cfair

I just put new wider tires & wheels on my '66 Starfire. Factory wheels were 14x6. I just upgraded to 15x8 with 245/60 15 tires. It won't surprise any of you that the spare now takes up a goodly chunk of a pretty big trunk...

So my J-hook to hold down the spare is too short to hold down the spare. By 3-4".

I can easily just get a length of 5/16"-18 rod and bend it to fit, but I'm wondering if you all have an application that might work well for this tire/wheel combination.

Anybody have a better way than me just bending up a length of rod?

Thanks in advance.
Chris

oldolds88

just get a piece of all thread and a coupler the same size,cut enough length so you can still use your wing nut

OLDSter Ralph

Get a short piece of hex or round rod and drill and tap through. Add a short length of threaded rod and jam nuts on both ends and you're in business. Leave extra length on the threaded rod until you assemble it.

cfair

Coupler! What a great solution. Exactly why I posted the question here.

A few months from now, it possible that would have occurred to me. Or maybe not.

I’ll head to the hardware store in the morning.

I have a modern radio amp hanging on the underside of the package tray that I’m considering moving too - just to make room with the wider (or -as laid down - taller) tire. If I move the amp, I can snug the tire forward to make more room in the trunk.

As if a ‘66 Starfire really needs more trunk room.

Many thanks,
Chris

redoldsman

The coupler was what I did on the 54 I had when I went to radial tires which were wider. Home Depot has the couplers and the all thread.

Koda

This is 3 inches longer. Worth 6 bucks to your door?

olds 307 and 403

Or $25.74 to my Canadian door. A good solution though.

matt69olds

We went thru this exact problem on my sons 92 Yukon. The larger spare meant the hook wouldn’t fit.

In this case, the coupler and all thread wouldn’t work. The wing nut would bottom out on the coupler before the tire was tight. Our solution was to cut the J hook in a section without threads, and lengthen it and welding in an extension.

Might visit you local salvage yard and look in some trunks, maybe a scrap car would have a solution that’s cheap and easy.

cfair

I wound up just bending up a section of 5/16’s-18 threaded rod with my tubing bender to get precise bends in the right places.

It’s installed and o.k., but as I was putting away the factory one that I think I picked up at a boneyard 20 years ago or so, I noticed that it’s actually some kind of metric size rod with 5/16’-18 threads.

I may wind up going with a 3/8’s rod over the longer term.

I was glad the use of the tubing bender occurred to me, it would have been a lot more random just bending up the threaded rod on my vise.

Cheers
Chris