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15" Rims and WJ Brake upgrade

M

MGrobe

NAXJA Member #968
Location
Chicagoland-area, IL
I have a set of offroad only tires on AR767's 15x7, 4.5 BS (if my memory is right). I am still in the process of doing the conversion to WJ equipment so I can't just bolt things up right now. I have the later calipers which are larger than the earlier ones. I am not expecting to be lucky enough to have my current rims fit. But I am hoping that if I get a different 15" rim with a 3.75 or even 3.25 BS that it will workout. The tires don't have that much wear so I would rather not sell them if it all possible.

Anyone have any feedback?
 
If you have to, get different off set wheels, and/or grind some material down on the calipers. Not too much though, just enough to get them to fit. You could also go with some wheel spacers for your current wheels too.
 
12GaugeXJ said:
If you have to, get different off set wheels, and/or grind some material down on the calipers. Not too much though, just enough to get them to fit. You could also go with some wheel spacers for your current wheels too.
Click to expand...

Wheels spacers for a last resort, though... or that's in my opinon at least.
 
My XJ is my Daily Driver as well. I already have a set of 16" rims which covers that issue on a daily basis. I might still buy new rubber and rims, but I would rather not at this point.

I am hoping that I will get lucky and find someone local that has that 15" 3.25 rim that I can try out. Wheel spacers won't be appreciably cheaper and considering it is one more thing to remove when switching tires, I would rather just get new wheels.

I am going to skip grinding IF I can as I don't want to do anything that might cause break warpage. But we'll see how desparate I become.
 
I have 15x8" MT Challengers, 4.5" BS with Warn hub conv (so about same as 3.6" BS), using Teves calipers.

Cleared fine on driver side and I had to grind a hair off on the pass side caliper because it just barely rubbed in a couple of spots on the caliper.
 
I purposely bought the Akebono calipers, which are larger. Not sure how exactly, if it affects the diameter or the width, but I know they are physically larger than the Teeves. At the time I was pretty sure I was just going to buy new rubber, but now I am not sure if I want to drop another grand on them.
 
If you have a spare hub, you can mount a caliper and hub to one of the knuckles and test fit one of your rims.
 
Kind of did that over the weekend. My tires are stored off-site (winter storage) and I forgot to bring the appropriate bolts. So I laid everything in and eyeballed it the best I could. Hard to say what the end result was though. Probably left me more confused than before I went there.

Worst comes to worse I'll swing over to discount tire during a slow period and have them do some fitting for me. It would be nice to know before then so I can budget accordingly.
 
I recently did the WJ knuckle and caliper upgrade. I used the akebono calipers with 15" wheels with 4.625" backspacing. The calipers need to be ground down on the ribs, here is a pic of what grinding was needed.
standard.jpg


The wheel backspacing won't be an issue unless you got some 5.25" or deeper backspaced wheels.
 
In a rush, didn't read the whoel thread...

I'm in the middle of doing the WJ conversion. I have some ARE767s in 15x8-4BS from another project I can throw on this PM to check for clearance if it helps.

LMK.
 
Root Moose said:
In a rush, didn't read the whoel thread...

I'm in the middle of doing the WJ conversion. I have some ARE767s in 15x8-4BS from another project I can throw on this PM to check for clearance if it helps.

LMK.
Click to expand...

Are you using Akebono's as well? If so that would be great, I'd appreciate it.
 
Bryan C. said:
I recently did the WJ knuckle and caliper upgrade. I used the akebono calipers with 15" wheels with 4.625" backspacing. The calipers need to be ground down on the ribs, here is a pic of what grinding was needed.
standard.jpg


The wheel backspacing won't be an issue unless you got some 5.25" or deeper backspaced wheels.
Click to expand...


I appreciate the response. So how much grinding did you have to do? A little?
 
MGrobe said:
Are you using Akebono's as well? If so that would be great, I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Yep, Akebono. Only caveat is that the hubs are Warn 5 on 5.5". Looking at what others have been grinding I don't think offset should matter too much.
 
MGrobe said:
I appreciate the response. So how much grinding did you have to do? A little?
Click to expand...


Not sure exactly, but somewhere around 1/4" was taken off. I had a mock-up with a knuckle, hub and wheel that I used to gauge how much needed to come off.
 
Another thing that will make a difference is the wheel Manufacturer and model/materials.

Currently I have
Mickey Thompson Classic II's 16x8 with 4 7/16 BS
American Racing 767 15x7 with 4.5 BS (if I remember right)

I'll post later on how the cast aluminum MT fits and how the steel AR767 does as well.
 
Cherokeekid on here has 3.5" BS steel wheels and the akabono calipers, fits fine. I ran a spare 15x8, 3.75" rockcrawler wheel for a spare once and it fit too(i also have the akabono calipers) I think problems start with more than 3.75 to 4" of BS on a steelie or Alloys of any BS.
 
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