Tire size problem?
 

Hi, friends

I have a situation annoying my mind. On my '83 944 with manual steering, I had 225/55/16 tires and rims with no problem. And I remember when I bought it, it had wider tires which was impossible for me to get cheap, so I stick with 225/55/16, which were easier to get. There was no problem with that tires in front, neither in the back in the '83 944. The '84 944 (P/S assisted) I'm using now came with 205/55/16, in another type of rims. I put on the 225/55 tires (with rims) in my '84 944, but noticed the front passenger wheel seems to be outer than the driver front wheel. The driver wheel also touches the chassis on full left turn. I remember I changed the McPherson struts with rotors and spindles, from the '83 to the '84. My question is: Are the front end of the '83 and '84 the same? Don't know why the wheel looks outer, even when I took the car to be aligned... I also noticed the back wheel looks "inner" compared with the front ones. Do I need to play with some spacers to make them look "squared"?

Let me guess, you have phone dial rims.

If that's the case, you have one or more 86 rims and one or more 87 rims.

Check the inside of the wheel and look for something that says ET 23 or ET 52.3. The 23 is the early and the 52.3 is the late. For your car, all should be 23.

No man, that aren't my rims... They originally came stock in my '83 944 Cabriolet. They look like gold centered GM OEM rims. No matter I rotate them in my '83 944, they always look aligned. I noticed that unsquare since I interchanged the Mc Pherson struts, steering knuckles complete with rotors and callipers, from the '83 to '84... The car looks more or less the same with the Momo rims and 205/55/16 tires that came in the '84 car... I'm about nothing to disassemble the whole front end to figure out what's wrong. The left wheel looks a little out off the fender compare to the left one... I've red in another post is not a good idea to use different tire sizes (width).

We need to see these wheels(rims) you have. Never heard of a gold centered original Porsche wheel! Only gold in color rims I know of are BBS RM's. Does this car have wheel spacers? May have a previous owner that did a wheel change early to late offset...??

Get some numbers from your rims and or a picture.

Dal

I tried to post my pics but can't... BBS? maybe. Sorry if I'm wrong, I mean original 'cause they came with a Porsche logo center cap. They don't have the caps now, they got broken few years ago. This car has the same spacers my '83 944 had. Please let me know how post pics... The pics are ready to be post...

Yor help is always appreciated, crew...

83 944 Cab? No such thing... at least not officially...

I'm glad I am not the only one to catch that CJ.

I guess you could make one with a little craftiness and a sawzall....... :)

Mmmmmmmm. I know there's no such thing as an "officially" convertible '83 944. My '83 car have had the cabriolet decals in dash, steering wheel, and in the rear, below rear windshield tail. I don't know if previous owner put them on for "show" or something. Don't know if there is any special edition of 944... whatever... I'm just giving all the info about my cars to see if there's any trace of not shared parts and stuff, to see if that's the reason for my wheel alignment problem. Maybe I should show more knowledge in 944 history but, what I just need to know, is if you know something about my "off looking front wheel" problem, to correct it....

Is the car actually a convertable or does it just say cabriolet..??

It just said Cabriolet everywhere, but it wasn't convertible.

that is incredibly strange. YOu might not know this, but "Cabriolet" is the german word for "convertable". I am at a loss as to why someone would want to brag about their hatchback coupe being a cabriolet?!?