5.75" backspacing in the front of a '69 El Camino

[hotrodalex]

Just from googling and searching this forum it looks like 5.5"-5.75" backspacing on a '68-72 Chevelle/El Camino is fine, but what about if I'm running drop spindles? Looking at my car it looks like the steering arms will be close but with a larger rim diameter that might not be an issue. It's going to have a Hellwig front sway bar but it's not installed yet for me to check clearance on that. Stock bar doesn't look like it will cause a problem.

Any thoughts?

[andrewb70]

Just from googling and searching this forum it looks like 5.5"-5.75" backspacing on a '68-72 Chevelle/El Camino is fine, but what about if I'm running drop spindles? Looking at my car it looks like the steering arms will be close but with a larger rim diameter that might not be an issue. It's going to have a Hellwig front sway bar but it's not installed yet for me to check clearance on that. Stock bar doesn't look like it will cause a problem.

Any thoughts?

On my GTO I am using AFX spindles, so I do not know how that compared to whatever drop spindles you are considering. I just widened my front wheels to 9.5" which resulted in a 6.5" back spacing. It was rubbing pretty foot at the extreme of wheel travel against my Hotchkis sway bar. I installed .5" spacers on the front, and the rubbing is much less, but still there. It is totally livable for me, but your perspective might be different.

I say if you are going to run 5.75" backspacing, that will be fine. I am running a 275/35-18 tire.

Andrew

[hotrodalex]

Worse comes to worse some .25" spacers should work, I suppose.