Can't get rear wheels on my 73 Fury ?!?!

[V8Pacer]

There is not enough room between the drum and wheel opening lip to mount my rear wheels. I must be doing something wrong. Rear of the car is sitting on stands which are sitting under the frame, not the axle. Tires are 225/75-15. Is jacking up one side at a time the solution? Is the fact the my car has police rear spring part of the problem? Stiffer springs aren't allowing the axle to drop far enough? I could put a bottle jack between the frame and axle to force the axle down further. But I know it shouldn't be necessary to do this. It shouldn't be this difficult to mount rear wheels on a 73 Fury. Thanks for any help.

 

[413]

One side at a time with the other rear tire on the ground makes all the difference. It will fit fine.

 

[CBODY67]

What limits the rear axle "drop" is the shock absorbers, not the springs. Might try to unhook the bottom of the shocks, install the wheel/tires, then re-attach the shock absorbers.

Unless you also might have some less-than-stock backspacing wheels, I would suspect that everything should fit as it should, considering that that tire size (or the equivalent HR78-15) came on the car from the factory.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[V8Pacer]

I'll do one side at a time as suggested. If that doesn't work I'll disconnect the rear shocks. Thanks Guys.

Picked up my plates from my insurance company today. Finely after 4 years I'm getting this car on the road.

 

[Xenon]

Remove the fender skirts.............................................

 

[my5thmopar]

Ya get the wheels off? Seems strange with the axle hanging that they won’t go on. Craig

 

[V8Pacer]

I got the right rear wheel on by putting a floor jack under the left rear drum. When I dealt with the left side wheel all 3 wheels were mounted and on the ground. Jacked up the left rear with a bumper jack almost as far as it would go and could not get the wheel on. Had to remove the brake drum and place it inside the wheel and then I could get the wheel on. Wasn't to difficult to reinstall the brake drum this way. Not sure why this is so difficult. My Fury is a factor built taxi which came with police suspension and 11" X 2-1/2" drums. Maybe the tall drums and less suspension travel has something to do with it? I'm glad I didn't buy 235/75-15 tires. 225/75-15 is the biggest tire that will fit. 225s do look right on this car. Not to small, not to big.

 

[CBODY67]

Now that the tire/wheels are on the car and it is on the ground, reach up inside the two rear wheel houses and using your hand/fist, check to see if the clearance between the tire and the outer part of the wheelhouse is the same for both sides. On my '66 Newport, they are not the same. One one side, I could get a sidewall tire brush between the tire and sheet metal easily, but it scraped the handle on the other side. Same with the '70 Monaco, too.

Just some observations,
CBODY67

 

[BAD69FURY]

The way I like to do this is loosen your rear lug nuts first while the car is on the ground, then jack up the rear under the rear axle pumpkin high enough to put 2 jack stands underneath each side of the frame rails just in front of the rear wheels. Then once the jack stands are in place lower the rear end until the car rests on the jack stands, then slowly release/lower the jack to allow the rear axle to drop as much as you can to make more space in the wheel well. Then remove your wheels. Works every time

 

[BAD69FURY]

This allows you to change both rear wheels at the same time.

 

[BAD69FURY]

Forgot to mention, keep the jack under the pumpkin the whole time while doing this, you may need to raise or lower the axle up or down to remove the wheel.

 

[commando1]

 

[V8Pacer]

View attachment 496979

My car doesn't have fender skirts.

 

[MetalManiacAZ]

Now that the tire/wheels are on the car and it is on the ground, reach up inside the two rear wheel houses and using your hand/fist, check to see if the clearance between the tire and the outer part of the wheelhouse is the same for both sides. On my '66 Newport, they are not the same. One one side, I could get a sidewall tire brush between the tire and sheet metal easily, but it scraped the handle on the other side. Same with the '70 Monaco, too.

Just some observations,
CBODY67

By chance does the driver's side have less clearance? My '66 300 is the same way. I thought I was losing my mind when I installed my 235's.

 

[V8Pacer]

The way I like to do this is loosen your rear lug nuts first while the car is on the ground, then jack up the rear under the rear axle pumpkin high enough to put 2 jack stands underneath each side of the frame rails just in front of the rear wheels. Then once the jack stands are in place lower the rear end until the car rests on the jack stands, then slowly release/lower the jack to allow the rear axle to drop as much as you can to make more space in the wheel well. Then remove your wheels. Works every time

This is what I did as stated in my first post. With the frame sitting on 2 jack stands I could not get the wheels past the wheel opening lip and brake drum.

 

[BAD69FURY]

View attachment 496979

I don’t have skirts either, that’s another ball game entirely.

 

[BAD69FURY]

By chance does the driver's side have less clearance? My '66 300 is the same way. I thought I was losing my mind when I installed my 235's.[/QUOU

yeah I noticed that too, my driver side had less clearance, had to lower the axle as much as I could and angle the tire to wedge it out .

 

[BAD69FURY]

This is what I did as stated in my first post. With the frame sitting on 2 jack stands I could not get the wheels past the wheel opening lip and brake drum.

I see, well last resort, let air out of your tires while doing this and fill them back up.

 

[Big_John]

Something is really wrong here... and I think it needs to be diagnosed and addressed.

Your tires aren't that large that there should be any problem.

It's obvious the rear isn't "drooping" enough when the car is jacked up. There's some cause to this... and it may come back to bite you really hard somewhere along the line. If nothing else, changing a rear tire on the side of the road isn't going to happen...

My bet is the shocks are too short. Given the car has been around for almost 50 years and it may have been in service as a taxi (I'm not sure based on what I'm reading here) who knows what could have been bolted in place to get the car back in service faster. IIRC, a C-body shock has more travel than a B-body shock although you could easily bolt the B-body shock in place. I would also suppose that frozen rear shackles or front bushings might also limit travel and I would check those too.

So, the easiest and quickest check would be to unbolt the two shocks at the axle mounts as was mentioned above. I think that really needs to be done even if the wheels are in place now. A visual check of the shackles and front spring bushing (at minimum) is also in order.

 

[CBODY67]

To @Big_John's point, there are TWO rear shocks for those C-bodies, one part number of which is shorter than the other one. I ran across that years ago doing shock upgrade research. In some respects, the listings were a bit murky at that time, but seems like one was for the HD suspension, C-body wagons, and B-bodies? That was the shorter one. I was doing his 40-some years ago, so it could be possible that some more current listings just show one shock, the shorter one. In a move to consolidate similar part numbers and save inventory costs.

Just some recollections . . .
CBODY67