1991 Fleetwood question

[QuirkyCadGuy]

Hello Cadillac friends,

I have a 91 Fleetwood. (FWD) The factory wheels are to the point not being as presentable as I'd like them, so I found a beautiful set of the "lace" style Cadillac factory wheels. When I had the tire put on the new wheels and installed them they were tight against the front brake calipers and would not turn. The new wheels were taken off of a 93 DeVille which was also FWD. So my question is, were the wheels different between the two models or was it the brakes that were different? What type of wheels should I be looking for to fit my 1991 Fleetwood? Thanks in advance for anyone's input.

[Evan Wojtkiewicz]

Providing that the new wheels are the same diameter/depth, I'd hazard that the problem is the difference in offset between the new and old wheels. The offset is the distance from the hub mounting surface to the center line of the wheel. a possible way to fix this is a wheel spacer set. If you do end up using wheel spacers, be sure to check if you need to get new studs to compensate for the added depth, although some spacers are designed to have their own integral set of studs. I'd be wary about using wheel spacers, especially the cheap Chinese sort you see at Pep Boys. I looked into this years ago for my daily driver Mustang when I considered wheels from a later generation for summer use. I didn't go that route, as Michigan roads aren't kind to factory suspension systems/wheels/hubs let alone modified ones.

If it doesn't work out with the new wheels, there are many places that can repair and refinish the old ones for a reasonable cost.

Good luck!