brvette777

I had quite an adventure yesterday. Decided to have the shop put air in my spare while they put a new set of tires on the car. They managed to break off the metal sheath that was tap welded onto my spare tire bolt. If that wasn't bad enough they left the carriage hanging half way off exposing the spare tire. I didn't notice this until I drove around for a few hours. Luckily it doesn't appear any damage was done. However, in trying to fix the problem, I discovered that I do not have the proper spare tire bolt spacer. My best guess is that the previous owner or a shop that previously removed the spare tire lost the original spacer and then found a sort of butterfly looking tap thing in its place. Problem is it doesn't fit properly and I am worried the bolt will come off and tire might come out if I hit a bump.

Can anyone tell me the ACdelco/GM part number for the spare tire bolt spacer? Corvette Central lists the bolt and spacer as discontinued so I am trying to figure out how to get a new spacer. The only ones on Ebay are so old and rusty I would not trust them.

jaa1992

Mine is sitting in the shed someplace. Give me a week or so to dig it out and I'll see if there are any numbers on it.

brvette777

Thanks! I am sure it is discontinued but the number may halp me track down one from someone second hand.

cgantner5150

I removed all this from my vette. What part do you need exactly?

brvette777

I think that the only thing I need is the proper spacer that fits between the bolthead/washer and the spare tire carriage.

Steve59

When you get the parts and put it all together, make sure you put a lot of anti-sieze on the threads of that long bolt. Don't want to try and undo that rusted pos lying on your back, in the rain, in order to get the spare down. Ask me how I know. (I have an 87)

brvette777

Yes I had a heck of a time figuring out how the mechanism worked. I could not unscrew the bolt past a certain point so I had come to the conclusion that it was made not to completely come down all the way. I finally figured out the threads were simply rusted and the bolt could be totally unscrewed after I removed the license plate. I WD-40'd the heck out of it and that did the trick.

The interesting aspect of the whole mechanism is the little metal sheath that was tap welded onto the shaft of the bolt recepticle. Apparently it performs the function of making sure the bolt mechanism is guided up into the upper cradle behind the license plate without the necessity of removing the license plate. Unfortunately the tire place broke the sheath off when they air-wrenched the bolt to try to put air in the spare. As far as I can tell the sheath is not necessary but it just means it will be harder to get the end of the bolt to fall in the upper cradle from now on.

Also diagrams I have looked at show that my 1995 corvette does not have a piece that the 1987 corvette came with. Corvette Central refers to this piece as a rear spare tire carrier bracket on frame (their part #554173). The bolt and spacer are referred to in Corvette Central part #554165 and they don't sell em. I need the spacer included in that item because what I have is too big but has been working. I really don't trust it though.