Hey Everyone,
Finally getting to work on my 54 that I have had since I was 15 and had to sit for about ten years till college and grad school was done. The 54 is sitting on a Fat Man chassis with drop spindles in the front, just had the suspension redone and I will be installing a sway bar finally next week. A constant issue that I am having is that while make left turns, the front tire is rubbing, the weird issue is I can not for the life of me find where it is rubbing. There are no marks on the tire (that I can see) turn the wheel and looking and moving my hand around there is about 2-3 inches of space all around, having three peopel sit in the cab still cant find any spot were it rubbing. Start driving the truck go around a turn and rub rub rub... driving me insane! Any ideas?!

 

Hey Cal,
We had that same issue on our '50 F1 with a Mustang II front end.
Our's rubbed on the inner fender well... It's hard to see as it's black.
We used spring spacers for a good long bit just to eliminate the
problem so we could think through alternatives. We only needed it on the driver's side.


Stiffer springs, smaller wheels/tires... We took our wheels down a size up front.... I didn't want to as they filled the fender perfectly...except they rubbed.


Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Hi Ben,
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking it was the inner fender well too, as the outside has a lot of clearance. Do you think it would be possible to trim the inner fender to circumvent the rubbing? Really dont want to change wheels/tires...

 

There is a common problem with Fatman dropped spindles when installed on a Volare IFS...when in a turn, the end of the lower control arm will contact the brake rotor. I cannot say if this is your problem as well but it is another data point.

 

Thanks for the heads up! It is a Mustang II front end so I would assume that would not be the issue?

 

Hey Cal,
We stuck a spring spacer in there just to get rid of the problem temporarily
so we could attend to other brake issues. They don't cost anything & will give
you some time to look over your truck & see if you can think of other alternatives.

I didn't want to change wheels at $250 ea - so we went down to a lower profile tire.
I'm probably going to revisit that solution this Spring as I'd like to run tires with a more normal profile....better ride.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Check you brake hose clearance. Hose might be flexing into a shape that contacts the sidewall.

 

Thanks guys for the great suggestions! I will give them a look over and see what I can find! I will post back when I have some answers!

 

Just an update... it was the inner fender well that is rubbing with the left hand turn. Putting on a sway bar on Wednesday and hope that it helps some, after that I will see what the next step might be to get rid of the rubbing... thanks for all the suggestions!

 

So final update. The sway bar has fixed the rubbing issue! I cannot believe I waited this long to put one on! its like have a new a truck now!

 

Gotta love it when a plan comes together...good news for sure.