rhett838

I went to discount tire (w/o my car) and they said they need to see what's on there now b/c bolt patterns vary.

My question is how can I find out the size of my rims w/o taking off the tire? I took a rough measurement with a tape measure and I'm guessing 15x7.

Also, How do I measure the bolt pattern?

I just need a spare, nothing special, but I don't want to have the wrong wheel if I ever have to use that spare.

Thanks

citcapp

Try here http://www.oldsmobility.com/superstock.htm for your information

jaunty75

I've been having the exact same problem trying to get a spare tire for my '67 Delta 88. It has a 5x5 bolt pattern (5 bolts on a 5 inch circle) on a 14" wheel with a 3" hub opening. Very difficult to find. All of the 14" wheels with a 5x5 pattern that I've come across have a smaller, 2.75" hub opening.

To measure the bolt pattern, you want to imagine a circle drawn through the bolts and then measure the diameter of that circle. For a situation with an even number of bolts, this is easy because all you do is measure from the center of one bolt to the center of the bolt on the opposite side. With 5 bolts, like I have, I measure from the center of one bolt to the center of the rim. Since there's nothing IN the center of the rim when it's not on a car, you've got to be careful how you eyeball it and make sure you are looking straight down at the tape measure over the center of the rim. This is important because there are bolt patterns that don't differ by much from this (5 x 4.75, for example, which would have a difference in radius of only 1/8 inch).

Your tire place is right to say that they need to see a wheel you have on the car now. That's the best way to make sure whatever wheel they sell you actually fits.

Cameo White

What tires are you running on it? The tire size will tell you what wheel diameter you are using--14 or 15 inch, for instance.

J-(Chicago)

Jaunty75, I believe have the wheel you need.
Rhett, post your tire size. I have a wheel for you too.

Jamesbo

I have 14 " SS II running out my ears. Where are you located?

jaunty75

I think he knows the diameter. I think he wants to know the rim width. He says he thinks the rim is 15 x 7, but it could be 15 x 8. It's not easy to measure if the tire is on the rim because the tire bulges wider than the rim. I think my '67 Delta has an 8-inch width, and with a 14" diameter, that would make it 14 x 8.

jaunty75

I've got one lined up already that I'm picking up in about a week. But thanks.

J-(Chicago)

The tire place should have a big set of measuring tongs to tell you the width of the wheel with or without tires on it.

joe_padavano

The bolt pattern is 5 x 4.75". That is the only bolt pattern used on RWD Cutlii from 1964-1988.

The rim diameter will be printed on the tire sidewall. The rim width can be approximated by measuring the outside to outside dimension of the rim where the bead seats. Do not measure the lip right at the outer diameter of the wheel, but the flat surface just below that point where the tire's bead seats.

wmachine

Jaunty, your *stock* 14" wheel is 14 x 6. As I posted to you a couple days ago, it is part number 588538, these "S" code wheel were *the only* big car (B-body) 14" from '63-'68 except Jetstar 88s (which were the same as F85s).
So if you have a 7 or 8 inch wide 14" wheel, it is *not* a stock wheel.

jaunty75

Well, like I said, I "think" it's 8-inch. I apparently think wrong! I don't know if the wheels currently on the car are stock or not. I don't know why they wouldn't be. I also don't know why one would get rid of the spare, but I don't have one. Anything's possible. The tires on the car now are P215/70R14.

wmachine

Is there an "S" stamped next to the valve stem hole?

jaunty75

I haven't looked. I'll remember to do that tonight.

jaunty75

In short, no.

I pulled the wheel covers off of two of the four wheels and looked closely around the valve stem of each, and I didn't see anything stamped anywhere around either one. Does this mean that these are aftermarket wheels? It might explain why the car came with only four of them, but I can't imagine what would have happened to the spare as you would think that whoever decided to replace the wheels would have kept one of the originals to use as a spare.

Unless he bought new wheels for the purpose of changing the wheel size. But this car did come with 14" wheels originally, and that's what's on it now, so that doesn't make sense. Who knows. I'll mark it as mystery #46 in the long line of mysteries associated with this car. (The mysteries are half the fun.)

wmachine

Doesn't mean you have "aftermarket" wheels. There are all kinds of reasons why and how wheels get changed. I think it maybe more unusual when a very old car comes with the original wheels, especially all five.
15" wheels were optional and it very well could nave come with either 14" or 15" wheels.

jaunty75

I may have used the term "aftermarket" a little loosely. I simply meant wheels that weren't original to the car. Maybe the originals rusted out? Whatever happened, it seems to have happened to all four wheels, and whoever replaced them bought just enough to have four wheels and didn't bother getting a fifth one for a spare.

rhett838

Holy heck! I didn't realize so many of you replied to this. I guess my e-mail notifier isn't working.

I'll look at my tire size for help on the exact size of the rim. So using this tire size for example P215/7OR14...the 15/7 that's highlighted tells you the rim is a 15x7?

I'll Definitely hit you up Jamesbo if you have an extra rim you wanna get rid of...I'm in TX by the way.

Thanks for everyone's help...I'm a car novice!

rhett838

Also check out my profile. I have pics of my car there. Not really good ones of the wheels, but maybe some of you can tell me what I have by taking a quick glance at it.

jaunty75

It might very well be working. The way it works it that it only notifies when the FIRST new response is posted. If you don't visit the forum again, you don't get notified of any future postings. Revisit the forum, and the notifier gets reset.

rhett838

Here is my tire size:

P225/70R14.98s

This tells me nothing about my rim size. I'm assuming it's a 15????

Summerof84

The 14 is telling you that you have 14" tires. The 225 is millimeters of height, the R is radial tire and the 70 is the width aspect. You most likely have 14" x 6" wheels. The spare tire can be put on any run of the mill 14" x 6" from any Cutlass 64-88 if you have front drum brakes, 73-88 if you have front disk brakes. 67-72(?) rims came in both types.

jaunty75

Thanks to Delmontcruiser, I now have a spare wheel for my '67 Delta 88. I had the opportunity to meet him this past weekend and buy from him a rim from a '67 that he's parting out.

This rim DOES have an "S" stamped near the valve stem, but there's other stuff stamped there, too. The "S" is about 3 or 4 inches from the valve stem, and between it and the valve stem a number "2" is stamped. On the other side of the stem is stamped the number "6", and then just beyond the 6 about the same distance from the stem as the S is stamped "N17".

wmachine

Hey Jaunty, just for future reference, the stock wheel should have the wheel number 754 stamped inside. Along with "ELECTRO-FUSE MADE IN U.S.A. 14 x 6 K" among other stampings.

svnt442

You have that backwards my friend.
225 is the section width in millimeters.
70 is the HEIGHT expressed in percentage of width.
R is radial.
14 is the diameter of the rim.
S98 is the speed and load rating of the tire.

Section width is not the tread width. It is the overall width of the tire on a specific width rim. That all depends on the tire being measured.

jaunty75

When you say "inside," do you mean the part of the rim that you can't see when a tire is mounted on it? If not, inside what?

wmachine

Correct. OEM wheel also have all of their "inside" stampings within a couple square inches, not all over the place.

jaunty75

I probably won't get to see it, then, because there's a damaged tire on the rim now, and I'm taking it to a tire shop to have a better one I have put on. I won't be standing there when they do the actual swap, so I won't get a chance to look at that part of the rim.