FR500's might be the death of me...

[danco86]

So, I elected to buy a set of 17x9 FR500's for my 86. I Put a set of 245/45/17's on them. The wheel specs are +24mm offset,& 5.95" BS. My car has stock lca's and 87-91 spindles w/ Baer 13" rotors. Anyways, I tried to put them on yesterday and incurred many problems: 1) The wheel hit the strut before it even seated up against the rotor. 2) even with an additional rack limiter installed, it still hit the k member at full lock. 3) Even though I had put longer studs in, they were still not long enough. That wheel uses itself uses up approx 3/8" from the back surface to the bottom pf the acorn lug seat in the wheel. The rotor is really thick too. So i tried placing washers behind the wheel just to guage how much of a spacer I'll need but was hard to tell without being able to bolt the wheel on, but looks like 1/4" won't be enough. Then that'll leave the issue of the wheel hitting the front groung effect etc. (I don't know yet as the front clip is not on the car yet.) I really wanted 17x8's but could not find any in the style I wanted. I'm thinking I should have went with the 10th anny's.
Anybody else who has gone through this fitment fiasco have any advice they'd like to share before I pull my spindles, rear shaftes, and pound in 3.5" long ARP studs and risk other rubbing issues with spacers??

[danco86]

So, upon further efforts, I've found that the hub on my spindles is too long for the wheel. It is roughly 1-3/8 in length, and the depth of the bore is only an inch before it tapers towards the center cap opening. The only forseable way to get around this is to install a 3/8-1/2 spacer. With the offset of 24mm and BS of 5.95, has anyone run a spacer that big and not had the wheel protrude to far? I will have to bolt on my fenders/extensions today to see if they will clear. I should have gone sn95 in front, but its too late now.I can't afford to keep changing stuff over again. I hope this works out

[Patrick Olsen]

I assume you did a 5-lug conversion using the Lincoln/SVO style rotors? My understanding is the hub clearance issues are pretty common with that rotor style.

Even without spacers, the fitment with a 17x9 +24mm and the smaller pre-'90 fender openings is going to be tight. Do you have caster/camber plates? You'll need to run some decent negative camber to keep the tire under the fender lip, methinks.

[danco86]

Yes, I do have CC plates. No, the conversion I did was the Baer 5 lug. It came as a complete kit with modified spindles from 87-93 mustangs., 13" rotors. The rear kit consisted of PBR calipers., 13" rotors and associated hardware.
I figure the spacer I will need is a 3/8 to make the wheel fit. Suprisingly, turning lock to lock, the wheel does not hit the front fender extension as I thought it would. The inner fender wasn't on thr car yet, and I bolted ob the fender & extension just to see. The tire, however, does land right under the wheelwell lip of the fender. I have to see how far the wheel will travel until it hits the strut bumpstop. The motor etc are not in the car yet, so I don't even know how how it'll sit normally, so I've just been simulating placement with a floor jack raising and lowering the control arm without the spring in. I think I may just have to go with the 10th anny's and sell these. They will fit the hub properly, but being the same offset and BS, I'll still have to run a 1/4" spacer anyways. So, hopefully I can make the FR500's work..

[Bungy]

Couldn't you just have the front wheels bored out another 3/8" to clear the hubs?

[danco86]

No, if I I went another 3/8 deeper, I'd be through the front of the wheel & the dust cap as well as the tip of the hub would be protruding out where the center cap should be. It'd look awful.
Luckily, the fellow I deal with where I bought them went good on exchanging them on a set of 10th anniversary replicas. Really impressed since I bought them over a year ago. However, he was the one who told me that they'd fit. So with the 10th anny's, the most I should have to do is add a rack limiter to each side to prevent rubbing on the k member, but you never know when it comes to fitting wheels on these cars...

[82MustGT]

I would imagine that you will have the same problem with the 10th annys. You can make them fit but it will take a special spacer. One that fits the rotor and has the centering ring for the wheel. It will require longer studs too. I did the same thing on my 82, but with the 11" rotor. I tuned the diameter of the rotor at the dust cap down and as far in that I could without getting into the bearing race. The wheel fit flush, but I had to adapt a 1" centercap from a 71 mustang to the centercap that came with the wheels to clear the dustcap. Ended up looking pretty good.

[Jack Hidley]

Toss the Fox spindles. Move the rotors and calipers onto a set of 1994-95 spindles/hubs. Everything will bolt up. You can find the spindles used for about $150. This will solve all of your problems.

[danco86]

Looks awesome. That's some nice work!
I just don't want to mess around with different stud lengths etc. the knurl sizes on the front are different from the rear on my car now. I have enough work left on the car without the hassle of trying to make them fit. I don't think I'll have the same issues with the tenth anny's. the bore depth is deep enough etc. I'll probably only need rack limiters due to the 9" width.
We'll see when they arrive..

[danco86]

I don't really want to toss the fox spindles at this point, Jack. I originally was going the sn95 route when I found a mint donor 95 mustang at the local wreckers, but I came across the Baer tracker 13" conversion kit complete on 87-93 modified spindles someone was selling still in the box from an abandoned project. Knowing what I know now, I would have stayed with my original plan, but I don't really want to stray now.
I like the 10th anny's almost as much anyways.

[ZephyrEFI]

At the very least, you most likely won't be able to put the center caps on on the front wheels with any SN95 wheels. See that a lot. The dust cap sticks out too far.