wcsinx

I'm just curious because I recently had to deal with the oh so common crack at the base of a spoke with one of my '02s rear Alcoas. Fortunately I found a guy selling a pair of rear Speedlines for $200. So I bought those and swapped the rubber over. But looking at the two side by side, the difference is quite pronounced. The Speedline spokes are significantly thicker both side-to-side and front-to-back, and they have a larger radius where they connect to the barrel. So if the design of the Alcoas was good enough to hold up for 15 years well ... you get the point. So now I'm wondering if all these wheel failures are almost exclusive to the Alcoas?

Choreo

I am not sure about the text where is says "First Design" (maybe those were the Alcoa's?), but that was my guess a few years ago when I made this graphic. I have seen several cracked thinspokes in the style on the left with the sharper spokes. The photo on the right is of my chromed "radiused" thinspokes (Speedlines) that came on my 2001.

I drove those Chrome wheels on the right every day for 15 years on the worst streets imaginable with no problems. I liked them so much, that I purchased a new identical set 3 years ago as a backup - just in case (while I could still find a set).




These are the makings on my chrome wheels:

wcsinx

Yeah, that pic is very telling. See how much thicker those Speedline spokes are?

So was there overlap in the years then? Because my '02 came from the factory with the Alcoas AFAIK.

Choreo

This info is from another post made by member SteveDoten a few years ago. I cannot verify the info, but I have a 2001 that I bought new and took delivery on 9/23/2000 and it had the Made in Italy "cast" GM- marked Speedlines shown on the right?

it's simple

2001, Alcoa
2002-2004, Speedline

17x9.5 and 18x10.5" for all years

the 2001's have sharper spokes and are narrower towards the lip

2001 have DOT MATRIX "GM" on inner lip

2002-2004 have "GM" and "speedline" cast into the inner lip, you can feel this is looking at a car with the wheels mounted

Often replicas will have the valvestem in between the 'sets' of spokes, all REAL GM wheels have the stem between the 'set' of spokes

Random info: in sept.2001 during the 02MY run, the Alcoa's were used because of supply problems with Speedline

wcsinx

Oh lucky me!

I would get one of the rare '02s with the shitty Alcoa wheels.

Robrote

I had a rear speedline crack this month in two places. I had it repaired. We'll see if it holds up.

89nascar

my wagon wheels have cracks like these , the shop that fixed them told me it is caused by the tire change machine removing the old tire