Chevelle Suspension

[chevy55]

A friend of mine has a 69 malibu 350/350 combo. His problem is under acceleration the rear fender panels rub on the back tires. He has air shocks and has already put stiffer springs in the rear but the problems still persists. What's next without changing tire size or backspacing?

Somebody suggested ladder bars or traction bars, would those help?

Thanks

[C30Shaka]

traction bars, or tubbing the rear

[chevy55]

Whats the difference between traction bars and ladder bars?
I always thought they were the same thing and were only used to prevent wheel hop?

[KutThroatKustoms]

Generally traction bars connect to the leafs and makes them act stiff to keep axle wrapping down, but I believe the Malibu is a coilspring rear right? I'm not sure the exact setup for that.

Ladder bars is 2 bars on the axle, going into 1 point on the frame. Kinda like a wishbone 3 link, yet mounted like a parallel 4 link.

[chevy55]

It is a coil spring setup

[LONGHAIR]

"Traction Bars" are the simple "slappers" with the rubber snubbers. They can be adjusted to allow a bit of travel before they hit. This softens the everyday ride and gives some side-to-side adustability too. These are mostly used on leaf-spring cars to combat axle-wrap. Coil spring cars really don't have much of a problem with that, they are already running a 3 or 4 link set-up.

"Ladder Bars" are a more solid connection. They are usually longer than the original front mounting point of the stock suspension. This requires the use of sliders(floaters) on the leaf spring cars to stop the binding of un-equal lengths.

Longer bars give more lift to the front and better weight transfer.

If your friend's car's bushings are shot, the axle could be moving around enough to rub, especially if the tires are "stuffed" in there anyway.

[68C15]

it does sound like the control arm bushings are worn out. how much torque is it putting out? I suggest replace bushings in control arms with urethane bushings & get a hold of a set of upper arm relocators from someone like Southside Machine ( can find adds in back of Hot Rod mag. or call Jegs). these work wonders, they actually raise the whole car under hard accell. put a set on friends '72 Grand Prix

[moose1965]

take the back wheels off and roll the back fender lips up on the 1/4 panels if thats is where it is hitting. u could gain bout 1/2 inch clearance on each side i think. thats what everybody does to them chevelles with the fat tires in the back. i was running 245's on the back of a 65 chevelle and it was close but it didnt need to roll the fender lips. but with soemthing like a 265 or 275 it would of needed it i'm sure. i traded that car for my turck and a boat ;-)

[Budweis]

ladder bars may help but i think traction bars not, is the the rear end shifting or the tires rising? get behind it and watch it. what size tires and what brand is he running? or do like moose said and modify the lips.