Steel Wheel Rims

[Julian]

Bit of knowledge / confirmation of my theory. Re-Steel wheel rim width: Just paint striping the 5 wheel rims from the car, only after loads of work to notice that three of the wheels were skinny on width at 6" where as 2 were 6 1/2". I can only assume the skinny ones were taken from a 2000 / 2200 car with 165 tyre were as the V8 had 185 tyres originally. Measuring the 6 1/2" wheel it seems 10mm of the difference is on the back of the wheel measuring from the wheel hub mating face .I have seen loads of reports about differing outcomes of wider tyres on peoples cars, well this will not help with different wheel rims and offsets. Its easy to tell the difference now i have seen it! First pic (11423455) is the wider wheel rim.
The difference could also be a date of manufacturing issue as an update to production! either way I am not going to run on different offset rims.

 

[quattro]

I was under the impression that the offset on a P6 is 40, on all of the wheels. My Vitesse wheels are 6.5J x 15s but still with a 40 offset.

 

[colnerov]

FYI, wheels are measured bead to bead for both width and diameter, not the outside.

I'm not being patronising, but lots of people don't realise, it makes it difficult buying wheels on eBay and such places.

Colin

 

[Julian]

The beads also have 15mm difference. These wheel came of P6 rovers, the 165mm rim is from a P6B Auto that was laid up in 1982
So offset on the 150mm wheel rim is indeed 40mm. the offset on the 165mm rim is 47.5mm. From my calculations the entire additional 15mm width is on the inside of the wheel. ie hub mating face to outside rim edge are both 35mm and mating face to inside edge is greater by 15mm on the 165mm wheel? Luckily i have a set of the 165mm wide wheel rims. (Edit: added some pics of where i am up to)

 

[quattro]

It looks like you have some 5Jx14 from a 4 pot and some 5 1/2J x 14, from a V8.

Are the sizes stamped on the wheel anywhere?

Not sure why Rover would use a different offset, but I haven't actually worked on a 4 cylinder car for a few decades, so who knows? I'm sure someone on here knows though.

 

[Julian]

It looks like you have some 5Jx14 from a 4 pot and some 5 1/2J x 14, from a V8.

Are the sizes stamped on the wheel anywhere?

Not sure why Rover would use a different offset, but I haven't actually worked on a 4 cylinder car for a few decades, so who knows? I'm sure someone on here knows though.

You are correct, I have found the stamping, the 150mm wide rims are indeed stamped 5-JFHX-14 with a 40mm offset and the 165mm rims are stamped 5.5-JSLX-14. I have measured all the 5.5J wheels and all measure an offset of 47.5mm and not what I thought was set in stone at 40mm.
My personal conclusion is if you have the 5.5J rims you are more likely to have clearance issues on the inner face. Possibly the 5.5J may have been fitted to the V8's as they run 185 tyres as standard. I just hope my 195 x 70 x 14's will fit, if not I can make adjustment with some form of percussive instrument. (my son calls me a "Percussive Engineer" already)

 

[colnerov]

That's why the V8 cars have cranked radius arms on the rear to clear the wider wheels and tyres.

 

[mikecoombs]

Where did you get 195x70x14s from? I ran them for years on standard rims . They were Goodyear NCTs though which have a fairly straight sidewall. makes with a bulging sidewall might rub the rear guards on full(ish) bump.

there are threads on here about what to adjust and how.

 

[tonys]

I think you've already sussed it but the V8s had 5.5-inch rims (4-cyls had 5-inch) to fit the wider 185 tyres. However, Rover found clearance issues when fitting all-weather 185 tyres on the rear and overcame that by using wheels with a different offset, which reduced the track by 3/8 inch (in old money terms) on each side. Using the same wheels on the front would obviously reduce the front track as well, curtailing steering lock, and, therefore, they modified the front hubs to restore the wheels to their original position.

Rover had been happy with the results of tests using 175 section tyres but opted for 185 as they met German regulations and provided a greater safety margin.

 

[Vern Klukas]

But by my math the tire centerline should be nearly the same if the 5.5 rim’s offset is 7.5 mm greater than the 5 inch rim. Certainly not 9 mm different (.5” = 12.7 mm, divide by two = 6.35 mm, while the actual 5.5" offset is 7.5 mm more than the 5” wheel, just over a mm more.).

Yours
Vern

 

[Julian]

But by my math the tire centerline should be nearly the same if the 5.5 rim’s offset is 7.5 mm greater than the 5 inch rim. Certainly not 9 mm different (.5” = 12.7 mm, divide by two = 6.35 mm, while the actual 5.5" offset is 7.5 mm more than the 5” wheel, just over a mm more.).

Yours
Vern

On my calcs it basically works out that the outer face of the wheel is in roughly the same place on both wheel hubs and with the increase of offset and wider rims all the extra material is on the back face, makes sense and ties up with what Tony said above, didn't know about modified front hubs though. Any way the now boots are fitted now and as the car is minus engine and box, it will be a while till testing. Bit scarry how easy it would be to mix up wheel rims though, as people swap and change, at least from earlier photo you can tell one from the other.