Rear Tire Rub - Page 3 - Lateral-g Forums

bulldog19 · #21 06-12-2011, 10:21 AM

Leaf pads are poly/rubber
Here are some pics, don't know if they say a 1000 words or not......

JMitch19 · #22 06-12-2011, 11:12 AM

Your car looks great. I highly recommend getting rid of your leaf pads before trying to raise the car. DSE told me to get rid of my leaf pads and like I said I've had no rubbing since. I found a local place that does truck lifts. I purchased a 1/4 inch plate that was about the same length as my leaf pad was and I purchased New leaf bolts. I took the bolt out of my leafs added the plate and new bolt, trimmed the new bolt to length and have been good to go since.

Even if you end up having to raise the car up a bit you will notice a slight performance gain getting rid of the rubber pads. In stead of seeing deflection in the rubber the suspension will be able to do its job.

bulldog19 · #23 06-12-2011, 12:31 PM

Thanks for the compliment Jason.
If i understand you corectly you ditched the pad and added a 1/4" plate, the size of pad, to your springs. In essence adding another leaf?
If i go thicker am I adding more space? Say 1/2" I assume this will change the ride minimally?

Vegas69 · #24 06-12-2011, 12:45 PM

That's a serious tire rub. Car looks great.

Is that a 26" tire?

bulldog19 · #25 06-12-2011, 12:51 PM

Tire Rack website says 26.7" for a 275/40 and 255/40 is 26"
Thanks for the compliment!

Vegas69 · #26 06-12-2011, 01:03 PM

I thought the sidewall looked to fat. It should be a 26" or smaller tire. A 275/35/18 would've been a better choice at 25.6" It will gain you .5" of bump clearance. Your rub looks like it's under suspension compression?
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=yes&tab=Specs

bulldog19 · #27 06-12-2011, 01:17 PM

Todd yes it rubs under compression.
I have 235/40 in the front. Just worried how it would look with 235/40 in front and 275/35 in back. They are almost the same height.
Also will it make the rear appear to sit lower than front?
I would say car is level as it sits now.

JMitch19 · #28 06-12-2011, 01:52 PM

Mine is a 275/40/18 also. They are 26.7 tall. I think the 275/35/18's look great on the 69's, but the 67/8's need a little extra help filling the round wheel well. The 275/40's are what DSE recommended for the Budniks in the picture and Driverz Inc recommended the same for my new wheels.

I'm assuming that your rear has a standard multi leaf perch. If you measure the energy suspension leaf pad before install they are 7/16's top and bottom. If you then measure how thick the leaf spring is and measure the gap from your shock plate to top of the leaf perch you will find that the leaf is only about 3/16's skinnier. So you are using 7/8" of poly to take up a gap that is only 3/16's. I used the 1/4' plate because I wanted to be sure I had enough thickness on the leaf to get a tight pinch in the perch. It is also much much easier to center the rear without the poly pads in there.

As far as ride height goes if you add the plate to the bottom of the leaf you will have the car raised as high as possible without messing with the shackles. If you put it on the top of the leaf the car will be 1/4" lower that max height.

I have a couple extra plates in my garage. I'll go take a couple pics and post back in a few.

Vegas69 · #29 06-12-2011, 01:57 PM

Then you have no choice but to raise the car until the rub goes away. The plates would work perfect for that, you will pickup some vibration with a solid mount.

JMitch19 · #30 06-12-2011, 02:14 PM

Here are some pics. It's been about a year since I swapped out the leaf pads. I forgot I used one 1/4" and one 1/8" plate. The picture is of the two extra 1/8" plates I had.

Remember that the top leaf pad that you are currently running is acting like a lowering block. If you end up running plates and put them under the leaf it will raise the car equal to whatever the compressed thickness of the leaf pad is.

Like Todd said getting rid of the leaf pads may create some vibrations. I didn't notice anything when I made the swap, but between my cam and exhaust it may just be covered up.

If you want you can have the extra plates that are in the picture. I'm pretty sure they won't be thick enough to get the job done, but it will give you something to show a local spring place what you want. I had about $35 into the plates and bolts for both sides. If you can't find anything local to you let me know and I could pick them up for you at the place I got mine if this is a direction you decide to go.