240 wheels & spare tire sizes for 1989

[emmknits]

We need your help to understand the details of ordinary 14-in steel wheels for our 1989 Volvo 240 wagon.

We would like to upgrade our temp spare to a real spare tire/wheel.

We still have the original temporary spare, and it looks great -- but maybe we can't trust it, and we'd be more comfortable with a real non-temp spare.

We just got four new Kumho Solus KR21 85K 195/75R14 tires from DirectTire, mounted on what we assume are our original 89 240 standard wheels. We kept the best of the old tires, 185R14. We just need to get it mounted and replace the temp spare with it -- but the details of doing this are baffling!

The orig temp spare is 175H14 175/80D14 DOT-408 (=1988) Firestone made in Sweden temporary use only mounted on 41/2Jx14x25 Volvo 1229494 Germany 1423-6.

It looks like it would be possible to mount the real tire on the "41/2Jx14x25" wheel. Is this true? Why would it be good, bad, or OK? What does the "x25" part mean?

What is the size and part number for standard Volvo 240 wagon wheels? They are wider than 4.5-in? How wide? What does it matter? The mounting hole bolt pattern seems to be called "5-108". Standard 1989-93 240 wheels are 14x5.5 steel? What other Volvo models use wheels that we could use on our 1989 240 without problems? If we get something from the junk yard, will it probably be OK, or do we need to be wheel experts to inspect it for dents or warpage or ???

What is the deal with the damn locator pin, aka location pegs? Can we just use any 14-in steel wheels, and drill an extra hole if necessary for the pin? If we take the pin out, what bad things might happen? DT was careless mounting our wheels; at least one of the pins seems loose. Does this matter? Should we try to screw it back in? Can we do this without taking the tire off?

Are we likely to be able to find any collectors who would want our unused like-new orig temp spare?

We had to replace our old tires because they were ten-plus years old. We drive less than 3,000 miles a year so they still had half their tread left. How can we tell when there is really a good reason to replace tires based on age concerns?

[RBH]

According to my parts book the part number for the black sheetmetal wheel 1989-1993 is 1387623. I have a feeling the 14X 5.5 steel wheels back to 1975 would probably work as well. Mounting on the old spare wheel rim wouldn't work as it will be too narrow for the tires you have.

When you check out a used rim, spinning it while it is mounted on the car will reveal dings as it rotates but a careful visual inspection around the edges should work if it is off the car. Also, look around the lug holes for cracks or anything irregular.

These rims should be cheap: around here they cost $15 used, so any mistake you make won't be a big one.

Good luck,

Rob