I recently bought a supposedly stock 1972 GS455. The front suspension has been restored. It runs well on the road but the front wheels touch the fenders when turning sharp left or right.I noticed that the wheels dont sit in the middle of the wheel openings. I tought that this could be fixed with adjusting the caster. But when I measure the wheelbase I find it being 111 inch and not 112 which it should be. I find nothing that seems to be in the wrong place. The car was restored 10 years ago and the guy who restored it has no memory of mixing the front suspension parts with parts from of another car. My idea is the maybe the front suspension parts came from another GM midsize car e.g a Chevelle. Does anyone have any ideas about this??? Thank You John
Don't know about the 111 vs 112, but if you look at other A bodies you will find that the wheels are not in the center of the opening. Tire rub is a function of the tire size and wheel backspacing the previous owner put on the car. He obviously didn't coordinate the two dimension correctly when he bought them. Not much you can do except stay away from the limits, buy smaller width tires or change the wheels & backspace. Gene
I would suggest you drivng it to an alignment shop that has an imaging aligner like the John Bean V3D or equivalent. Once the car is up on the machine, you can see whats really going on. Measuring stuff with a tape measure is useless. Once the car is aligned, post the before and after specs.
