what wheels needed for 13" wilwwod brakes

partsman02 · 12-17-2006

hello, i have a 95 gts stang and just put on a set of 13" inch 6 piston wilwood brakes and now my 16" wheels don't even come close to fitting...does anyone know what wheels will fit, or any measurements or offsets that i need to be able to get a set of wheels back on my car asap...thanks for everyones help...

reivaxtorres · 12-18-2006

partsman02, i have the same setup on my car, i decided to use the 1995 Cobra R wheels, here are the specs on the wheel:
Ford Racing Performance Parts [M-1007-R58*]
they are 17x9, have a 5.98" backspacing. did a lot of looking around for what wheels would work for mine, and these are the ones that i decided to go with. cheapest ones i found where at Summit Racing - High Performance Car and Truck Parts | 800-230-3030. if you need any more help with ur setup, let me know
xavier

partsman02 · 12-19-2006

thank you very much....i was wondering if you are talking about the rear wheels or the front....i had forgot to mention in my add that they are wilwood 13" front brakes....if the front brakes are what you are talking about then i will definately use what info you have given me....and thank you very much for all your help even if you were talking about the rear...

reivaxtorres · 12-20-2006

haha, yeah, i was talking about the front. i have 13" 6 piston in the front and 12.1" 4 piston in the rear. the back had absolutely no problem with the clearance, it was only the front that didnt clear them. i looked around for awhile and these where the only ones that i actually liked that fit. you will basically need a 17x9 rim that has the spokes going to the edge of the rim. anything wider than 17x9 and you will start having issues about your turn radius disappearing. the bullitt rims are somewhat "dished" so the spokes sit farther towards the inside of the circle providing a "lip" to the rim, which looks good but wont work for us. if you want to stay looking OEM, look at any rims that came on the cobra or saleen. (17x9 saleen rims fit for me too, but i didnt like the way they looked too much and i didnt want replicas, so the originals were too much $$ for me to afford at the time). i think the 1998 Cobra rims might fit also, but those are 17x8 so im not 100% sure. a good way to test them, if you still have your brakes off the car (the wilwood ones) is take the rotor, caliper, and pads to the shop that has the wheel you are looking at. install the pads in the caliper, and put the caliper over the rotor so it would look like its on the car. next, just put the rim on the floor face down, and try to put the hub of the rotor on the center of the rim, almost as if you were installing it. rotate the caliper, if it hits anywhere, then it doesnt fit. if the gap isnt too big, you can think of using a spacer on there to make it work. here is a pic of the 13" kit on mine, the pic is a little bigger than the pic i have for my profile but the front wheels are in motion. good luck, and if you need more help let me know.

reivaxtorres · 12-20-2006

heres another pic of the brakes, close up right after i installed them and took it around the block for the break-in

partsman02 · 12-20-2006

thanks man, you have been extremely helpfull, i can't explain how much, i really appreciate it....
yes i would like to keep my car looking as stock looking as i can unless i go to the track.....i can't wait to see what my car will do, i will probably get taken off the track for no roll cage..thats how much i would like to look stock, but my 15x12 prostars at the track will give it away a little...if i can some how fit them in there...thanks steve

reivaxtorres · 12-21-2006

haha, no worries. it will be awhile before i get kicked off the track for not having a roll cage tho lol. so far i dont even have to wear a helmet! but then again, mine is NPI. but yeah, if you want to keep it looking stock, look for 17x9 ford rims. if your car is 94-98, the only wheel that ford offered 17x9 for this body style was the 95 cobra r. for 99-04, well you can pretty much pick any of the cobra wheels, they were all 17x9, with the exception of the 00 cobra r, that was 18x9. not exactly stock, but the saleen wheels will also fit, tho i believe that those are also 18x9, but dont quote me on that part.
good luck,
xavier

systronic · 12-21-2006

pretty much anything 17" plus will fit.
perhaps bullit's

those are my favorite.

2003 cobra's are nice.

check mustangtuning.com

reivaxtorres · 12-21-2006

no, the 17" bullitts wont fit. those are the ones i had on my car before i got the brake it. because of the lip on these wheels (the spokes are more towards the center of the wheel) the spokes hit the calipers and makes it so that you need about a 1"+ spacer to clear the calipers. in order to get the bullitts to fit, you would need to go with at least a 17x10 rim, which way to wide for the front. i too was under the impression that any 17" rim would fit, but i was wrong, except that i did a "test-fit" of the brakes and the wheels and found this out before i ever unplugged anything in the brake system. partsman02, i was doing a little searching into the old threads/sites i used, and i believe anywheel with a 5.98 backspacing should work. anything less and you will have clearance problems.

systronic · 12-24-2006

hmm. 17x9 bullitts have 5.95" backspacing. i guess the 17x8's would be to tight indeed.

reivaxtorres · 12-26-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by systronic

hmm. 17x9 bullitts have 5.95" backspacing. i guess the 17x8's would be to tight indeed.

yeah, the 17x8 didnt fit. that sucked for me because i really did like those wheels. they were original wheels too, not replicas. im not 100% sure that the 17x9 bullitts will fit even if they do have the 5.95 backspacing, even tho earlier i said that any wheel with that backspacing will, so i stand corrected. i should have said that any wheel with a 5.95 backspacing will fit, so long as it doesnt have a lip. if they have a lip, the spokes are closer to the center of the wheel which now interfers with the caliper. sorry for the confusion

partsman02 · 12-29-2006

thanks guys for all your help, i was wondering something, why would a 17x9 fit and not a 17x8? the only differance is the with of the wheel not the offset. if the 17x9 would clear the caliper (do to the height of the caliper and size of rotor) why wouldn't the 17x8's fit. it's the same diameter and should have the same offset, just differant width. i know the wheel is going to be alittle more narrow, which than the backspacing will be less do to the more narrow wheel, but i don't think they changed the offset on the front of the wheel, so they should fit. maybe i'm wrong

reivaxtorres · 12-30-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by partsman02

thanks guys for all your help, i was wondering something, why would a 17x9 fit and not a 17x8? the only differance is the with of the wheel not the offset. if the 17x9 would clear the caliper (do to the height of the caliper and size of rotor) why wouldn't the 17x8's fit. it's the same diameter and should have the same offset, just differant width. i know the wheel is going to be alittle more narrow, which than the backspacing will be less do to the more narrow wheel, but i don't think they changed the offset on the front of the wheel, so they should fit. maybe i'm wrong

you're about 1/2 way right on this. the reason the 17x8 wont fit is because of the backspacing. due to it being a narrower wheel, the backspacing is smaller. backspacing is the distance between the outside of the wheel (where the emblems are, the part thats visible when the wheel is on the car) and where the rotor meets the wheel. the height of the rotor with the caliper isnt an issue as any 17" rim will clear 13" brakes when it comes to height. the thing that you are forgetting about is that the new wilwood caliper is a lot wider also, and that is where you run into problems with the clearance. ill include some pictures of both the stock brakes and the wilwood brakes on my car. be sure to notice the clearance on the bullitt rims, which are 17x8 and the clearence between the wilwood brakes, which are on 17x9.

the bullitt have a 5.72" backspacing with a lip
Cobra R's are 5.98" backspacing without a lip
also included a pic of the wilwood caliper next to a quarter...ill try to get a pic of the old calipers next to a quarter later on today, i still have them somewhere in my room.

partsman02 · 12-30-2006

i thought the backspacing is the measurement from inside of the wheel, (where rim touches the rotor) to the back side lip of the wheel...or basically you would take the wheel, flip it around on it's face and put a straight edge on the top of the back side of the wheel, then measure down to where the hub or rotor would hit. isn't that called the backspacing..i thought what you are talking about was called the offset of the wheel.

reivaxtorres · 12-30-2006

ok, i did a little research and i actually was wrong on one part of what i was saying in regards to the backspacing, you were right, it is from the inside lip of the wheel (closed to the center of the car) to where the rotor touches the wheel. that measurement would be the backspacing, but you would still need a larger backspacing that what most 17x8 provide. go to StopTech : Balanced Brake Upgrades and get the template from there, and compare it to whichever wheel you want to use. i dont know if wilwood offers such a template, but i would assume that if the rim would clear the stoptech calipers it would clear the wilwood calipers.

sorry for the confusion, here are some diagrams to show the difference between backspacing and offset.