Has anyone succesfully put the 97 up 8 inch wide wheels on their 2WD 96 back without cutting up the control arms or outrageous wheel spacers?

 

Come on guys, I know someone has tried this besides me.

 

Anyone?

 

In a word, no. The 15x8 wheels are just a tad too deep. They rub on the upper control arms, front and rear. You cannot have wheel weights on the inside of the wheel, they must be mounted on the outside as well, unless you want to grind even more off the control arms. You also may run into problems with the brake caliper bolt, but only with fresh pads installed. Solution there is to lightly chamfer the side of the bolt so it does not rub the inside of the wheel. You also have to grind down the spindle so it is flush with the castle nut, then pound the dust cap flat. Otherwise the center cap will not fit on the wheel. They do look good on a GenII truck though. I have them on my 92. You can also use spacers, there are some plain ones floating around. To do that you will need longer studs though.

 

What do you do about the fact when I turn the wheels in the front, the inside of the rim actually cuts into the upper control arm,
Everything else you said clears fine on my truck, its just when I turn the wheel it would hit the control arm. I see that you said grind them but are you talking about grinding material out of each side of the control arm?
I could use spacers but it looks like it would take at least an inch of spacing or more and the idea of greatly longer wheel studs does not sound like a good idea.
Thanks for the info.

 

Look in my sig. I have the 15x8's on all fours. Granted I have 4wd vs. 2wd. The only mods I did was to shave off a tiny bit on the inside of the rim (still perfectly safe and the wheel integrity was not compromised), ground down the head of the brake line bolt, and that was it. no mods were needed for the rear, but I altered all four wheels so that they could be rotated.

 

If you want spacers, I have a set that I used until I got the wheels modified. They were custom made out of the old stock wheels, so much better than anything you will find in the stores. PM me if interested.

 

Thanks, I've put them on 4x4s with no problem, with a similar mod, but there is too much cutting to do on a 2wd. Thanks