What is the clearance between the wheel and the strut? On my 85SE with stock 14" AL wheels the inner wheel balance weight rubs against the upper strut to steering knuckle bolt. Is this clearance supposed to be that close or is there a problem on both sides of my car. Thanks for any input.

Sounds like an alignment problem...
Are the bottom of the rear tires splayed out?
Bad ball joints?

Welcome to the forum!

I just checked the clearance you mentioned on my '86 GT (with 15" wheels). It's pretty close. In fact I can't fit a finger tip between the wheel rim and the upper strut bolt. Did the problem coincide with replacing the struts? You may have too much negative camber. If you did replace struts, I strongly recommend you get a 4-wheel alignment.

if its that close, you can put a spacer in both front wheels. Just sets on rotor, wheel goes on over it, I think they come in 2 sizes with no kinds of mods required- 3/16 thick and 1/4 inch thick.

Hummm has it ever been hit? those knuckel horns will bend when the car takes a hard enough hit on the wheel... even when the strut is adjusted to its furthes setting there should be enough clearence from the rim
my 88 was whacked on the right rear and the horn was bent so I ground out the bolt holes (strut) to get it back in proper alignment the horn whould have cost me about 130.00
your clearence should be about 1\2 inch. I had a spare rim w/o the tire and lowered the car onto a set of 2x4s (to compensate for the missing tire) and set the angle. it worked out very well, it stopped the horrible roll when I hit bumps at 65 mph had the alignment checked and only minor caster changes were needed.

[This message has been edited by 84Bill (edited 04-11-2001).]

Temporary solution: remove the hammer on tire weight and get stick on instead. Best to take this to your local tire shop to make sure its correctly balanced.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I figured it out. A few years ago I purchased a pair of used wheels, same style but from a Pontiac Grand Am. I had heard that these were the same as the Fiero, well they are not, they are offset about a half inch less. They say 14x6 47JJ, whatever that means. They were alright on the front but on the rear they had very little clearance. Adjusting the Cam does not move the rim in relation to the knuckle. Now that I put the correct wheels on I can slide a finger between with no problem. Thank you very much.

For what it's worth . . .

I think the "47" in 47JJ means 47mm offset, as opposed to the 35mm offset of Fiero wheels. More offset actually means narrower track.

You may want to leave Grand Am wheels on the front; they make your steering lighter. On the other hand, it means you can't rotate tires front-to-rear.