Expert needed for spring position

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cannucky

The Guy With No Birthday
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All righty after buying new rims and tires I discovered the the passenger side with the larger arc SS spring is a full inch shorter in wheelbase , 108" drivers side to 106 7/8" passenger side , it was shorter by eye before the SS springs but has gotten worse with them installed . The problem now is the new 28 inch tire will not go into the wheel opening . The drivers side has 1 1/4" of clearance under load which is plenty but the passenger side makes contact with the car on the jack stands and may or may not clear under load and even if it does it will be a 1/4" inch max so the questions become:

1} is it safe to correct the difference in wheel base by moving the knob on the spring into the hole towards the front of the spring perch thereby moving the rear end back that distance and both gaining the needed clearance and eliminating the difference in wheelbase ?
2} should I move both and maintain the 1" difference in wheelbase ?
3} should I get some blocks and longer bolts to put in front of the forward spring mount and push things back that way , that changes the shackle angles in the back ?
 
You might want to see how the car tracks first before changing anything,
Wet 20 feet of concrete then roll the car back and forth until the tires are good and wet. Than drive the car forward on dry concrete for 30 to 40 feet or so. This will show how the 4 tires track. just two lines alls pretty close. the further out of track the wider than one tire will appear as two over lap.
It may be a mistake when someone changes our a spring or the car may have been hit hard in that corner.
Good luck!
 
good idea I'll try that , hopefully I can get away with moving the one side otherwise I'll need to get a longer slip yoke or have my drive shaft redone again .
 
Have you measured diagonally from RF to LR and from LF to RR to check the differences in diagonal distance? You ought to be able to look/ask around and find the reference points on the frame for this. I'd do that first and lay it all out on paper with your wheelbase measurements to see if the car is fairly square. If so, then I would look at moving something. Are the springs obviously different? One installed backwards??? (Does not seem possible buuuut.....)
 
As a Carpenter I can tell that with a tape measure , the springs only go in 1 way , the front bushings are pressed in at the factory and the front and rear sections are different lengths , I may have put it in the wrong hole when I installed them because that side with the extra arc in the spring landed between the 2 holes and was actually closer to the front hole but I assumed it belonged in the middle one so that where I put it , the springs have been in for a year and the tires don't show any obvious wear differences but they do get swapped around quite often so it wouldn't be that noticeable . I'm going to take to the self service wash and spray the tires real good and see what kind of pattern it makes .
 
These cars thrust angle dog leg to the drivers side up to 1/2". Spacers are needed more times than not.
 
These cars thrust angle dog leg to the drivers side up to 1/2". Spacers are needed more times than not.

I'm going to need that in simpler terms to be sure I get what you saying , if I am reading it right mine is doing it by an inch + and could easily be moved to the other hole , but please clarify if you would .
 
Did you measure from the center of the front leaf spring eye to the leaf spring center bolt on both of them to see if the measurement is the same? I know due to the different arch the overall length is different. I've ran into that on SS springs in the past. But the front segments should be the same.
 
yes the front segments are the same and so are the rear segments the same length as each other . the more I talk this out with you guys the more convinced I get that I just levered it into the wrong hole and should have gone with the front one all along , keep the info coming this is really helping me wrap my head around this . I'm going to search the Mopar Performance catalog to see if they offer a 1/2 inch spacer for the front bracket just in case moving holes is too much correction .
 
well so much for my grand plan , there's a nut on a bolt that centers in a hole in the shock plate as well so you can only use the center hole on the spring perch -Doh ! I'll be cutting some spacers out of some old power steering pump brackets because that is the only thick steel I have on hand , as for square well with the new wheel on that side there is 1/4 clearance to the spring at the back and the front of the tire is hard against the spring clamp so I would say there is at least 3/16" angle toward the driver in the front . I have 1 piece thats about a 1/4 and one thats about 3/16 so I'm going to cut and drill them for spacers and see what that does , maybe I'll make a couple of thinner pieces as well for tuning . The tire itself just clears the front of the wheel opening by 1/8 right now so I should be able to get it .Now to find small bolt pattern spacers and longer studs for the wheels .
 
Are you using the stock spring hangers? What about removing the spring hanger and welding plate on both sides of the hanger and then re-drilling the hole where you need it?
 
I don't weld unfortunately , but the performance catalog lists a pair of front spring hangers for use with SS springs on ebody's that stick out 2" more than stock , so I was thinking along the same lines , that I could always get a pair of them and redrill the holes where I want them . Same idea different application eh lol ! I really don't need to move the one side very much and am sure it will be 1/2 " at most , I don't want the car to launch sideways after all lol , so I',m going to make these shim plates and see if I can make an assortment of thickness's to get it where it needs to go .
 
Chris Just do a X measurement and make some aluminum spacers for the front hangers,
And of coarse longer bolts too !!And as far as shackle angle goes 30* is the sweet spot.
Ok i must have read it wrong, The tires are hitting the 1/4 at the front, or the springs??
I just put 275's on my 66 with no issues.
 
Chris Just do a X measurement and make some aluminum spacers for the front hangers,
And of coarse longer bolts too !!And as far as shackle angle goes 30* is the sweet spot.
Ok i must have read it wrong, The tires are hitting the 1/4 at the front, or the springs??
I just put 275's on my 66 with no issues.

both actually , I ordered 4 1/4 backspace when I got the rims but they are too close to the springs , I went with the Nitto 555R in 275/60/15 because I thought the 11 inch section would clear but I`m going to have to space the rims as well or breakdown and swap to the offset shackle package , as I said above the X is going to be way off because the center of wheel to center of wheel front to back on the passenger side is 106 7/8 when it should be 108 like the drivers side or at least 107 1/2 when you figue in the 1/2 inch of thrust offset that was built in according to what I am reading , I`m going to fix that with 1/2 of spacers made form scrap steel then I`m going to add 5/16 spacers to the wheels themselves which should give me more that 1/2 between the tire and the spring .Luckily 2nd gen barracudas have plenty of room in the wheel well to push the tires outward with out getting into the wheel lip .
 
both actually , I ordered 4 1/4 backspace when I got the rims but they are too close to the springs , I went with the Nitto 555R in 275/60/15 because I thought the 11 inch section would clear but I`m going to have to space the rims as well or breakdown and swap to the offset shackle package , as I said above the X is going to be way off because the center of wheel to center of wheel front to back on the passenger side is 106 7/8 when it should be 108 like the drivers side or at least 107 1/2 when you figue in the 1/2 inch of thrust offset that was built in according to what I am reading , I`m going to fix that with 1/2 of spacers made form scrap steel then I`m going to add 5/16 spacers to the wheels themselves which should give me more that 1/2 between the tire and the spring .Luckily 2nd gen barracudas have plenty of room in the wheel well to push the tires outward with out getting into the wheel lip .
Cool ya got it figured out, I had to use the offset hangers and had my rims cut to move the back space to 47/8 to work on mine.
 
Yeah I`m really wishing I had ordered 5 " backspace eh lol , but they`re too expensive to unload what with the colour match , I`m going to try the hookey fix with spacers until I can work out a way to get the welding part of the offset kit done .
 
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