• gump
  • gump
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • From: el aye, so cal
  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 330

Topic: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

I am looking for advice/suggestions from the hivemind of the interwebs.

Situation:  We campaign the Swedish Knievel 1990 Volvo 745 Wagon in Kalifornia.  Currently, the car is fitted with 205/50-15 tires on 15"x7" wheels.  I came up with a plan (with Trevor in Chicago's help) to go to 235/45-17 tires on 17"x8" wheels for mohr grip.  Nearly simultaneously, I ordered a set of Zii's from TireRack.com and a set of 17x8 Voxx wheels with a 20mm offset (+/- 5.25" backspace) from SummitRacing.com.  All is good in the world, right?  Wrong.

That was a Thursday.  TireRack, god bless them, delivered the tires Friday morning.  Saturday afternoon I get an email from Summit indicating some sort of problem with the wheel order.  After some song and dance about the wheels being stuck on a ship waiting for the Los Angeles dock workers' strike to be over, I get the real story from Voxx:  they are no longer making the wheel, or any other wheel in that size for the somewhat obscure 5x108 Volvo bolt pattern.  Well, that shouldn't be much of a problem, I will use my Google-Fu skills to find another set of wheels.  Shouldn't be that difficult.  I know exactly what I want:  17x8, 20mm offset, 5x108 bolt pattern.

Not so fast...

It seems that the market for Volvo bolt pattern wheels with a rear wheel drive offset has all but dried up.  Nobody, that I can find, is making a wheel with these dimensions.  OK, not the end of the road.  I can solve this.  What are my options:

1.  Use a FWD 17x8 wheel with a wheel spacer to get enough clearance between the back of the wheel and the suspension.  Not thrilled with this idea as I have seen more than one Lemons race car throw a shoe as a direct result of wheel spacers/adapters;

2.  Find an appropriate sized wheel in a different bolt pattern and with a design that will allow drilling of 5 new lug bolt holes.  After a somewhat lengthy search, I cannot find a shop that will do this.  Particularly when I mention that we are talking about a race car.  Most of the guys who talk about redrilling are associated with a less-performance-oriented approach to motoring.  I am open to this option if anyone can point me to someone who can help me with this.

3.  Custom wheels.  Out.  Too expensive.  My original budget as $540 for the 4 wheels.  I have some wiggle room but not 400% wiggle room.

4.  Re-drill the hubs and rotors for a more popular bolt pattern.  5x120 perhaps.  Press in some new (maybe racecar-ish extra long) wheel studs and Bob's your uncle.  Maybe even have a 2nd set of rotors drilled to have in inventory.  OK, except we loose the ability to use the 8 wheels we now own.  Further, this wheel/tire package is sort of a science experiment.  I guess that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to return the car to the 5x108 bolt pattern particularly if I had a 2nd set of hubs machined rather than machining the ones on the car.  The other challenge with this option is that all of the rotors I have seen have a bunch of holes in the mounting surface leaving little room for 5 new holes.  I think I have a machine shop that will do this work assuming I can find some rotors that will work.  I would say this is the solution I am leaning toward.

5.  Steel racin' wheels.  Can't find anyone who makes 17x8s with a 5x108 bolt pattern.  15s?  Sure.  17s not so much.  If you know of a source for these, please share.

6.  Shitcan the whole idea and sell the brand new Zii's I've got to a fellow race team?  Feels like giving up.  Not there yet.

7..n.  Ideas I have not thought of.

OK, so you are me.  What would you do?

10x loser (Arse-Freeze '11 - Vodden '15) 1x WINNER! Arse-Freeze '14 in the Watermelon Volvo Wagon
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)
  • Hamsa9
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • From: Our National Capital
  • Registered: 2012-11-03
  • Posts: 239

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

So...
It seems like you're looking for any solution to use the 17" tires you have on hand... I believe that American Racing makes some 17x7.5 5x108 wheels that will likely work just fine with your 235s, let you keep your hubs un-molested, and use you other wheels. 

Poorly researched information, but it was free...

Hamsa

He's a new man now, part of the machine,
His nerves of metal and his blood oil.
The clutch curses, but the gears obey,
His least bidding, and lo, he's away.
  • From: SF Bay Area
  • Registered: 2012-01-06
  • Posts: 721

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

1.  Use a FWD 17x8 wheel with a wheel spacer to get enough clearance between the back of the wheel and the suspension.

There are certainly options here. Using some thread locker on you lugs and studs can go a long way to preventing wheel lose.
Re-torquing the spacers on a daily basis can help alleviate the potential for failure, as well. The main issue is quality, meaning get
hub-centric spacers.

You may also be able to find appropriate Ford 5x108 wheels, but they have a smaller diameter hub. A wheel repair shop could likely bore the center out to match the Volvo hub diameter.

Going the spacer route will also offer the option to change lug pattern to a cheaper, more plentiful wheel, say 5x114.3.

Capt. Delinquent Racing
RUST-TITE XR4Ti - '21 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA  I Got Screwed
The One & Only Taurus V8 SHO #31(now moved on to another OG Delinquent)
'17 Vodden the Hell - (No) Hope for the Future Award, '08 AMP Survivor, '08 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA Mega-Cheater
  • From: Houston, TX
  • Registered: 2012-06-21
  • Posts: 1,608

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

We've been using non-hub-centric spacers with no problem, but we're a class C car, so they might not take as much abuse. Hub-centric would certainly help prevent misalignment. The materials engineer in me would also strongly recommend billet aluminum spacers rather than cast aluminum. They're more expensive, but my "professional" opinion is that cast aluminum sucks donkey balls.

Escape Velocity Racing
  • From: Danville CA
  • Registered: 2011-04-24
  • Posts: 556

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

H&R spacers and Kapelneke longer studs. Should allow you to run those FWD wheels. Call up IPD in Portland if you want confirmation of this. Michael Towery of the Cheetah Volvo is also a wealth of info, as is the Turbobricks site and forum.

Bert One - 1981 Volvo 262c Bertone | Ernie - 1990 Nissan 240SX
  • gump
  • gump
  • Ripened Lemon
  • Offline
  • From: el aye, so cal
  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 330

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

Thanks to all who contributed ideas and advice.

I really did not want to go the wheel spacer route even though I know most of the concerns with respect to the use of spacers can be mitigated.

Thanks to @Hamsa9 for the American Racing tip.  I concluded that compromising a 0.5" in wheel width is the least of all evils with this challenge.  Set of American Racing AR95T's have been ordered and should arrive by the end of the week.

I will post some follow up photos of the before and after.

Thanks again.

10x loser (Arse-Freeze '11 - Vodden '15) 1x WINNER! Arse-Freeze '14 in the Watermelon Volvo Wagon
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)

7 Reply by TooStupid (edited by TooStupid 2015-05-05 03:12 PM)

  • Registered: 2013-07-07
  • Posts: 9

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

We run the white Volvo 740 wagon that was at Sonoma in March and have the same predicament. We started with wheel adapters and Honda 2000 wheels which worked great right up till the studs in the adapters snapped and the wheel fell off. Figuring lousy studs were the problem we replaced them with ARP studs. A few more broken studs later we finally gave up and bought a couple of sets of the 17 x 7.5 replica wheels from IPD. These are the only wheels I could find that would fit and were actually available. We haven't had any studs break or wheels fall off in the three races we've run on them so far so i'm hoping we're good..

http://www.ipdusa.com/products/4908/113 … rwd-offset

We are using 215/40R17 Dunlop zII Star Specs for the small rolling diameter and they seem to work well. It looks like 225's would fit fine all around but my guess is the 235's will probably rub on the strut in the front. They might clear ok in rear though.

Best of luck.

  • From: Danville CA
  • Registered: 2011-04-24
  • Posts: 556

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

225 section width tires do fit on OEM Volvo 16"x7" "Gemini" style rear-wheel drive offset wheels, as well as the "Voxx" aftermarket 16x7" wheels that IPD sells (used to sell?). That's what Bert runs. We'd love to have 16"'x8"s instead, but you'd have to have custom wheels made or luck into a custom set on eBay or Craigslist.

17" diameter can start to make the final drive ratio pretty tall, but it obviously works pretty well for some of the Volvo teams. It's amazing the difference in gearing and shift points when we go from a 15" practice day tire to 16" race tire. A 3.73 final drive ratio with 16" wheels means we're pretty much in 3rd or 4th all the time except the slowest corners where we grab 2nd. We almost never need 5th. With the 15" wheels we're shifting to 4th a lot earlier and on the the NJMP straight we briefly need 5th. This is with a T5 trans, not Volvo gearing, though.

Bert One - 1981 Volvo 262c Bertone | Ernie - 1990 Nissan 240SX
  • From: VA
  • Registered: 2010-05-05
  • Posts: 920

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

gump wrote:

1.  Use a FWD 17x8 wheel with a wheel spacer to get enough clearance between the back of the wheel and the suspension.  Not thrilled with this idea as I have seen more than one Lemons race car throw a shoe as a direct result of wheel spacers/adapters;

I'd have recommended this.  You can find FWD offset 17x8.

I would strongly suggest hub-centric & wheel-centric adapters or spacers w/longer studs.  You want the spacer centered on the hub (65.1mm centerbore) and you want the wheel centered on the spacer so it should have a lip on it.  This way when you bolt it up, the stack will be centered on the hub EVERY time, and it won't shake badly at 80+mph which is what can happen using flat spacers/adapters if you don't get it centered well on the studs.

Fred at wheeladapter.com or Motorsport Tech both offer custom adapters for a reasonable price.  I've used both, and I like the Motorsport Tech adapters the best.  They were able to give me 1/2x20tpi studs, slightly longer than what a stock volvo stud would be so I had plenty of thread engagement using a bulge end open-end lugnut. And they made the lip slightly taller than usual for our GM wheels that have a wide chamfer on the centerbore.  The 740 uses M12x1.5 studs, so you may want to order adapters w/metric to keep from having a mix.

We run Corvette wheels on our car with adapters.  225/50/16, 16x8.5 front, 16x9.5 rear.  Half dozen races, no issues.  We had been using 16x7.5 all around.  The wider wheel makes a street tire feel a lot better.  We might go to 9.5" all around.

I've been running wheel adapters on my autocross car with GM wheels since 2006, using 275 width, and now 295 width Hoosiers. I torque everything to ~75-85 lb-ft and it stays together just fine.  I never use loctite or similar on the threads, that's not necessary in my experience.  Quality parts installed correctly work just fine.

I forget which, but the 740 uses the same size knurl on the wheel studs as the 240 at either the front or rear, so you could buy 10 long studs + spacers from Ben here: http://www.kaplhenke.com/collections/24 … el-spacers

I don't know that it's worth going to 17"s for only a 235.  245/40 or 255/40 would be my preference on at least 17x9, which means non-Volvo bolt pattern.  Otherwise 225s on 15 or 16 is lighter and probably similar footprint and cheaper tires too.

Michael

FastISH and the FURRiest 1991 Volvo 240 wagon
WV 13th, FL 8th (GRM), NJ 8th (B win), WV 4th (B win), NC 14th, NJ 14th, WV 62nd,  NH 17th, NY 54th
2012 Sears Point Outlaw...74th!
  • gump
  • gump
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • From: el aye, so cal
  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 330

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

TooStupid wrote:

It looks like 225's would fit fine all around but my guess is the 235's will probably rub on the strut in the front. They might clear ok in rear though.

That's why I didn't go with the IPD wheels.  The 38mm offset doesn't yield enough backspacing to clear the strut.

I have a stack of wheels and a stack of tires that I am going to have mounted this weekend.  I will post photos and results next week.

10x loser (Arse-Freeze '11 - Vodden '15) 1x WINNER! Arse-Freeze '14 in the Watermelon Volvo Wagon
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)

11 Reply by gump (edited by gump 2015-06-10 06:06 PM)

  • gump
  • gump
  • Ripened Lemon
  • Offline
  • From: el aye, so cal
  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 330

Re: Volvo 740 Wheel Options

The rears fit perfectly.  The fronts were close to rubbing the strut.  We used 5mm wheel spacers.  Ran all weekend in the "other" series at Autoclub Speedway without problems.  Big, big difference in grip.  Makes the final drive ratio is a bit too tall now.  #firstworldproblems  Thanks @Hamsa for the American Racing tip.

https://content-na.drive.amazonaws.com/cdproxy/templink/M441_zLARQCzMtPPxJ16KP1EPukQj8XE0xoBP4wCFDcLAYspN?viewBox=1187

https://content-na.drive.amazonaws.com/cdproxy/templink/wcRCdRf02utNnjvjkGeJeCaj3g-nm3yIylKfnxcW43MsSxTTJ?viewBox=1187

10x loser (Arse-Freeze '11 - Vodden '15) 1x WINNER! Arse-Freeze '14 in the Watermelon Volvo Wagon
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)