double-checking facts RE: Mustang Cobra wheel fitment

Mustang Cobra wheels are on!

<edit: pics at the bottom>

It's a little late, as I already have the wheels in the garage, and some parts coming from Ebay, but I just wanted to settle my mind 100% on how this will work. I'm about 99% at the moment, LOL.

the rims are OEM Mustang Cobra's, 16x8, truck is '95 Ranger 2wd, mostly stock suspension, with the exception of stock 2008 4WD springs and hangers in the rear, no flipped links or anything.



backspacing is as close to 5" as I can measure, according to some gOOgling, it's actually 5.09", compared to 4.5" for the Explorer 16x7 rims I had on the truck before.


I have already Test-fit one rim on the front of the truck with both the 225 and 245 tires which came with the rims (tires which I am not using as they are /50 profile, so too small) and there was plenty of room turning the wheel from lock to lock even with the 245's. I could fit my hand between the sway bar and the tire up to the 3rd knuckle. So no rubbing problems.

I will be running 235/60-16's front and 255/55-16 rears.
2.7% larger diameter front, 2.4% larger diameter rear as compared to stock 225/70-14's

for the front wheels, I ordered some 5mm alloy wheel spacers, because the plastic center caps were lightly hitting the bearing hub grease caps by about 3mm or so, and being slightly pushed out when tightened.



I also ordered 20 ET style lug nuts like these, to compensate for the thickness of the front spacers (can use them in the rear also with no spacers due to the thickness of the rims):



the bottom extended part of the ET lug nuts is .61" width and the lug holes in the rim are .62" so that should not be a problem.

On to the center bore, ranger is 70.3mm from what I can gather, and the mustang wheels are the same I think.

So can anyone think of concerns I should address??

You may be rear ended at high speed by a BMW X5.

adsm08 said:

You may be rear ended at high speed by a BMW X5.

Click to expand...

in that case, I guess it doesn't matter how well the wheels fit. LOL!

Nobody, huh?

Guess I'll have to find out for sure when the rest of the stuff lands in my mailbox.

You may need longer wheel studs on the front to use spacers
Check full lock, the rim doesn't clear lower control arm without some bending on the flange

crazypj said:

Check full lock, the rim doesn't clear lower control arm without some bending on the flange

Click to expand...

There isnt a snowballs chance in hell that the rim will hit the lower control arm on a stock suspension 95 Ranger.

yep, 95 is beam, I haven't worked on one since 2001, and it was only to change bent beam that time
I'm not used to checking sigs for vehicle yet

I test-fitted a front wheel with both of the the Mustang-sized tires mounted (which I am not using) and nothing rubbed at full lock in either direction.

That was with 225 and 245 tires, I'm using a 235 width, higher profile than the tires that came on the rims, to better match my wheelwell, and OEM tire diameter.

It's still snowy here, so I am still running my winters, probably won't put the Cobras on until early April, I'm guessing.

update

Most of the snow is gone off the roads, but lots on the lawns and ditches.

I got impatient and mounted the wheels. The 1/4" spacers and ET lugnuts worked perfectly.

Excuse the fading light and crappy Iphone pics. But hey, it's freshly washed!!!

Yeah, I know, gotta take the winter front off it too.

235/60-16 Fr, 255/55-16 Rr, 16x8 Mustang Cobra wheels.

They look good on there.

Thanks, working perfectly, no rubbing or anything funny. And with my careful tire size choices, my speedometer is within 2.4% of stock, and 0.2% front to rear, so the brake bias isn't affected.

Just got back from Colorado in the old ranger, 3 days down, 3 days back, and it drove like a champ all the way.