My own little backyard hell creeps slowly towards the light. Weekend three dawns with one side rebushed and ready for reassembly, the bolt finally broken loose on the other side, the brake hoses that got stretched to death replaced, and the new exhaust kit (the old exhaust broke while being removed for safekeeping) on it's way down from Tasca.

The current snag: I cannot find the "sweet spot" where the holes in the trailing arm align with the center-tube of the new bushing to reinstall the bolt. Is there a trick to this? I have gone up and down, up and down with a jack at various spots on the rear axle, and have tried levering things into line with a big screwdriver, but cannot get the holes to line up. HELP!

Right now I am flying solo, but can rope a friend into being jack-jockey when he comes over for lunch in a bit. Is this a 4-hand part of the procedure?

John

Fit the larger bush on the axle first, then the front of the TA to the car at the front smaller bush. That way you have the leverage of the arm itself.

They're good for pulling things into place
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Dan & chup:

thanks for your guidance! I eventually found that jacking from below, even with angled pieces of wood on the front of the diff housing, was just not doing the job. So I whipped out the scissors jack from the spare tire well, grabbed a piece of 2x4 scrap to protect the body, and used the jack to ease the end of the axle back into position. Like so:



Easy as pie. Now on to the other side, which cannot possibly take as long as the first one has.

John

Wow, I have to say, I never had that issue when I did my TAB's.

Doing the Torque rods, I had the car low to theh ground and with a small bottle jack under the Diff, close to the driveshfat it helped me rotate the axle until the Rods lined up easily with the mounts on the frame.

--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html

Good idea and a good pic!

If you have the back of the car held up by the jacking points or the frame so the rear axle is hanging then use a (presumably small) hydraulic jack and jack up the axle under the front part of the rear end so you're kinda twisting the axel as you go up. Obviously hold the arm in place as you go up too. You have to fiddle around to find the right spot to put the jack. Also, use a long and heavy duty Phillips screw driver (or something similar) so you can put it through where the bolt goes (aka the sweet spot) as you get close.

Are you doing one side at a time or are both sides disassembled?
Dan

Dan,

One side at a time. I figured it would be easier to line things up if only one end was able to move around.

John

Something about the axle is not lined up correctly, it could be up or down, left or right or the rotation front to back of the differential. You are just just going to have to play with it until it all falls in place.

Try getting the axle parallel to the ground then eyeball which way it is off and adjust from there. A large screw driver is a good tool to adjust the alignment, if it is close tap on it some with a hammer.
Dan