Spacer plate in front of leaf spring hanger
Hey there fellow A-body enthusiasts!
So I have an interesting situation with my 1973 Dart Sport 340. When I took the rear end out, I had to grind off the leaf spring hanger plate that mounts to the crossmember and holds the front of the leaf spring. After I ground the welds off and was able to remove the leaf spring and hanger, I found a spacer behind it. There is no sign of damage to the area, so I have to assume that it was put there for a reason. When I re-assembled the rearend, I left the spacer out and then as you can see from the pic below, the wheel is too far forward in the wheel well. All I can assume is that the crossmember that the spring perch bolts to is too far forward in the car and that the factory had to put the spacer in to square up the rear end.
Have any of you ever seen such a thing in an A Body before? Wasn't the car built on a jig to ensure that the crossmember was always in the right spot? I will need to pull the perch back and slide another spacer in to get the rearend square in the car.
Hey there fellow A-body enthusiasts!
So I have an interesting situation with my 1973 Dart Sport 340. When I took the rear end out, I had to grind off the leaf spring hanger plate that mounts to the crossmember and holds the front of the leaf spring. After I ground the welds off and was able to remove the leaf spring and hanger, I found a spacer behind it. There is no sign of damage to the area, so I have to assume that it was put there for a reason. When I re-assembled the rearend, I left the spacer out and then as you can see from the pic below, the wheel is too far forward in the wheel well. All I can assume is that the crossmember that the spring perch bolts to is too far forward in the car and that the factory had to put the spacer in to square up the rear end.
Have any of you ever seen such a thing in an A Body before? Wasn't the car built on a jig to ensure that the crossmember was always in the right spot? I will need to pull the perch back and slide another spacer in to get the rearend square in the car.