> Unfortunately, the bald spare wire wheel has a Michelin 185
> x14 on it. When offered side by side, the Michelin tire sits about 1
> inch
> taller due to the side walls being taller.
That should be OK, for temporary use at lower speeds. If you have to drive
more than about 50 miles, though, put the odd tire on the front.
> It appears now that not many shops in the san Jose, CA have the
> equipment to deal with wile wheels.
That's odd. I guess you never got the low rider craze up there?
> I'm not sure what the difference is.
The main difference is in balancing the wheel. Most wheels can be located
by their center hole and run true, so many balancers use a pair of cones to
mount the wheel. But with wire wheels, the outer opening (inside where the
nut goes on) may not run true, especially if there is a weld bead inside.
So to properly balance wire wheels, the balancer needs to have the special
concave cone that grabs the outside of the wheel (where the nut rests)
instead of the inside.
Moss has some diagrams here:
[
goo.gl]
It's also best to use a mounting machine that grabs the inside of the outer
rim, rather than the center of the wheel. But those are really common these
days, since the same machine is used to mount alloy wheels. Even my local
Wal-Mart has them (although last time I was there, the technician was not
competent to operate the machine).
> Anyway the shop I went to told me about a place call coker.com.
I see they have a distributor in Rancho Cordova, but that's still kind of a
long way from you. Did you try California Wheels in San Jose, or Wire Wheel
Co. in Campbell, or maybe Rite Way Wire and Wheel Specialists in Walnut
Creek? I use Valley Wire Wheel service in Van Nuys, but of course that's
even farther than Rancho Cordova for you.
-- Randall