Rear tire clearance issue

[danpark]

Hello,

Just finished my MKIII build and starting to put miles on the car. During shakeout drive I noticed some binding/hopping in the rear. Upon further inspection I noticed that my rear tires are contacting what I think are the lower shock perches and its gouging the brand new tires pretty badly.

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I am running the 15 inch halibrands with Cooper Cobra 295/50 15s in the back. I have a ford 8.8 with the 3 link.

I have 3mm spacers on order to try to get the tires out a bit from the rest of the frame but if anybody else has a solution I am all ears.

Also if you look in the first photo the red koni shock looks to be contacting some suspension bits as well. Any thought on this?

Thanks!
Dan

[canuck1]

Hi Dan,

Are you running FFR supplied Halibrand replicas or some other kind/brand of wheel? If another brand or supplier, what is the backspace of the rear wheels? I have seen this issue before, but it was a long time ago, and I don't recollect if it was 15, or some other size wheel? The bracket that retains the panhard bar has been know to rub on the inside of some passenger side rear wheels and I think(?) FFR made a small dimensional change to the bracket at some point to alleviate it. I know some people were using a grinder to remove material from the panhard bar mount. What tire pressures are you running? Any indication of bent axle or possibly tweaked differential tube?

I have a 2005 era MK III and FFR supplied 15" Halibrand replicas. I'm also using 295/50 Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T tires, which I believe are virtually identical to the Coopers you have. I don't see any sign of rubbing.

Sean

[danpark]

This is a 2008 MKIII and I am the third owner. It came to me as a rolling chassis. With all the other stuff I needed to finish I never went through the rear suspension. The wheels are the FF supplied halibrand. I need to go through the procedure for setting the ride height and maybe break out the grinder.

[Murd]

It looks like there is clearance from the bracket to the tire, is that the case? Have you jacked the back end up to spin the wheels and see what’s rubbing?
I have the same setup but mk4 so maybe different brackets? I actually have 2 extra of that bracket the shock and panhard mount to if you want one, just have to ship from toronto canada area.

[danpark]

I didn't get a chance to work on it tonight but I will Jack it up and work on it tomorrow. This is me just spitballing here but I think the springs might be compressed too much and there's no give in the suspension at all so when I hit a bump the tire becomes my suspension flattens out and the spring mounts make contact.
I will get it off the ground try to get the springs in the right location and possibly install the spacers tomorrow after work. And of course report back.

[Murd]

The rub damage on the tire looks really far away from that bracket. I have got to think it’s rubbing somewhere else unless your tire pressure is really low, but it doesn’t look like it is.

[BEAR-AvHistory]

Are you hitting the brake line? Hard to tell from the picture but don't like the way its bending out toward the tire.

[Jeff Kleiner]

While you're under there looking for the rub tighten that jamb nut on the panhard bar and get a washer under the bolt head that secures the bar's rod end at the adjustment slot.

Jeff

[danpark]

of course this being the only thing I didn't go through in the car the panhard bar was adjusted all the way to the left and it was bound on the driver side shock. There was absolutely no suspension travel and that is what was causing it to eat away at the shock itself. I adjusted it so it was 14 and a half in from the rear the brake to the four inch frame I'm both sides and I have a very slight rub on the passenger side inside which I can either take care of with a grinder or 3 mm wheel spacers. Thanks to everybody who posted or offered parts I truly appreciate it.

After pics
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