73 charger , widest rear rim ???

[Pat412]

car. 1973 charger ,rallye,440.
ok ..so..I its a long time before I can put tires on my project and drive it .
but im starting to look at rim and tire sizes ,
now for me , im a *** high fat rear kind of guy , and that's how im going to set up my charger ..I plan on staying in the 15" group ,looking at a few centerline rims but offsets seem limited ..
will 15x10 with a 5 inch back space fit ? what about 12" ??

has anybody rolled out there rear quarter ??

what do you run on the back of yours?
what is the widest one can run before having to tub, offset ? ?

looking for thoughts, options, and to here what you have done.
thanks..

 

[Triple Black 73]

Back in the day, I ran a 255/60R15 (27" tall) on a 8" inch wheel 0 offset with more than enough room to spare. I could have ran a 275/60R15 (28" tall) but I thought the tires was too tall compared to the 235/60R15 (26") I already had in the front.

The wheel opening from the fender lip to frame is about 15 inches wide, but the spring is on the outside of the frame and eats up 3 inches, leaving about 12 inches to work with. With the proper offset, you can fit a 295 in there, but it's going to be tight fit (which is why the old school guys run air shocks with the *** end 5 feet in the air). Another big issue is our cars doesn't have anything to locate the rear to the center of the car. The rear is moves around up to 2" in the corners which can cause rubbing.

If you get a relocation kit you can fit easily fit a huge tire in the rear with the proper offset, but you lose your rear sway bar. Maybe the Firm Feel guy can custom make one? I haven't checked.

I remember seeing a '71 Charger in '98 with rolled outer fender lip. That dude had a 315 tire under the rear without a relocation kit. I personally thought the tire stuck out too far. The NASCAR guys use to cut the fenders where the inch and haft wide flat sloped met the rest of the fender. They run 27.5x12R15 tires.

 

[Triple Black 73]

If you rolled or cut the fender lip (+1") and relocated the springs (+3"), you could fit a 355/60R15 tire on 12 inch wheels with 24mm of back spacing.

 

[Pat412]

Back in the day, I ran a 255/60R15 (27" tall) on a 8" inch wheel 0 offset with more than enough room to spare. I could have ran a 275/60R15 (28" tall) but I thought the tires was too tall compared to the 235/60R15 (26") I already had in the front.

The wheel opening from the fender lip to frame is about 15 inches wide, but the spring is on the outside of the frame and eats up 3 inches, leaving about 12 inches to work with. With the proper offset, you can fit a 295 in there, but it's going to be tight fit (which is why the old school guys run air shocks with the *** end 5 feet in the air). Another big issue is our cars doesn't have anything to locate the rear to the center of the car. The rear is moves around up to 2" in the corners which can cause rubbing.

If you get a relocation kit you can fit easily fit a huge tire in the rear with the proper offset, but you lose your rear sway bar. Maybe the Firm Feel guy can custom make one? I haven't checked.

I remember seeing a '71 Charger in '98 with rolled outer fender lip. That dude had a 315 tire under the rear without a relocation kit. I personally thought the tire stuck out too far. The NASCAR guys use to cut the fenders where the inch and haft wide flat sloped met the rest of the fender. They run 27.5x12R15 tires.

Triple black..you are the man...that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for..

I see us car tool stops at 1972 b body . :/
And the the spring relocation brackets stop at 70....73/74 just can't get any love ..

 

[Triple Black 73]

Acturally, I'm wrong about the swaybar. The swaybar mounts swings around to the outsid

Triple black..you are the man...that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for..

I see us car tool stops at 1972 b body . :/
And the the spring relocation brackets stop at 70....73/74 just can't get any love ..

Thanks.

The aftermarket has basically ignored the '73-79 Chrysler rear axle because they added those stupid rubber spring isolators. US Car Tool stops at '72 because they would need to offer a special center perch for use with the spring isolators. However, all '71-72 rear end stuff will work on a '73-74 once you do the iso-delete. I don't see why the '68-'70 kit wouldn't work on the '71-74 cars.

If you do the iso-delete, you'll need spring plates with shock bolts and 3" u-bolts. I'm not sure if the Firm Feel sway-bars will work since the spring plates u-bolt holes are 3.5" on center and the stock plates are 3" on center. The afco spring plates are thicker and stronger than the Mopar plates, but you need to tap the plate for the shock bolts since they come setup for quick changed pins. I dunno about you, but I'm not running a pull pin shock bolt on a street car.

Also, don't get the Mopar Performance axle/spring perches. They have 5/8" sized center hole used on trucks. You'll need perches with a 1/2 or 9/16 center hole because 5/16" spring center bolts come with 1/2" head and 3/8" spring center bolts come with a 9/16 head.

My dad said hell-no to welding on axle perches. Instead, he rough cut a 2" circle from a 3/8" plate he had laying around, drilled a 9/16" hole, then turned it down in the lathe to 1-5/8" ( which is the stock spring perch center hole size of a '73-74 charger with the spring isolators). He then chamfer the edges, test fitted, then welded in the washers onto the axle. Then, he grounded the perch face smooth and moved on to the rest of the axle.

For the spring center bolt, I used a 2.5" 3/8-16 ASTM A574 socket cap screw with a 9/16" head from Home Depot because it is 4x stronger than the Dorman "autograde" center bolts parts stores sell and 20% stronger than special order grade 8 center bolts. I had center bolts break on my Ram 2500 and the crap bolts on my Dakota pissed me off, so I don't play around anymore.

 

[Triple Black 73]

I was incorrect about the sway bar. The sway bar mount under the axle and onto the frame. If you move the spring perches mounts inwards, you just need to slide the strut bar inwards. Simple.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I owned a '73 Charger with 15x10 Centerlines with 4-5/8" backspacing and roughly 12" wide tread. I had to put the rear end majorly up in the air with air shocks at 100+psi to clear the tires.

Do you care if the tires fit inside the wheel wells? You can certainly put in a narrower rear end, A-body or shortened.

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Can't search it right now, but there is a VERY GOOD THREAD about it on dodgecharger.com started by a good friend called PaulG. Lot of info there.

 

[Triple Black 73]

Can't search it right now, but there is a VERY GOOD THREAD about it on dodgecharger.com started by a good friend called PaulG. Lot of info there.

Where do you think I got my info from? lol!

 

[Nacho-RT74]

 

[Pat412]

Acturally, I'm wrong about the swaybar. The swaybar mounts swings around to the outsid


Thanks.

The aftermarket has basically ignored the '73-79 Chrysler rear axle because they added those stupid rubber spring isolators. US Car Tool stops at '72 because they would need to offer a special center perch for use with the spring isolators. However, all '71-72 rear end stuff will work on a '73-74 once you do the iso-delete. I don't see why the '68-'70 kit wouldn't work on the '71-74 cars.

If you do the iso-delete, you'll need spring plates with shock bolts and 3" u-bolts. I'm not sure if the Firm Feel sway-bars will work since the spring plates u-bolt holes are 3.5" on center and the stock plates are 3" on center. The afco spring plates are thicker and stronger than the Mopar plates, but you need to tap the plate for the shock bolts since they come setup for quick changed pins. I dunno about you, but I'm not running a pull pin shock bolt on a street car.

Also, don't get the Mopar Performance axle/spring perches. They have 5/8" sized center hole used on trucks. You'll need perches with a 1/2 or 9/16 center hole because 5/16" spring center bolts come with 1/2" head and 3/8" spring center bolts come with a 9/16 head.

My dad said hell-no to welding on axle perches. Instead, he rough cut a 2" circle from a 3/8" plate he had laying around, drilled a 9/16" hole, then turned it down in the lathe to 1-5/8" ( which is the stock spring perch center hole size of a '73-74 charger with the spring isolators). He then chamfer the edges, test fitted, then welded in the washers onto the axle. Then, he grounded the perch face smooth and moved on to the rest of the axle.

For the spring center bolt, I used a 2.5" 3/8-16 ASTM A574 socket cap screw with a 9/16" head from Home Depot because it is 4x stronger than the Dorman "autograde" center bolts parts stores sell and 20% stronger than special order grade 8 center bolts. I had center bolts break on my Ram 2500 and the crap bolts on my Dakota pissed me off, so I don't play around anymore.

Would the center perch still be an issue if I went with firm feel iso delete kit ? ?

 

[Pat412]

I was going to get new springs and hardware from firm feel when I order all my front suspension parts ..

 

[Triple Black 73]

Would the center perch still be an issue if I went with firm feel iso delete kit ? ?

Depends...

If you want to do the spring relocation (to run a massive rear tire), you can save a little bit of money by using the factory sway bar bracket with the spring plate, shock bolt, and u-bolts I linked earlier. I'll post picture of my setup when I get it bolted up next week (not the relocation, just my iso-delete solution). For the relocation, you'll need to weld on a new spring perch (with a standard sized center hole) which will take care of your concerns. There's no way anyone could remove and reuse the perch.

If you want to keep the stock spring location (with a 295 max size tire), I highly recommend spending the extra money on the Firm Feel Iso-Delete kit. It will make the job much easier. Also, you will be able to run the Firm Feel rear sway bar.

 

[Pat412]

If you rolled or cut the fender lip (+1") and relocated the springs (+3"), you could fit a 355/60R15 tire on 12 inch wheels with 24mm of back spacing.

dose anybody even make a 355/60/15 ..
I love that calculator they have , I used it to fit tires for 3 different lifted trucks I have had..

 

[mopar73dge]

wow all this seems like a lot work, why not put on a 15x8 rim ralley and all it a day, it will look great...

 

[YY1]

All you have to do is look at that gigantic wheel opening to see that without any modification at all you can run almost any tire/wheel combo you want on that car.

 

[Pat412]

wow all this seems like a lot work, why not put on a 15x8 rim ralley and all it a day, it will look great...

Well....
1. The car is in a tore down state , if any mods are going to be done, nows the time to figure it out ..
2. How many chargers have you seen that don't have rallye rims ..
3. I'm not afraid of work..I work for my father's business , my whole life I've had to work twice as hard for the same dollar..
My trucks, my house, my yard...all done by myself,
4.Just a gathering information. .
5.I want what I want..

 

[Pat412]

I was incorrect about the sway bar. The sway bar mount under the axle and onto the frame. If you move the spring perches mounts inwards, you just need to slide the strut bar inwards. Simple.

View attachment 345098

Talked to Dennis at firm feel...
He said if I'm going to do the relocation to give him the pin to pin mesurments and they will bend a bar to the right width. .
But other than that everything thing else will work fine .

 

[Triple Black 73]

dose anybody even make a 355/60/15 ..
I love that calculator they have , I used it to fit tires for 3 different lifted trucks I have had..

355/60R15 was just a safe size I came up with based on known factors. You might find you can fit a bigger tire once you get to that point.

Personally, these 335/50R15 would be freaking awesome. Nice and wide; not too tall, not too wide:
https://www.summitracing.com/ga/parts/mnh-rod17/overview/

You might be able to run these monsters. Who know until you get there?
https://www.summitracing.com/ga/parts/mnh-rod07/overview/

Not sure about the fronts.

 

[Triple Black 73]

wow all this seems like a lot work, why not put on a 15x8 rim ralley and all it a day, it will look great...

Yes, it's a lot of work to do if the car is already put together. Pulling the axle, cutting and welding, the refinishing would be a pain, if the car wasn't already taken apart. When you're looking at the mountain "Restiro La Karo", doing a spring relocation is a very small bump. It's really just cut, locate the new points, and welding. All the refinishing needs to be done anyways.

I was considering doing a relocation, but ... I don't need to do it to run 285/40R18 on a 18x9.5 +6 offset wheel.