[mike_russell]

I recently replaced my rear leaf springs to bring the car back up to a stock height so I could fit some bigger tires without rubbing on the wheel well. The problem I ran into after replacing them is it didnt raise it up all that much and my tires sitll rub? I own a 68 camaro and 265/50/15 tires. I have heard of others with bigger tires than that that have no problems, what is the fix? should I have gootn the heavy duty multi leafs or does that matter? Any help to do this would be much appreciated.

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[CarlC]

I don't believe that springs are going to completely solve your rubbing problem. Even if you raise the chassis, once you compress the suspension over a big bump you will still have a tire/wheelwell interference problem. You didn't mention what your rim size and backspacing are. I run a 255/60/15 BFG T/A with a 15x8x4 1/2" back space rim and still had a small amount of rubbing on the outer wheelwell. I was able to cure it by slightly rolling the wheelwell lip up and in. I may have been able to fix it with a 4 3/4" backspace rim but it would have been a tight fit between the rim/shockplate and tire/shock . Bottom line is that GM never intended for tires this big to be put on the car so we have to do a lot of measuring to insure sufficient clearance. I think both Hot Rod and Car Craft have had stories within the past six months that show how to make a tool to be able to determine max width potential. If I remeber you need a piece of angle iron that you can bolt to the drum and a piece of all-thread rod to attach to the angle to simulate the rim and tire width. This tool allows you to rotate the axle and determine if the tire/rim combination you are considering will have sufficient clearance.

[CarlC]

Mike,

Saw your reply in the tire and wheel section. The 4" backspacing was originally a Corvette specification. Camaro was 4 1/2". Changing to this backspacing will give you an extra 1/2" on the outer wheelwell.