PICS of Installed new wheels and tires....B body rear end and ESPO +1.5 springs

[GrandpaKevin]

Installed some new tires and wheels on the wife's car.

Although the old wheel/tire combo looked good I'm a sucker for shiny wheels especially with wide rims and big tires.

So here are the specs on the new setup.

Car has a 1967 B body rear end with Dr. Diff's offset hangers.

Rear leaf springs are ESPO +1.5

Front wheels are 15x7 with 3.75" back spacing
Front tires are 225/70-15
I went with these tires because they are taller and match the height of the rear tires but are not soo wide as to cause clearance issues.
They fill out the wheel opening very nicely.
No rubbing anywhere.

Rear tires are 15x10 with 5.75" back spacing using a 1/2" wheel spacer
Tires are 275/60-15
Tons of clearance inside and out.
I have a pair of NOS 325/50-15 BFG drag radials I'm sure would fit but I don't want to take a chance of getting caught in the rain with them.

[halftrackman]

 LOOKS,  GREAT   

[jimynick]

Nice looking car! 

[RUNCHARGER]

Thanks for posting. A lot of guys need to see what different springs and tire sizes look like.

[GrandpaKevin]

Thanks guys,

Here are a couple pics of the previous wheel/tire combo.
Same B body rear and ESPO +1.5

15x8 rims on all 4 corners with 4.5" backspacing

Front tires are 245/60-15
Rear tires are 275/60-15 also using the same 1/2" wheel spacers to move the rear tires out, again I'm using a narrower B body rear end along with 2" wheel studs.

The front tires are about 1.5" shorter than the rear and will slightly rub the inside front frame rail during FULL steering turn but has not really been an issue.
No rubbing on the outside of the fenders
I did have to remove(grind) some material off the top of the front disc brake calipers to clear the rims, again not a huge issue but it needed to be done.
I'm using a disc brake conversion kit with stock size disc brake rotors and calipers mounted towards the front.

[303 Mopar]

The new set up looks great!  More BEEFY!   

[dave73]

So this is probably a very dumb question, but does the 5.75" back spacing with a 1/2" wheel spacer make the overall back spacing 6.25" or 5.25"?

[RUNCHARGER]

5.25".

[GrandpaKevin]

So this is probably a very dumb question, but does the 5.75" back spacing with a 1/2" wheel spacer make the overall back spacing 6.25" or 5.25"?

Like mentioned the spacer moves the wheel outward 1/2" reducing the actual backspacing to 5.25".
The tires hit the leaf springs with the rim's full 5.75" backspacing, using 2" wheel studs enables you to move the tires in and out a litttle bit with spacers for the perfect fit as long as you don't get too crazy with them.

PS Dave, I believe the +1.5 ESPO leaf springs on the car are the ones I bought off you.

[dave73]

So this is probably a very dumb question, but does the 5.75" back spacing with a 1/2" wheel spacer make the overall back spacing 6.25" or 5.25"?

Like mentioned the spacer moves the wheel outward 1/2" reducing the actual backspacing to 5.25".
The tires hit the leaf springs with the rim's full 5.75" backspacing, using 2" wheel studs enables you to move the tires in and out a litttle bit with spacers for the perfect fit as long as you don't get too crazy with them.

PS Dave, I believe the +1.5 ESPO leaf springs on the car are the ones I bought off you.

AH that's right! Glad they served you well and hope you are happy with them. I loved them, just went a different route after I caught the hotchkis bug. I hate seeing pictures of this setup, makes me want to go back sometimes 

What type of B-body rear are you running, 8-3/4 or dana? And where did you get it? That's next on my to do list.

[GrandpaKevin]

The ESPO +1.5 springs worked out perfectly, the wife wanted her car sitting a little higher than stock with bigger wheels and tires, now the junk, sagging MP Super Stock springs I bought new a couple years ago and installed on my other Challenger are a different story...never again.

The rear end in the wife's Challenger is an 8 3/4 out of a 1967 B body which I believe is even slightly narrower than the 68-70 B body rear ends.

I got lucky and found the housing locally on Craigslist.
I see them often at the bigger Mopar swap meets and E-bay but bring a tape measure and check closely.
I bought new B body width aftermarket HD axles with longer 2" wheel studs(Dr. diff sells these too) and reused the Sure Grip center section I already had.
If you have good axles and wheel bearings in your current 8 3/4 rear end you could have them cut down to B body width as long as the splines on the ends of the axles are long enough.
I bought the offset spring hanger kit from Dr. Diff.
Installation was easy, everything just bolted in.
I did have to re-bend the factory rear sway bar to fit the narrower rear end and notch the braces on the rear valance where the offset spring hangers hit, pretty easy stuff.

You can see the offset rear spring hangers in the picture and notice how the angle of the rear shocks is a little more verticle because the rear end housing is narrower.