the Bullitt wheels.
Rear Axle - Factory big-bolt 7 1/4" with 1.75" bolt-on spacer on each side. This will be replaced with an 8 1/4" from a 93 Cherokee which will give me a full 2" per side over the factory axle with no spacers
used. The Cherokee axle is the reason I needed to use the wheels with the deeper backspace. I currently have 7/16 - 1/2" clearance to the leaf springs and at least 3/4" to the quarter lips with
235/55 R17 tires. When I need new tires in a few years, I will go with a 255 which will fit the 8" rims and should clear everywhere with the additional 1/4" of width per side the Cherokee axle
gives me. Pic below of the 610-475 Dorman wheel studs I'm using on the Jeep axle compared to the factory stud.
Front - Factory 10 7/8" disc rotors with Moroso 46180 3" wheel studs and .672" thick aluminum spacers. This gives approximately 1/8" clearance from the outer tie-rod ends to the back side of the wheels.
I did have to remove the upper ball-joint zerks and plug the holes with 1/4-28 set screws as the zerk would hit the inside of the wheel which is apparently fairly common with 17's. I am not totally thrilled about using spacers that large but, after a lot of on-line searching, use of them is fairly common with late-model Mustangs and others. I have driven the car several hundred miles so far and have not been babying it and have had no issues. No vibrations of any kind and I have checked the lugs several times with no loosening found. I did make the spacers so the stud holes are a very snug fit on the wheel studs and a snug fit on the hub of the rotor. My thinking is that the spacer will almost act as a "stud girdle" such as those used on the bottom end of some engines. I did not have to shorten the 3" studs any although you would have to if using the shallower backspace wheels. I will say that Moroso says to not use the studs with spacers. Again, after much online searching, I decided that they are just covering their tails so use at your own risk. I was not happy that the knurl portion of the Moroso studs was not nearly as long as that of the factory studs. To me, if lugs were to loosen, that could allow the studs to move side to side in the hub holes. I purchased 10 grade 8 1/2-20 jam nuts and turned them to a press-fit in the hub for half their thickness. After pressing the long studs into the hubs, I used those modified nuts to provide outer support for the wheel studs. I counterbored the back side of the aluminum spacers to clear the hex nuts. I currently have 215/55 R17 tires on the front that probably only have about a third of their tread left which helps as they are a pretty tall tire for a Duster at 26.3" new by the numbers. When I need new tires, I will probably go with a 225/50 R17 which is a little shorter. Even though the 215/55's are a little tall, I have had no problems with rubbing even though I have not been babying it. Probably due to them being fairly narrow. I also have 1.03 torsion bars, Bilstein RCD's, and a 1 1/8" Hell-wig front sway bar with the frontend lowered about 1" from stock.
Any other details I remember, I will add to this post. Feel free to ask questions if needed. I definitely don't know all the answers but I felt it would be helpful to have a lot of this info updated into a newer thread. I really haven't figured any of this out on my own. I just have done a lot of information gathering from different sources. I've received an incredible amount of help from this forum and like to give back if I can.
Rear Axle - Factory big-bolt 7 1/4" with 1.75" bolt-on spacer on each side. This will be replaced with an 8 1/4" from a 93 Cherokee which will give me a full 2" per side over the factory axle with no spacers
used. The Cherokee axle is the reason I needed to use the wheels with the deeper backspace. I currently have 7/16 - 1/2" clearance to the leaf springs and at least 3/4" to the quarter lips with
235/55 R17 tires. When I need new tires in a few years, I will go with a 255 which will fit the 8" rims and should clear everywhere with the additional 1/4" of width per side the Cherokee axle
gives me. Pic below of the 610-475 Dorman wheel studs I'm using on the Jeep axle compared to the factory stud.
Front - Factory 10 7/8" disc rotors with Moroso 46180 3" wheel studs and .672" thick aluminum spacers. This gives approximately 1/8" clearance from the outer tie-rod ends to the back side of the wheels.
I did have to remove the upper ball-joint zerks and plug the holes with 1/4-28 set screws as the zerk would hit the inside of the wheel which is apparently fairly common with 17's. I am not totally thrilled about using spacers that large but, after a lot of on-line searching, use of them is fairly common with late-model Mustangs and others. I have driven the car several hundred miles so far and have not been babying it and have had no issues. No vibrations of any kind and I have checked the lugs several times with no loosening found. I did make the spacers so the stud holes are a very snug fit on the wheel studs and a snug fit on the hub of the rotor. My thinking is that the spacer will almost act as a "stud girdle" such as those used on the bottom end of some engines. I did not have to shorten the 3" studs any although you would have to if using the shallower backspace wheels. I will say that Moroso says to not use the studs with spacers. Again, after much online searching, I decided that they are just covering their tails so use at your own risk. I was not happy that the knurl portion of the Moroso studs was not nearly as long as that of the factory studs. To me, if lugs were to loosen, that could allow the studs to move side to side in the hub holes. I purchased 10 grade 8 1/2-20 jam nuts and turned them to a press-fit in the hub for half their thickness. After pressing the long studs into the hubs, I used those modified nuts to provide outer support for the wheel studs. I counterbored the back side of the aluminum spacers to clear the hex nuts. I currently have 215/55 R17 tires on the front that probably only have about a third of their tread left which helps as they are a pretty tall tire for a Duster at 26.3" new by the numbers. When I need new tires, I will probably go with a 225/50 R17 which is a little shorter. Even though the 215/55's are a little tall, I have had no problems with rubbing even though I have not been babying it. Probably due to them being fairly narrow. I also have 1.03 torsion bars, Bilstein RCD's, and a 1 1/8" Hell-wig front sway bar with the frontend lowered about 1" from stock.
Any other details I remember, I will add to this post. Feel free to ask questions if needed. I definitely don't know all the answers but I felt it would be helpful to have a lot of this info updated into a newer thread. I really haven't figured any of this out on my own. I just have done a lot of information gathering from different sources. I've received an incredible amount of help from this forum and like to give back if I can.
