specific directional wheel location?
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 442
Likes: 23
From: Seattle Washington
specific directional wheel location?
My 85 Z51 has the rear right and the front left wheel fins pointed in the wrong direction. So, my thought is to take the car to the local tire dealer and have the wheels relocated. Nope! It appears that each wheel is designed for a specific location. They told me the offsets for the front and rear wheels are different. In fact, they showed me the stamp on the inside of the wheel that states the correct location. Is this correct? If so, it appears I will be shopping for two wheels.
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Hmm ... I _thought_ that on a standard suspension 85 all the wheels were 8.5" wide while on the Z51 all the wheels were 9.5" wide. Perhaps the fronts are 8.5 while the rears are 9.5 - if that's the case, then yes you'd need two wheels. Although I don't know why you couldn't run 9.5" all around. I'm assuming you have a stock setup ...
Race Director
Joined: Dec 2000
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From: El Paso Texas
Measure them. Wider ones go on the rear of course. They may have been swapped to standard wheels somewhere along the line. If they're all the same, you can move them front to rear on the same side with no issues.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 6,528
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From: South Dakota
My 85 Z51 has the rear right and the front left wheel fins pointed in the wrong direction. So, my thought is to take the car to the local tire dealer and have the wheels relocated. Nope! It appears that each wheel is designed for a specific location. They told me the offsets for the front and rear wheels are different. In fact, they showed me the stamp on the inside of the wheel that states the correct location. Is this correct? If so, it appears I will be shopping for two wheels.
The Z51 85 had 16x9.5 front and rear.
The only difference on the 4 Z51 wheels is left or right. So if you have one left side wrong and one right side wrong you can swap the two wheels and be done (If you don't have directional tires too. If you do you need to remount them correctly.)
Unless someone changed wheels and now has some 16x8.5 wheels on your Z51.
Note the 84 Z51 had 16x8.5 front and 16x9.5 rear. Therefore the 84 Z51 has a unique wheel for each location, but that combination can work if you happen to have that set of wheels correctly.
They should look like mine. 85 Z51
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
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QCVette's explanation is correct BUT I believe maybe your starting point needs to be identification of the wheels on the car. I would likely get all of the casting information from the back-sides and ID each wheel. Find out what you really have to work with!
Post the casting information for each and I'd think it easy enough to see what you need!
I'd think this the least aggravation to find out "what you got and what you need/want"!
And post a snapshot or two of the car as it sits presently!
Last edited by WVZR-1; Jun 29, 2012 at 03:04 PM.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 442
Likes: 23
From: Seattle Washington
In order to measure the wheels I would have to have the tires demounted. I can tell you the wheel that is currently mounted on the right rear is stamped "left rear only" and the wheel that is mounted on the left rear stamped is stamped "left rear only".
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
Last edited by J W Drew; Jun 29, 2012 at 03:09 PM. Reason: explanation mistake
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
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In order to measure the wheels I would have to have the tires demounted. I can tell you the wheel that is currently mounted on the right rear is stamped "left rear only" and the wheel that is mounted on the left right is stamped is stamped "left rear only".
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
Maybe you need to start with snapshot of the car as it sits!
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 6,528
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From: South Dakota
In order to measure the wheels I would have to have the tires demounted. I can tell you the wheel that is currently mounted on the right rear is stamped "left rear only" and the wheel that is mounted on the left rear stamped is stamped "left rear only".
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
The directional fins on the right rear are wrong and the left front is wrong.
Thanks,
JW
Do you have information on the wheel that is on the left front? It sounds like that is a right side wheel, but from what you have said I can't tell if it is an 8.5 or 9.5 wheel.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
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If the one on the right rear is stamped as a left rear, it sounds like it must be from a staggered set like the 84 Z51 since that is the only model that had these wheels in a unique location. I have not seen that stamping before, but I expect that it is a 16x9.5 and it can work fine as the left front. On cars with all 16x9.5's the wheels had the same offset front and rear.
Do you have information on the wheel that is on the left front? It sounds like that is a right side wheel, but from what you have said I can't tell if it is an 8.5 or 9.5 wheel.
Do you have information on the wheel that is on the left front? It sounds like that is a right side wheel, but from what you have said I can't tell if it is an 8.5 or 9.5 wheel.
An early SPO catalog does part # the '84MY rears as being the same as the '85MY which of course would be L & R -front/rear.
Here's maybe some casting info: FJ or FM LH wheels, FR or FK RH wheels. Seems easy enough to remove and confirm!
