i just put a set of 15x7 steel wheels on my 68'dodge coronet, 225 70 15 on the front and 275 60 15 on the back, when i turned into a store i heard something rub, i got back home and found out that my drivers side front end is setting at 26 1/4" from the floor to the top lip on the wheel well and the passenger side is almost 27 1/2" and i noticed that my bottom of front tire is in further than the top.

i am trying to get the car ready for a about 400 mile round trip, the front end was completely rebuilt several years ago and i had the front end aligned up, i have not put over 5000miles since all this was done.

the guy that did the front end alignment was younger, i do not think hed knew too much about the torsion bar front end, is this just a needing a front end alignment problem? i was thinking that i needing to crank up on the driver's side torsion bar to give me the lift? and then have the toe end and caster and camber reset?

am i on the right track?

i would think it is time for an alignment. inspect everything and make sure it is tight. anyone else drive your car...maybe nail a curb? sounds like a torsion bar issue. not sure why all the sudden.

here is a pic of the driver's side, the fender will rub when you hit a bump or turn the wheel hard, the passenger side is fine at 27"

well, i guess i failed to mention i did have a problem during the rebuild, my power steering gear box locked up and i ended up in the ditch, with the 14" road wheels, i did not notice the difference,
i have checked everything and everything looks to be okay, so i guess i am off to the frond end shop this week

i did not hit the ditch hard, i had just left my driveway and the gear box froze up and put me in the ditch, i do remember when i had the car aligned after the front end rebuild, the young guy that did it, really was confused about the height and ride of the torsion bar set up, he said that he adjusted them but did not know if he got it right, he did not have any specs for this.

i have also gone from a 318 to 440 and i did not change the torsion bars out, do you think the alignment shop can adjust on torsion bars a couple of notches to get me the 3/4 to 1" i need?

i really do not understand torsion bar front in myself?

thanks

level driveway, half tank of gas, your weight in barbells in the dr seat, then YOU adj the bars to where the tire clearance looks good to you & even from side to side (jounce it & let it settle after each adjustment) then take it in to be aligned & instruct him to not change the ride height. Not sure if toe in/camber will affect ride height but If someones chimes in & says yes you might want to adj the camber in the driveway 1st as in tires straight up and down and adj the toe in as in tires pointing straight ahead from the front before the ride height so your ride height will not be changed when he finalizes the other non ride height adustments. Good luck & holler how it turns out and stay out of those ditches

My best guess would be the at the LCA stud mounting tube (in K-member ) has broken loose.

Rick

Isn't ride height measured from the ground to the framerail ?

To the op about your issue with the young kid that did the alignment , that is unacceptable and I would have not paid and taken it somewhere else that knew what they are doing .

Also you should have changed out the torsion bars instead of just cranking them up unless the car is raced mostly ...

Okay, that ditch picture brings back memories of your earlier posts.

Not that it matters to the question at hand, but did you ever resolve your power steering issue, or did you end up converting to manual steering?

Some observations and comments about your situation and the comments posted by others:

1. The factory specs for ride height are from the floor to a point not affected by the subtleties and foibles of sheet metal. Practically speaking, the real world usually does it by sight or with a tape measure at the fender lip. The heights that people end up with are all over the map, and absent other complications (like a fender lip eating up a tire), this shade-tree approach usually works. There are two important points to remember, though. Get the height the same from side-to-side, and do all height adjustments BEFORE getting the alignment done.

2. Changing camber, caster, and toe do not appreciably change the ride height.

3. No old car exists absent a history. The history of yours includes a close encounter of the ditch kind, and if memory serves, a 440 swap on top of non big block torsion bars. Your choices to keep the old t-bars and not have the front end professionally inspected for damage after the ditch incident are making your life more complicated.

4. Mopar front-ends are surprisingly intolerant of curbs and ditches. This is especially true where the LCA pivot shaft passes through its mounting tube in the K member. At least one poster has previously observed that you might have a problem there. You should now increase that count by another poster.

5. The same size tire that fits on one car may not fit another sample of that identical model. Variables that affect this include but are not limited to wheel offset, ride height, variations found among mass-produced products, and the phase of the moon.

6. You might be able to keep your existing t-bars, adjust the ride height up on the side that is rubbing [and get the car re-aligned], keep your existing wheel/tire combo on the front, and have it no longer rub. You might not.

i have to say i know to all of the above, i have called front end shop and talked with an older gentleman, he seem to be pretty knowledgeable on mopars, he was working on a 59 dodge when i called.

i am going to take the car into his shop and have him to look it over and let me know what the verdict is.

thanks for all the great info and knowledge, i am going to take off 1 day next week and take it to the shop and baby sit while he does it.

i did fix the power steering problem, i went to manual steering

does anybody haved a pic of what a LCA stud mounting tube looks like?
how will the front end shop fix this if this is the problem?

that does not sound good, can i jack the car up and look for this myself? i really do not know alot about the front end as you can tell

i have the car jacked up, so i am looking for a crack in the the bracket where he lower LCA bolts to K frame

ding ding we have a winner, i just crawled under the car , i did not see a crack in the LCA however it looks as though the impact fried the LCA lower control arm bushing, the rubber is coming out and is distorted, so i think i may have gotten lucky, i think should be able to replace the rubber bushing align the front in and be good.

can i buy the LCA control arm bushings at my local parts house?

i cld local parts house, they cannot get these, i have found a used set on ebay. here we go again

Yes bushings are available - likley a 2-3 day order. Not all rubber parts are created equal though. I would trust Moog or NAPA Premium. Mancini, Firm Feel and Rock Auto carry them as well. Its a bit of a job changing them. If you haven't done it before and have a friendly local machine shop or experienced garage, it may be easiest to have them press/chisle out the old and press in the new.