As you guys know...the 4 x 110 is just unique to the first gen...with hardly any aftermarket wheels available in that size. So...to fit that hot set of 17" shall I go with a set of wheel adaptors ?

Are there any of you that have had problems with adaptors ? What type of problems ?

Anyone that swears by it and hasn't had any problems for years ?

finally, which is the one to go for if staying with 4 hole setup ?

 

they're a few others with the dreaded 4x110. Wheel adapters (keep in mind I have no personal experince, just from what I've gathered about them over the years) are not inhently bad, cheap ones are. H&R and other like companies seem to have a good reputation for adapters.

Staying four hole, I see more options for 4x100 than any other due to it being used by honda.

Personally, not sure if you guys got -SE's, but it's worth the extra effort, time and money to go ahead and switch to a -SE set up with 4x114.3 and vented disc all around.

My $.02

 

I have the CPracing wheel adaptors. They are expensive and take forever to get here, however they are the sturdiest looking wheel adaptors I have seen thus far and are made in my opinion extremely well...like said above cheap ones arn't your best bet...I like the CP adaptors...its really too bad it takes so long to get them...but if you have a tonne of patience maybe order from them...just make sure you keep after them!

 

These look great, thanks to Trochoid for the link.

http://www.adaptitusa.com/index.asp?...ATS&Category=3

 

I asked about adapters in a PM to conner@tirerack.com and got this response:

Regrettably we do not sell or endorse using adapter due to the fact that they change the wieght distribution aspects of the axle and can cause serious problems. Due to this fact i cannot offer any guidance on the use of adapters.

Just passing along what he told me...I have no personal experience with them.

Rich

 

They do put additional strain onto the bearings and axles, you will need to keep a very vigilant watch on the corresponding components due to the additional leverage.

 

wat bolt pattern do you need to use for the wheels? ive have first hand experience with both a 1 piece adapter and a 2 piece. 1 piece is fine, just make sure its torqued. the 2 piece on the other hand failed on me.. i had no problem with it till i drove down to socal for seven stock 8. after the long drive to and from i didnt check my adapter and the scews that held the 2 piece in place were loose and the adapter broke off.

funny thing too, when it broke i felt it fall and i looked out my window to the left nd saw my wheel pass me up.

if you order the 2 piece, just make sure either

A: the scews that hold the 2 piece together is long...so it goes through the whole hub.
B: keep an eye on it. check it monthly or so. if you do some "spirited driving" i say weekly

 

Given the 'quality' of CP Racing's strut tower bars (mine arrived warped, others have complained about welds breaking) the last thing I'd trust is that level of workmanship holding one of my wheels on.

But then IMO wheel adapters are best left to showcars.

 

i have a pair of 4x114 to 5x114 adapters that will be going on the rear of my car this weekend. my car wont be driving for a couple more weeks. im scared to use them now, but they look to be good quaity. i plan on using them till i can go a different route for 5x114 in the rear

 

i probely will be lookin into doing this swap later because i will like nicer rims eventually when i got the paper to make it happen

 

Ive run quite large adaptors on my front for years with no problems.I drive long distances and often at higher speeds.
I wouldnt recommend using the adaptors with the early,smaller wheel bearings since as stated before,they do change the leverage advange the wheel has over the bearings.The small outer bearings are known to fail often even with stock wheels.The leverage created by the track width increase can be compensated for by running high negative offset style wheels(FWD style)

My Advans are almost all negative,there is nearly no lip,even though they are 8" wide up front.This was neccesary because of the width of the adaptor and the large,12" brake rotors I run.So the total distance from the outer bearing to the outer edge of the wheel,is not that bad.


Since all wheel adaptors will increase track width,unless your running a widebody your likely going to be buying negative offset,FWD style wheels in the 7" wide range.This will help with the bearing loads,plus our cars are pretty light anyways.Putting big'ol wide deepdish wheels on top of adaptors is a no-no.Itll handle great,but the bearings will fry.

Got the adaptors here........
http://www.truckn-store.com/product_category.asp?id=513

 

^^^ Great info Steve. Can you tell me - if I've got an 83 GSL, do I have the small bearings or large ones? Also, my adaptors are 1 1/4". What specific offset do I need? I'm looking at 17*7" rims with a +40 offset for [gag] HONDA's [/gag].

 

Here's the specific wheel I'm looking at:
Wheel Size: 17x7
Bolt Pattern: 4x100 4x114.3 4x4.5
Wheel Finish: Gunmetal with Polished Lip
Wheel Offset: 40mm

[IMG][/IMG]

 

Try wheelmax.com I believe they have those same exact wheels if I'm not mistaken.

 

looks like my thread has been 'hijacked'

the other option I thought was just giving the wheels to an engineering outfit and asking them to fill the current holes and redrill new ones to my spec

anyone have any experience of this ? can it be done ?

 

here you go, i bought a set of work wheels that are 5x112 and wanted to get them filled and redrilled to 5x114 and i cant find anywhere thatll do it. in california you can get a set of wheels done for like $100. it all just depends on your location. ive heard of people going that route without any problems but it needs to be 100% perfect or youll have issues.

as for the wheels adapters, heres all i have to say, directfreak has wheel adapters/spacer....he also has about 500RWHP. thats good enough infor for me. his are from ebay

 

Yes this can be done, but be sure to go to an experience wheel guy. 100 and 114.3 are the most common 4 lug wheels although Mustang 108 wheels give great deep dish looks.

Timmy, you need to check as the 83 year is when they changed and some have small some have big bearings.

 

I reading on another board about this issue, it was mentioned that the 4x108 (4x4.25) rims will fit. So I had a set of old Mustang/T-bird 4x108's laying around and gave it a try. For sure they bolted right up with no problems. So that combo does open up a few more options. Stock rims are supposed to be 20mm offset so keep that in mind when buying new rims. You'll need to be looking for something for RWD configurations preferably otherwise the back side of the tire/rim may hit the shocks/struts..

 

Quality + CP Racing...

That goes together like hookers and celibacy.

 

Be careful when you go the 4x108 route when mounting the wheels. Some of my friends ended up with sheared lug bolts after riding on 4x108 wheels(welds or american racing IIRC).

 

I know there is a lot of talk about how wheel spacers add extra strain on the suspension componants, but when I think about this: whats the difference between buying a wheel with the right offset, or using spacers to acheive the same thing? The only way a wheel can have a different offset is buy either adding or subtracting the distance between where the wheel mounts and the inside of the rims lip , and although I dont like the idea of extra bolts holding my wheels on other than that this concept doesnt make sense to me, I seem to think either its built into the wheel or added on later, either way the strain would be the same? Is this correct?

 

But, this would only be true if the wheels originally had the wrong offset and the spacers would only be putting them into the right place.

I can understand this concept if the spacers were just being slapped on some stock wheels, that would be a no go LOL.

 

It is a common misconception that adding wheel spacers will increase load on the bearings. The way the bearings are loaded really has nothing to do with the mounting position on the hub, but more-so on the relative position of the wheel center line. As long as the wheel center line is kept in the same relative position to the center line of the hub, the loads theoretically shouldn't change at all. Beyond that I can't really explain what I'm saying in words. Here are a couple bad drawings that I did in paint.

The first awful drawing depicts a stock wheel and no spacer. The second horrid drawing depicts a +40mm offset wheel with a 25mm spacer. As you can see, because the spacer makes up for the difference in offset between the wheels, the relative centerlines stay in the same position. The third ugly drawing depicts a low offset wheel, +15mm, with a 25mm spacer. Because the offset didn't change from stock, the wheel centerline is moved outward the thickness of the wheel. This throws off the relative centerlines and the load on the outer bearing is going to change. Essentially, adding a lower offset than stock wheel in the stock width will have the same effect as adding a spacer. Basically, what 1Genonr said is correct.

Hopefully this all makes sense and clears up a few issues. Oh ya, did I say these were badly drawn?