eleanor_350

My rearend is not exactly centered in my 65 coupe. It's never been an issue until I put 17x8's with 245/45/17 tires on the back. Now the one side that sticks out farther rubs the fender lip a little when I hit a dip. I've loosened the u-bolts and pushed the rearend over as far as it will go, but it's still off-center. The springs are stock 4-leaf replacements from Mustangs Plus and the rearend is a stock 8". All of the sheet metal is original so I know nothing got out of wack during a quarter panel replacement or something. All I can figure is the car was built slightly out of square from the factory. I really hate to roll the fender lips just to cover up another issue. If I could get it centered, I think all of my rubbing issues would be fixed. The only other thing I know to do is take the rearend out and "oval" out the holes in the bottom of the spring perches so that I'll have more side-to-side adjustment.

Any other ideas?

dodgestang

It's a common issue that become more apparent the larger the tires you run.
Rolling the fender lip and running a small spacer on the other side to balance the car out is how I handled it for year. Recently I added a watts and 3 link which lets me control the position of the rear and I no longer had the issue

If you can weld you can move the perches on the rear to center it up.
You don't want to enlarge the centering pin area any more. The rear already has a ton of play left and right because it is a leaf spring suspension, the last thing I believe you want in adding additional possible play between the leaf pack and the rear mounts.

2+2GT

If the springs are centered on the car, and the axle is centered on the springs, you really don't want to move the axle off center. It'll dog track forever. Find out what's really going on. My guess is a bodywork problem.

65-2+2

Uh, this might sound stupid but, maybe you should check the rim offset and make sure they match. Are the bearings good?

eleanor_350

I never thought about that. They're supposed to be 4.75" BS, but they do make the same wheel with 4.5" BS. I don't think that's the problem but it would be an easy check. I noticed the rear looking a little off center even with my old wheels. But they were 14x7's with 215 tires all around, so clearance wasn't tight at all with them.

Deviousfred

I have the exact same problem and my car has never been wrecked. I too thought about slotting the holes for the leaf spring pins but quickly decided that was a very bad idea. What I plan on doing to solve this problem is buy a set of these leaf spring perches, cut off the old one, ceter up the rear end, and weld these new ones in place. Of course, these are for 3" axle tubes, I think an 8" comes with smaller axle tubes?

http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS/JEGS-Univ...64173/10002/-1

or

http://www.jegs.com/p/Moroso/Moroso-...63126/10002/-1

Fred