16 X 9s on early car; ride height question.

[Macroni]

I have a set of 16 X 9s on the back of a 1973 w/ SC flares.
Tires are 245 / 45 ZR 16s. The ride height is 24 1/4".

The wheels are rubbing when cornering. I realize I can raise the car a bit. Would I be better served by changing to a 15" wheel for the long run. I want the car to be low.

[IROC]

Generally speaking, this tire/wheel combination should work without a lot of problems. The fact that you're only (?) seeing rubbing when cornering sounds like an issue with spring rate and or roll stiffness. In other words, if the car is really softly sprung, maybe you're getting enough body roll to allow some contact that most people don't experience.

Also, alignment numbers and even tire brand could be an issue. Not all 245/45s are the same size.

My 2 pfennigs.

[Bill Verburg]

Your car looks really nice!

Where is it rubbing?

when is it rubbing? rights? lefts? bumps?

standard Fuchs 9x16 ET15?

tire size?

[911pcars]

Preventing body contact via increasing torsion bar or sway bar dimensions in a street car won't prevent that one time when the vehicle encounters that certain dip in the road. Most of the suspension travel will be taken up with that simple car maneuver.

Are there spacers behind the wheels? Are these factory Fuchs? As suggested, you shouldn't normally have any clearance issues with SC flares.

Sherwood

[Wil Ferch]

Just to round-out the options...you may consider running more negative camber .

[donporfi]

Also check if it is rubbing at the fender lip, probably you can roll the lip.
Nice Car !

[911pcars]

Abbreviating the rear fender lip doesn't provide much relief. Rather unfortunately, any rubbing of the rear fenders from any ride height issues happens about 2" above the lip due to the camber curve of the rear suspension. The resultant burn-through is cresent-shaped.

Sherwood

[Macroni]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

Your car looks really nice!

Where is it rubbing?

when is it rubbing? rights? lefts? bumps?

standard Fuchs 9x16 ET15?

tire size?

Thanks for all input. I am still sorting the car minor tasks major headaches!

245 45 ZR 16

Driver side of the car is rubbing w/ slight dips & rubs hard on curves.

[Scooter]

What is the brand of tire? Some manufactures are actually larger than others.

[WIL84911]

my 17 x 8.5 and 17 x 7.5s don't rub (lowered to euro specs).

[911st]

Do you have any neg camber dialed in to the rear?

If you are at zero rear camber and dial in 2.5 negative it should bring the top in about 1/2 inch if I have my numbers right. I think if you get some one that knows what they are doing they can slot the spring plate and get about -3 deg.

This is great for cornering bit not the best for a cruiser.

There is a small chance that if you put hard bushings at the spring plate and inner rear control arm it may keep the wheel from tilting a small amount in a corner which may help some.

Or you have to raise it, stiffen it, flair it, and or go to a more narrow tire.

[johnS porsches]

put al cm of rubber bushing in the koni's


that's what i did

never had the problem again, and it doesnt feel hard by anny heavy bump in the road.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by Macroni

Thanks for all input. I am still sorting the car minor tasks major headaches!

245 45 ZR 16

Driver side of the car is rubbing w/ slight dips & rubs hard on curves.

As has been suggested, a more aggressive alignment w/ as much (-) camber as you can get, stiffen up the bushes. I have seen bent trailing arms that caused that sort of issue too.

The lips can be shaved and in extreme cases ooched out a little

When the flares were welded on they may have decreased the room over oem a little

[JMatta]

Your car looks beautiful! I have the same setup on my '73 with no issues and the car is tracked quite a bit. I run around neg 2.5* rear camber and am quite stiff with coilovers. As you can see from the pic, my car also sits quite low. Good luck getting it sorted out; it shouldn't be too tough a project.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

.......When the flares were welded on they may have decreased the room over oem a little

I think so too. Measure the distance from the inner wheel well to the lip on both sides to confirm.

Sherwood