The lock on the spare tire compartment was frozen so I used my grinder with a cutoff wheel to drop the old spare. I looks like it has never been removed since new. It’s a 195/80 D75 (D for dummy spare). Similar to today’s donut spares. Totally toast with lots of sidewall cracking. I’ll look for a replacement. The regular 225/70R15 tires have a diameter of 27.4 inches. A 205/75 R15 is 27.10″ and a 215/75 R15 is 27.7″ So I think either one would be OK as long as I mount it on the front – if a rear tire goes flat I’ll have to mount the spare on the front and move the good front tire to the rear. I think the posi wouldn’t like running with unequal diameter tires in place.
One bolt came out of the bracket OK, but not the other. In the end I had to remove the bracket from the frame.
The cut mounting rod is in the centre with the frozen lock on the bottom and the seized rod nut on top.
Parts sandblasted and ready for paint. I’ll use new bolts for the bottom section and the old bolts with new nylon lock nuts for bracket to frame attachment.
Painted with Tremclad rust primer and glossy black rust paint. Now to just fine a tire…