Okay, so I have a 1983 firebird that came with 15" wheels. I put 16" WS6 wheels on it and noticed then the passenger side rubs the fender lip behind the wheel when going slow at hard turn. I didn't notice it before because it didn't rub with the 15" wheels, but when I look closely the wheel doesn't seem centered in the wheelwell, so I measured from the center of the hub to each fender edge. On the driver side the hub is centered dead even between the front and rear fender edges. In the passenger side that rubs it sits about 1/2 inch rear of center. Now I've gotten a good look underneath and I didn't see any glaring issues with bends or damage.
I can rule out:
Steering components (tie rods, idler arm, steering link bar, etc... are all new)
Alignment - car was aligned after steering components were installed.
Bent strut - new strut was put on prior to alignment.

So it pretty much has to be a subtle bend in the A-Arm, right? Or maybe not? I don't know if it was ever replaced, but I read somewhere on here that 82-83 used the same A-Arms as 84-92, but the bushings are different - could that be an issue? I don't see factory control arms anywhere new for sale when I search by year/make/model, and I don't really want to spend the money on tubulars (although I will if I need to, I saw BMR makes a set and I have them on my foxbody and love them).

TIA

 

Two things come to mind. That the lower A-Arm is bent or the k-member mounting tabs for it are bent (car could have been curbed). I guess a bent spindle would also fit into this area.

The second is that the k-member is a bit loose, possibly missing mounting bolts, and has shifted.

RBob.

 

Thank you, I hadn't considered the K-member tabs and I didn't know the Kmember could shift, so I'll check that too. I'll get under it tonight and tomorrow and take measurements from both sides to compare. Appreciate the insight!

 

K memeber has locating pins so I'm not sure how much it can move but anything is possible.
if looking close You'll notice a lot of things aren't equal or centered on these cars

 

Body panels just hang on the car and are not the reference point for aligning suspension. All suspension points are relative to frame. Dimensions are given in a diagram in the GM service manual.