Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Need some help trying to figure out why I have this problem.Both sides are the same, strut rods are tight, arms are tight with new urethane bushings as well as the strut rods. Any suggestion would be great. Thanks
Help wanted, Front tires not centered
- Thread starter Dennis Hilliard
- Start date
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Is the car at its final ride height and has an alignment been done?
More than a few people have found that the poly strut rod bushings are too thick, which can push the LCA back. But that would typically show up with the alignment as difficulty in getting positive caster.
More than a few people have found that the poly strut rod bushings are too thick, which can push the LCA back. But that would typically show up with the alignment as difficulty in getting positive caster.
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Yes to both,
What are the alignment specs?
Assuming the alignment is fine, I would take a looks at the LCA’s and see if they’re perpendicular to the frame. If they appear to be angled back, even slightly, you may need to shave down the poly strut rod bushings.
Assuming the alignment is fine, I would take a looks at the LCA’s and see if they’re perpendicular to the frame. If they appear to be angled back, even slightly, you may need to shave down the poly strut rod bushings.
Could it be Kframe mount related?
If it’s the same on both sides that’s probably unlikely.
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Thank you guys, I did wonder about the strut rod bushing being to thick. Will look at the arms also.
You could have the wrong bushings on the strut rods you are using. Do you have fine or coarse thread strut rods on the car? If you use the later coarse thread style bushings with the early fine thread style rods they will push the control arms back the distance you are showing
![strutrod1[1].jpg](https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/strutrod1-1-jpg.1716176130/ "strutrod1[1].jpg")
![strutrod3[1].jpg](https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/strutrod3-1-jpg.1716176131/ "strutrod3[1].jpg")
If you’ve got poly LCA bushings they should look like this, if there’s a gap between the bushing and the K frame or the bushing and the LCA the LCA’s have been pushed back…
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
I will double check but think they are the fine thread. That could explain. Thank so much
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Will check that, Thank you so much.
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Thank you I will
Are the front wheels supposed to be centered?
67 dart not centered (I know the wheel opening is different)
67 dart not centered (I know the wheel opening is different)
So the Duster wheel openings are a lot closer to being symmetric than the Dart wheel openings, which definitely aren't.
I went back to some older pictures of my Duster just to have a reference. At this point I was running stock UCA's with offset bushings, stock boxed LCA's, poly LCA bushings and adjustable strut rods with 73+ BBP spindles/disks. Wheels are 15x7" cop wheels with 225/60/15's. Can't help with any reference on the poly strut rod bushings because I don't use them, I change all my stuff over to adjustable strut rods. So as far as being centered goes the wheels in the picture may even a little bit forward of center, hard to tell because they're not perfectly straight ahead in the picture though. Some of that could be the adjustable strut rods, I've found that adjusting them for no binding on the LCA often results in them being a little bit shorter than stock. But I would say the wheels should be roughly centered in a Duster front wheel opening. Obviously there's some body tolerances involved so I wouldn't say a small offset one way or another is weird. But the OP's wheels are clearly pretty far back in the opening.
Now, if there's no interference anywhere and the alignment specs are good there really isn't a big issue, although the less centered the wheel is the more restrictive things will be on tire size. For me, I'd just make sure that the LCA's aren't being pushed back on the LCA pins. If that all looks good and the alignment specs are fine I don't see an issue as long as nothing rubs.
I saw one car that had different reverse rims on the front.
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Thank you.
If they are fine thread either find coarse thread or go to the one piece bushing
Dennis Hilliard
Well-Known Member
Thank you, they are fine thread.
You can take a look at this too, @autoxcuda modified his poly strut rod bushings for the proper geometry
Cutting strut rod bushings for correct geometry?
Either way though before you buy new bushings or modify your current ones you should check the LCA’s, because if the strut rod bushings are the problem you’ll be able to see the difference at the LCA. If the LCA’s don’t show any signs of being pushed backward then changing the bushings might not do anything other than create an bunch of work for you, and modifying them could make the bushings too narrow which would just introduce slop.
Either way you’d have to reconfirm the alignment. Do you know your caster setting?
340six
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Again, anything with a Dart front fender isn’t useful as a reference because the openings are no where near symmetric. On a Dart fender there should be significantly more space to the rear of the tire because the wheel opening is MUCH longer.
That’s even more true on a ‘72+ Dart, because the wheel openings were longer on the ‘72+ Dart fenders than on the ‘71 down fenders.
You can see that in these pictures, first one is my '74 Duster with its original fenders, second is after I put '71 Dart fenders on it as part of its Demon conversion. The suspension in both pictures is the same, so the wheel placement is the same. You can see the clearance to the front of the wheel opening is basically identical, and the rear clearance is dramatically larger on the Dart fenders. Again, the wheel didn't move. And the '71 Dart wheel openings are almost 2" shorter than the '72+ Dart fender wheel openings.
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