Spare tire bolt too short- a-body

My other Dart has 13” tires so never had this issue. On my 68 with E70-14 tires the spare tire bolt does not reach the cup in the fiber board spare cover. It’s about 1.5 to 2” short. Parts book only lists one per number. What is the deal with wider tires?

I believe that on the 340 darts the original wheel was 14 inch 5.5 width and a E70 tire. The spare was installed upside down and no fiber board just trunk mat. Not user friendly as the value stem was on the underside.

My 67 Bacaruda is the same way. Although the spare is an E78-14 rather than a D78, I don't think the bolt ever reached the hardboard. There's no evidence on the hardboard that it ever was assembled that way.

Do you have the little black cup and wing nut that goes in the fiber board hole? I am guessing not.
I ended up going to the hardware store and making a little extension to reach the board. At least now the board is locked in place.
Seems weird if these were not held down from factory.

Yes. When I got the car, it was just snugged into the spare's center.
More recently, I've placed the jack foot on top of the spare. That way it doesn't rattle.

Don't think I ever took a digital picture of it.
here's the closest I have on the 'puter

I vas wrong! here's a couple. We could check the build sheet to see what tires the car came with. D78-14 would be the biggest. So with the correct tire maybe the bolt would reach.
I'd be interested in seeing what some better documented, more original cars have.

In my 74 Duster360, the spare was held down (upside down) with the bolt/jack bottom and the wing nut. The fiber board only filled the wheel opening itself, it had the corners cut off to fit the wheel. Never was held down . . .

The '67 Barracuda Owners booklet has this illustration. See the upper left illustration. I assume NJ mopar is looking at this or a similar diagram. IIRC some cars had an illustration pasted in the trunk somewhere.

I have the illustration. I also have the setup functioning perfect on my '69 with 13" tires. Its the E70-14 equipped car I have that the bolt shown threading through "jack hook" is too short to reach through the fiber cover shown in upper left of photo. Wondering who has an original car to say how it came when delivered.

In the 2 photos that Mattax posted, the tire and rim are facing up, that is wrong. Whitewall side of that tire and the front of rim should be facing down. Are you sure you have the correct hold down bolt? My 69 Dart GTS came new with E70-14 redlines and a E70-14 redline tire in the trunk facing down. Everything fit together perfect.

From what I'm seeing in the illustration and your photos there's a missing LARGE wingnut to hold down the spare and jack hook first and then it appears that the small wingnut holds the cover inside of the "cup". See the small wingnut and "cup" in the upper left of the illustration and then the larger wingnut by the jack hook. And I also agree with the spare with the whitewall down or upside down as most like to mount the spares which is how I think they should be. My '69 Road Runner I ordered and bought new in '69 had the spare tire mounted redline down as I used the back side up sort of like a bucket or cup to hold stuff like a spare "can" of oil and oil spout, and a can of simonize wax and a few rags to check the oil and wax the car. Lots of other stuff was easy to put into the upside down spare to keep it from rolling around the trunk especially with the 3.91 Suregrip and tire hookup

From a '69 factory "sales features" slide show, not saying this is correct but that's how I remember it..........and yes I had to check to make sure I got a redline spare first thing

Mike

I need to compare to my 69. This bolt came out of a Dart I parted out years back. But I guess it could have been wrong, so I shouldn't assume. Bolt measures 6". And my tire is the correct way, that much I got.

All good info. Thanks.
Yes. It makes sense that my Barracuda should also have the large wingnut. Never thought about that until this discussion.
'67-9 Barracuda jack has an integral hook, but other than that it seems to be the same parts as other A-bodies those years.

Go to the 4:45 (5:00) minute mark and there's something interesting on this Brazil 1976 A-body that sure looks like a '69 USA/Canada Dart........yep the spare is "face" down too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8_RU3GA3g




For another thread I was wondering if some or most of it is actually '69 Dart sheet metal and also wonder if there might be NOS sheet metal still available in Brazil, wouldn't that be a kicker

Mike

Those Brazil darts are whacky. Always wanted to take a trip down there to find NOS parts. They used the 68 hood inserts for years after.
The jack hook is different and stored different.
Weird to see a 76 car with no headrests. Also has 68 door lock pull location and padded uppers on the door.
Ugly steering wheel and I can’t seem to spot the gear shift indicator. I see the column shift but where is the indicator?

Well, it has a clutch pedal, so my guess is it's a column 3-speed manual.
I like the front styling, the rear treatment is interesting, the gauge panel, and the idea of fully upholstered doors is arguably an upgrade over the US cars.
Lots of interesting detail differences, though I have no idea if that's all original and/or correct.
Some stuff like the washer jar indicates there were local-content laws.
As for the sheetmetal, I'd bet that they amortized the tooling as far as they could: probably not as much competitive pressure for fresh designs.