The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts steering arm/knuckle to wheel clearance

Now that I have a master cylinder in hand and a clutch slave cylinder on the way to fix the most immediate stopping and shifting problems, I have come up with another question about my 1966 GMC 5500 truck. It seems like the more I look, the more I need know. While lying under the truck trying to figure out how brake lines are attached to the hydrovac and how to remove the clutch slave cylinder, I glanced toward the wheels and noticed that the steering arm connections to the steering knuckles are very close to the inside of both front wheels. In fact, it looks like the arm/knuckle connection has been rubbing on the inside of the left wheel. Could this be normal? I am thinking that it is not. If not, can anyone tell me what size wheel and tire combination was original equipment on this 1966 medium duty truck? Any information and insights would be welcome. I have never seen anything like this.

JRMunn

Hy JRMunn, could you give us some more information on what type of wheels your truck has, firstly are they tube type or tubeless? Are they steel wheels (Kelsey or Budd), or cast spoke type (Dayton)? If they are steel type how many studs/nuts retain them? Many different wheel options are possible on your truck, more clarification is needed to properly answer your question.

3B,

You are right, and I realized after reading my own post that more information about the wheels is needed. So I took some pictures that I put in Photobook at the link below, recorded information off tires, and made some measurements of the wheels.

http://s967.photobucket.com/user/jrmunn/library/?sort=3&page=1

This second look has at least partly answered my question, because it is apparent that the previous owner has helped me out by installing new wheels with radial tires on them. These are on the two front wheels and the passenger side, rear dual wheels. The drivers side rear dual wheels appear are probably the original equipment and have bias ply tires on the old wheels. Data is as follows:

- Radial tires are all (4) Goodyear Unisteel II, 9.00R20, 5150 lbs at 100 psi.

- Bias ply tires are one Goodyear Super High Miler, 9.00-20 Nylon, 10 ply rating AND one General Superexpressway, 9.00-20 with no other visible ratings.

- Newer wheels are shown in the attached photos. These were originally painted blue and appear to be split rims of some sort, based on the retainer ring seen on the front wheels. Rough measurements from the retainer ring side of the new wheels are 23 1/4 inch diameter and 8 1/4 inch width.

- Older wheels are shown in the photo of the drivers side rear wheels and tires. These were originally pained white, and a peek between the wheels shows two different type of retainer rings (one flat and one rounded). The rough, measurement is 22 3/4 inch diameter (from the side without retainer ring) and 6 1/4 inch wide.

All of the wheels have six, large lug bolts and look to be centered on hubs that have small "ledges" that the wheels must go over.

Apparently the original wheels were about 2 inches narrower than the newer wheels. So it looks like I need to get two, narrower wheels for the front (assuming that the old wheels need to be replaced) and newer, radial tires for the front, and then switch the current front wheels and tires to the divers side rear duals.

At this point, any thoughts about what wheels and tires to get for the front would be a big help. One question that comes to mind is whether radial tires could go on the old wheels?

JRMunn

Hy JRMunn, the wheels you have are six bolt Budd wheels, these are stud piloted wheels not hub piloted wheels. There are two different wheels listed for 9.00"X20" tires, a 6.5" and a 7.0" wide wheel, both these wheels have a 6.0" offset. The wheels should be able to accommodate tube type radial tires. the original p/ns for the wheels are: 6.50" wide wheel 5769149, and for the 7.0" wide wheel 2352185, hope that helps.

3B,

Thank you! This helps a lot. I do have a couple, probably dumb and certainly uninformed, questions. First, are the wheel sizes you cite the original equipment options? Second, I think that the wheel width measurement is supposed to be taken between the inside of rims, so it would be overestimated by my outside measurements. My measurement of 6 1/4 inch for the old wheels seems too small for even the smaller 9.00x20 wheel, but I only measured this once need to check it. But the 8 1/4 inch measurement for the newer wheels was done several times, and seems much larger than the bigger, available 7.0 inch wheel. Could this mean that the 9.00x20 tires are not supposed to be used on these wider wheels?

JRMunn

Hy JRMunn, unfortunately wheels and tires are a large area of possible problems. Wheels with multiple different offsets are made that will "bolt" on to a given vehicle, you have already discovered a problem with incorrect wheels on your front axle. Since your truck left the factory forty-five years ago who knows how many tires and wheels have been swapped onto it. The truck would have left the factory with a maximum of two different size wheels, the wheels for the front axle would be the same, and the wheels for the rear axle would be the same, possibly all the wheels would be the same. The trucks G.V.W. would be dependent on what size tires it had, quite often the tires on the front axle are smaller than the ones on the rear axle. My advice to you would be to take inventory of the wheels on your truck, find out how many different wheels you have, then figure out how many are either 6.5" wide or 7.0" wide, you may even find wheels on the truck that would be better mounted on the front axle (for clearance purposes). You may end up having to replace some of your wheels to try and standardize what you have. Quite often wheels and tires are the largest expense when restoring a "Big Bolt", there are many choices, radials vs bias ply, tubeless vs tube type. Finding a shop willing to work on multi-piece wheels is another issue, you won't know if a given wheel is serviceable for re-use until all the components of that wheel have been dis-assembled, cleaned and inspected. There is a lot to think about in regards to wheels and tires for a "Big Bolt", and a good experienced tireman/shop can be of invaluable assistance in helping you navigate the maze that is the subject of wheels and tires for a "Big Bolt", hope that helps.

3B,

Thank you for the helpful advice! The world of wheels and tires is turning out to be different from the other mechanical repairs I have been working on. I think my best move at this point is to follow your suggestion about finding an experienced tire shop that works on trucks.

JRMunn