PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: Jdm071755 on October 21, 2017, 07:41:05 AM
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Is there any issues putting 15 inch wheels on my car. Any thing need to be changed like speedometer gear?
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Is there any issues putting 15 inch wheels on my car. Any thing need to be changed like speedometer gear?
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Ive never had any issues with 3 different sets of 15 rims/tires. Ive never worried about speedo off. There is a formula that you can use to see how much its off. I think im like 5 over at 60mph. Never worried about, went with traffic flow.
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Ive never had any issues with 3 different sets of 15 rims/tires. Ive never worried about speedo off. There is a formula that you can use to see how much its off. I think im like 5 over at 60mph. Never worried about, went with traffic flow.
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Great. Thank you
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The wheel itself at 15" diameter is not where you will encounter problems. It is the offset (in/out) that can cause the wheel/tire to hit the suspension or fender. While it is true that with the 15" wheel you will likely have wider/taller tires the Pinto wheel wells are rather generous with space.
I've included a picture of my wagon that for a short time used the '88 Turbo Coupe 16", 225-60-16" wheel/tires. There was very minor rubbing on the front fender near full lock and I had to space the rears about 1/4" outward to clear the leaf springs. Also included is a shot of 225-60-15" on a set of 90's era wheels. I called them the "Carl's Jr. Star" wheels. ;D Both were temporary as the tall tire really bogged the car and did not look good anyway. The ride suffered too as it seemed the tire was just too stiff. I am now running 175-70-13" on Mustang II wheels - again temporarily. I wanted to run 14" steel Mustang SSP look a like wheels off a T-Bird (real 15" SSP's are getting real expensive) but the offset is just too narrow for the Pinto and that too looked dumb.
So, yes it is doable but watch the offset and the fender clearances. Lastly wheel size can become irreverent when say... a 185-50-15" tire may be very close in actual outer size to say... a 195-70-13" tire. It is only the large hole in the center that is really different.
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Is there any issues putting 15 inch wheels on my car. Any thing need to be changed like speedometer gear?
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I have 15" on my 72 Runabout. My only issue is the speedometer reads about 7 mph slower than I'm driving at most speeds and at 61 mph I'm actually doing 75. While you can take it to a speedometer shop to have the right gears installed, I use a GPS to give me the actual speed.
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I have 14" wheels on my 73 and had the same problem.... I replaced the speedo gear with a 17 tooth one and my odometer and speedo are right on as measured with my gps.
My factory gear was a 19 tooth one....
I think i have a link for the website where I ordered mine.
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Thanks so much
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Source for speedo gears..
https://www.transmissioncenter.com/shop/driven-gears-for-ford-standard-transmissions-and-ford-transfer-cases/
As mentioned, my original gear for 13" tires and 3.40 gears had 19 teeth.
At 55 mph the indicated speed was 50.
I installed a 17 tooth and it is now correct for odometer and speedo.
To calculate the tooth number you need the formula is
Correct number teeth = Real speed ÷ indicated speed × teeth count on original
For me 50÷55×19= 17
If you are reading 61 at 75 and assuming you havei a 19 tooth gear now
The equation would be 61÷75×19=15.4 so try a 15 or 16 tooth gear.. i think the lowest tooth count available is 16
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One thing you should think about is the decline of tire sizes in America. Most 13 inch tires sizes are no longer made here in the USA. 14 inch will be next I'm sure. Mexico and England still have them, but at a cost most don't want to pay. I really think Pinto's look their best with 13 inch tires, but times are changing. 15 inch is really your only smart size as those tires will be around for awhile. Anything bigger just does not look right on a Pinto or so I think. Look at all the pictures of Pinto's and you will see most have 13 or 14 inch wheels / tires.
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Pinto's have generous wheel opening and one can put a considerable amount of tire in there (especially in the rear). The "unsightliness" becomes when the wheel itself is too large and the tire aspect ratio has a tire that looks like it belongs on a fork lift. 60 series is as small as one should go before the look is just out of step with the time period of the Pinto. Stock a 13" tire on the Pinto looks "under-tired." But lowered and 205-60-13"s look good. The 20-60-13" tire is still available, but you really have to look for it. The Federal Formoza being the most prevalent.
I agree with Dick that the 13"/14" tires are hard to find. Unfortunately even 15" are going that way and I find it hard to suggest 16" wheels for the Pinto. What's a Pinto owner to do???
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I agree about the difficulty with 13" tires..
When we were in dearborn with the stampede this year, one of the cars had a 13" tire fail and he looked all over the city and could only find a special order.
It was a race car and he had no spare, so he had to borrow a couple of spares to get around to events.
Fortunately he was trailering the car so he was able to return the borrowed spares and trailer it home.
Personally I think 14" is still a good compromise and does provide a bit of gear ratio upgrade for highway use.
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Or you could do what I did and buy up a set or two for the future. As little as a Pinto goes on long trips or high speed romps, the old but unused tires should be just fine. BTW the legion race car that race with motorcycle engines, use a 205/60/13 BFG tires on all 4 corners. They don't have a DOT number I think. Would be worth looking into if they race near you.
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I was able to purchase five brand new whitewall 13" tires for my '74 Runabout last year but they were expensive and it took a lot of searching. I have no intention of going to anything else until I absolutely have to. My car is completely stock and I'd like to keep it that way.
Dwayne :)
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My Panasport 13x7 wheels were originally mounted with Yokohama A001R 205/60-13 tires. It looked good and the grip was great. But I went to slicks for racing and bagged the Yokos. I wonder if they're still safe to use? I also wonder if Coker Tire would consider some new market share, or should we rely on Europe for Avon, Dunlop and the like. Bulk Container loads anyone? Bias ply Mickey Thompsons B50-13, Kelley tires in Bias ply.. ;D
Pintosopher, If it rolls it should be round and balanced :)
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My Panasport 13x7 wheels were originally mounted with Yokohama A001R 205/60-13 tires. It looked good and the grip was great. But I went to slicks for racing and bagged the Yokos. I wonder if they're still safe to use? I also wonder if Coker Tire would consider some new market share, or should we rely on Europe for Avon, Dunlop and the like. Bulk Container loads anyone? Bias ply Mickey Thompsons B50-13, Kelley tires in Bias ply.. ;D
Pintosopher, If it rolls it should be round and balanced :)
Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I think if I can I'll stick with 13 inch
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Real world experience. Increasing one tooth on the speedometer driven gear (on end of cable) will decrease your reading by apx. 7 mph. Decreasing the number of teeth will increase your reading. Check your accuracy by checking your odometer against the mile markers on the highway.
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You can also calibrate your odo and speedo with a gps app. I found a freat one for android that continuously logs the odo miles and serves as a speedo.
Its called Tripmaster Speedometer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discipleskies.usaspeedometer
It has a large speed display and continuously logs the miles driven like the manual odo.
I have an android phone that I updated that has no phone service but the gps works fine and I just keep that in the car connected.
I used a holder from a cheep selfie stick I found at a local dollar store and mounted it to the dash with an aluminum bracket that attaches with one of the existing screws for the heater control, so no mods to the original dash are needed.
Will up some pix...
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Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I think if I can I'll stick with 13 inch
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I buy all of my tires for the Pinto off of E-bay. 205/60/13 are really the only size that's hard to get. I see a set about once a month. Always Federals for some reason. This time a year many sets are postage free.
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Some pix of my digital array it has mounts for my current phone with google maps, a retired phone with no cell service with the speedo app and a mount for a small backup camera monitor.
All of the mounts use existing holes, so no mods to dash,.
There is a detail of the clamp which has a 1/4 20 screw socket for mounting to the selfie stick. I think i got the sticks at dollar tree.
I also made a shade from thin abs plastic and painted it black.
I recently moved to the dallas area from los angeles and rely heavily on the gps for daily driving as well as for longer trips to car shows and weekend trips..
Getting a little off the topic, but I replaced the aftermarket radio that was in the car when I got it with a cb and got a bluetooth amplifier from amazon that links my phone to the in car speakers to play the radio and navigation instructions from google maps.
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... a retired phone with no cell service with the speedo app ...
Been there and yes it sure is a great way to test the speedo after gear/tire changes. What App do you use. I like the big bright numbers.
Cop: Sir do you know how fast you were going. Old Driver: Ahh..., no officer I wasn't watching my digital phone/GPS based speedometer. Cop: Why not? Old Driver: What do you think I am, a Millennial? ;D
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Check my previous post for a link to the gps app.
You only need a functioning android pbone with gps, doesnt need any cell network to work.
But there seems to be a problem with the "trip mileage" recorder and reset functions . Could be related to my older phone. I just leave it connected to power and running all the time and themileage just keeps accumulating like with the mechanical odo so I can calculate my gas mileage, etc.
For navigation I use my activated phone and google maps..
The bluetooth amplifier cost like $30 and has 5 watts power. Its connected to the car speakers and links to my phone for I heart radio and google maps..
I really lucked out with my speedo gear change.. with my gearing, 14" tires and a change to a 17 tooth gear, my odometer reads exactly measured over 100 miles but my speedo reads about 5 mpg slow at 55 mph.
So I mostly just use the speedo app, in fact i have cheep insurance with a 5000 mile anual limit and somehow my mechanical odo just stopped working...
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Or you could do what I did and buy up a set or two for the future. As little as a Pinto goes on long trips or high speed romps, the old but unused tires should be just fine. BTW the legion race car that race with motorcycle engines, use a 205/60/13 BFG tires on all 4 corners. They don't have a DOT number I think. Would be worth looking into if they race near you.
For 2 of theses off eBay &126.00 including shipping
NEW FEDERAL 205/60r13 87h ss 595 SOLD INDIVIDUALLY
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