rear alignment issue

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purplescamper

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i have a 73 scamp, which i bought several years ago. the former owner had air shocks on it with 235/60 tires on it, i didnt like the air shocks so i scrapped them.
i installed 6 leaf springs and bilstein gas shocks the problem i have is with the sidewall of the tires on side of the car is a 1/2 inch longer then the other side causing a tire clearence problem . the springs fit on the pins and the shock plates are centered
how can i get the rear centered ?
 
a lot of cars are like this from the factory.sloppy work.you can cut the perches loose,center the rear,reweld.if there is another way i cant think of it.
 
jdsduster said:
a lot of cars are like this from the factory.sloppy work.you can cut the perches loose,center the rear,reweld.if there is another way i cant think of it.
Click to expand...

from the factory......
 
Welcome to Mopardome!
Time for new wheels, with more back-spacing.
If you want or think you might someday want more rubber back there, now is the time to engineer that and to narrow the rear for the wheels of your choice.Its a bit of work,for sure, but mostly time. The narrowing is not a break-the-bank expense. Probably less than 2 fancy new wheels. Certainly less than 4 semi-fancies. And face it, 235s back there, sooner or later will not be enough for anything but cruising. Ima guessing 275s would be the absolute minimum. For me, at least. No thats not true, for me 295s are the minimum. At least now its controllable. Anything less is spin-out city! Every cotton-pickin turn, the back was steppin out.
But, I digress.
You can get a little clearance by cutting and/or rolling the fender lip.
 
Yup, just another day at the office, good ruck! Don't be surprised if you need to put a shim or nuts between the front mount and the leaf spring hangar on the passenger side to adjust your thrust angle either.
 
Well, now you know how 90% of mopar owners feel, but it's not just mopes so...
Unless you're planning a pinion angle change,you could just slot the centerbolt
holes towards the end of axle thats tite 1/4" with a carbide burr, then bolt her
back down. If you're worried that testing your cornering prowess mite shift it
you can simply MIG the hole up on the vacant side and dress it to fit w/ your
grinder.
 
Make sure your wheels are the same backspacing too, although 1/2 different backspacing is doubtfull, i just recently figured out one of my 15x7 rally wheels was a 1/4" diff backspacing than the other causing a slight tire rub
 
Killer6 said:
Well, now you know how 90% of mopar owners feel, but it's not just mopes so...
Unless you're planning a pinion angle change,you could just slot the centerbolt
holes towards the end of axle thats tite 1/4" with a carbide burr, then bolt her
back down. If you're worried that testing your cornering prowess mite shift it
you can simply MIG the hole up on the vacant side and dress it to fit w/ your
grinder.
Click to expand...

what do you mean by the centerbolt ?
thanks
 
The center bolt is the fastener holding the stack of spring leaves together
near ,well, the middle. The head is intentionally shaped like a dowel or
heavy pin, this locates the spring pads or "saddles" welded to the axle.
If you remove the u-bolts the rear probably doesn't shift much on them,
so slotting the holes half the distance towards the tite-to-Qtr. lip side will
center the axle,and fill welding the vacated part of the slot will just make
them holes again.
I am assuming the bushings are new/good and that you may have
loosened and shifted the frt. spring hangers away from the tite side as
far as they mite move in their mounts.(may not be much but you never know).
:coffee2:
 
In addition to the suggestions above, but BEFORE you go chopping things up, examine the spring mounts carefully, and the bushings and other hardware. Also, might be a good gamble (just a little work on an afternoon) to just "try" swapping the springs side to side.
 
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