The Chrysler K-Car Club

when driving my 86 reliant i hear a rubbing sound comming from the back when going over small bumps, the car origially came with 13 in wheels but someone had switched them to 14 inch, can anyone solve this annoying problem

is it a constant rubbing?, check the wheel wells and see if theres any sign of scraping. if theres scraping against the wells then you can either get a diff set of wheels and tires, take the wells out(wouldnt recommend in snowy areas). otherwise id check your rear shock absorbers to see if there sagging and making your wells scrape against your tire. if its not that id check the hub and see if anythings going on back there with it.

its only when i go over small bumps, im guessing its the shocks because it sounds like the tire is hitting the top of the wheel well

its not the size of the wheels, but the tires that may be the problem. the correct size for a k car is 185-70-14. that is for the factory 14 x 5.5 rims. with 15x6 rims from many other k based cars, the correct tire would be a 195-60-15. basically you need a tire with a 24.2" outside diameter - 205-50-15 and 205-45-17 if you want more sizes to choose from. a 6.5" wide rims should clear, but a fatter tire would need less backspacing (i.e. - stick out farther) to fit. on a side note, the spirit es and rt runs a 205-60-15 tire which is equivalent to the 205-50-17 on the srt-4 (they are both 24.5" outside diameter).

but you really shouldn't have a problem with rear tires rubbing unless the tires are way taller than stock or your springs are really shot but in that case the bump stops should hold up the car. perhaps your track bar is bent or something is worn under the car. i got a bit of a clank out of my k car wagon....i 'm pretty sure its the exhaust pipe wiggling a bit and clanking against the suspension while cornering hard. might have to do some tweaks underneath. even some worn bushings can cause some noise. there are many possibilities