Recently had 17in magnum 500's mounted on my duster. I am running Hotchkis lowering springs and adjusting the torsion bars in the front. I am having issues with the passenger side on the front. I am running 225/50/17 Nitto 450's. On a downward angle and turning right, it rubs the back of the fender. Have any of you guys shaved the back of the fender down? The driver side has zero issues. What are your recommendations?
17in Fender Rubbing issues
- Thread starter tyler1
- Start date
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dano
Evil Handy Man
Id run a smaller tire before I cut the car unless there is a glaring lip or something that is a glaring reason.
Have you had the alignment checked?
Have you had the alignment checked?
You’ve got an unfortunate combination of not enough backspace and a pretty tall tire. 225/50/17’s are almost 26” tall, which is pretty tall for the front of a Duster. And a 17x8 with only 4.5” of backspace isn’t a good fit. You can get away with a 225, but just barely. Making it 26” tall doesn’t help.
Check the ride height and alignment. You may also be able to loosen up the fender mounting bolts and shift the fender around a little, but that will effect your gaps too.
Check the ride height and alignment. You may also be able to loosen up the fender mounting bolts and shift the fender around a little, but that will effect your gaps too.
Yeah I am afraid to mess with the panel alignment as it will mess up the stripe and gaps. I may end up trying to run a NT555 in 225/45/17 in order to gain a little clearance. It is just barely clipping the backside of the fender currently. It happens maybe 1 out of 10 times turning. It makes a God awful noise so I am looking to remedy. I was hoping to get away with the current set up because I didn't want to run to separate tires front to rear.
Yeah none of those YearOne rims are set up for an A-body. If you ran 17x8’s with 5” to 5.25” of backspace you could run 245/45/17’s all the way around. Putting 225’s on an 8” rim is just a waste.
Since it's just barely clipping, I would at least try lowering the torsion bars just a titch before changing anything else...
dano
Evil Handy Man
I run a 215/45/17 on a 17x7 wheel on the front of my GTS. I wanted 225/45/17 but they didn't make that size. Pic below of my setup. I have 245/45/17 on a 17x8 rim on the rear. Like 72Blu said, offset is important. my 17x7 have a 4.75 back space.
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Darts are easier though. If I’m reading his post right, it hits on the rear corner of the opening. On a Dart the wheel opening is longer. Even when I had 225/60/15’s on my Duster with 15x7’s and 4.25” of backspace they were pretty close to that rear corner, the wheel opening is just smaller on the Duster/Valiant fenders.
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
Are you hitting the mounting tab with the bolt in the middle of the fender? I had to go to a pan head bolt and trim the tab with my 275-35-18's on 18x9s with +35.
dano
Evil Handy Man
Your right now that I look at both side to side. The Dart swept back where the Duster/Dart Sport came in more perpendicular to the body.
khuebner250
Well-Known Member
Any chance your strut rods are adjustable or the stock ones are wore out?
HMBCUDA
Well-Known Member
Been going gray(er),and pulling the rest out over this issue myself...want(ed) to go with the year one rally, but their choice of back space is not good. Was even thinking of the viper brake kit to move things "in" a 1/4", but it uses some sort of sleeve for the bearings,(i believe), and that makes me uncomfortable.
Makes me feel i should go with another rim with more back space choice.
GOOD INFO! Thanks All!
Strut rod may do it. There may even be a smidge of play in the actual K-member bolt holes allowing forward or rearward movement.
Presuming it is barely touching in only certain circumstances.
Presuming it is barely touching in only certain circumstances.
Were you at the Mopar nationals in August?
I believe I talked to you about your wheel fitment issues. I had the ratty Duster with the 17” mustang Bullitt wheels.
Yeah man! Small world. Hope all is well.
Doing good! Were you able to get those lower fender braces put on n see if that gets you any clearance?
Oh, never mind, just reread your original post and saw you’re dealing with rubbing on the back of the fender.
McGurik
Active Member
How sure are you about that statement? I am looking at putting 17x8 on all four corners of a 69 Dart with discs and 8.75; no rear spring relocation.
Also, are 50 ratio tires (on 17”) never an option?
I'm 100% sure that particular combination will fit my '71 Dart with it's 73+ BBP disks and A-body 8 3/4 with stock springs and BBP axles. It's actually a fairly conservative combination on my car, it should leave plenty of room. Those are the specs of the rims and tires I plan to run on my '71 Dart, unless I talk myself into 255/45/17's.
That said, it's not unusual to see suspension and body tolerances that are off by a 1/4" or more on these cars, and based on the measurements I've seen from people here the pre-70 Darts tend to have a little less room in the back (in general) than the 70+ cars. The pre-70 cars seem to end up on the small end of the tolerance range more often than the later ones do.
Without knowing the measurements on your car in particular I can't say for sure they'd fit. I do know of pre-70 Darts running tires that size without any issues at all and room to spare. I also have seen a couple on this board that had clearance issues with tires that size in the back. Only way to be certain is to measure YOUR car, figure out what the distance is from the wheel mounting surface to the springs and the quarters and do the math. You may find your car isn't even the same from one side to the other, it's not uncommon.
50 series tires for a 17" rim are an option, but it depends on the size. 245/50/17's are pretty easy to find, but that's a 26.7" tall tire so they won't easily fit on the front, only the back. And when you get into 50 series tires you see a lot more options for light trucks and vans, you don't see as many performance tires. 245/45/17 is a popular size so there's good performance tire options with good tread compounds available, and it's a 25.6" tall tire which works well in the front and is a decent height for the back as well. It's a good size to run front and rear if you want to run the same size on all 4 corners.
McGurik
Active Member
Thank you for detailed response. I have read many of your posts and find them all to be very informative. Yes, I intend to take my own measurements; will post here for reference. The impetus for new wheels is that I believe my dad installed 15” wheels with improper backspacing; still need to pull wheels off to confirm BS. The original tire diameter was 25.3”, so keeping a replacement near that or under 26” is a good bet?
I try to get the tire heights between 25.5" and 26" on my cars. In general when the tire height gets to be around 25" or less the wheels just look small IMO, plus depending on your ride height your ground clearance can start to suffer. If you like to keep the top of the tire near the top of the wheel opening in the fender things start to get real low to the ground if your tires aren't more than 25" tall. With the 17" and larger diameter rims too the sidewalls get pretty small, so keeping the tires at least 25.5" tall keeps some sidewall on the wheels.
In the front though once you get up past ~26" you start running into clearance issues. Obviously it depends on how wide the tire is, how much backspace you can manage, ride height etc, but with decently wide tires for better handling it gets hard to pull off anything taller than 26" without cutting stuff.
McGurik
Active Member
Thank you again for the helpful insights. I will keep that in mind when measuring and selecting wheels/tire combo.
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