[ Post a Response | The Chevette Forum ]
Posted by Darryl
on 11/4/2009, 7:55 pm, in reply to "Re: wheels"
Administrator
The difference between a FWD and RWD wheel is the offset of the wheels.
Front wheel drive cars usually need to have the tire offset more inwards from the hub surface than rear wheel drive cars. The reason for this is that room is required to fit the CV joints and allow them to pivot when steering...
NOTE: Poorly worded overly technical explaination to follow!!!
What you are trying to do is have the centreline of the tire line up with the axis of rotation of the steering... On a RWD car such as the chevette, the axis of rotation of the steering passes through both balljoints and roughly lines up with the centreline of the tire.
On a FWD car, the steering axis of rotation is further inwards- if you were to use a RWD offset wheel on a FWD car, the wheel would turn through an arc when you steered rather than pivot on one spot... To compensate for the extra space used by the CV joint, FWD offset wheels have a larger offset to bring the wheel centreline back inline with the steering axis of rotation.
Please look at my crappy paint diagram for an attempt at explaining this... 
DL
Message Thread:
« Back to thread