Thank you 28phonebooth, your explanation turned on the light bulb. Makes sense now. I will check those measurements. Stay tuned everybody…
In looking at your picture it seems that the mount on the rear end is wider than the spring eye. Maybe it’s just the camera angle.
Not sure about the 33-34 ch***is however seems all 32 's have evidence of indented & pooched out frame rails directly over the rear axle indicating bottoming out, overloading, rear collision etc. the later production ch***is were fitted with inside rail supports to counter the issue. Much has been discussed elsewhere regarding the root cause of which mentioned in addition to the above, a 70-80 lb. full fuel tank, overloaded rumble seat (when the mother in-law goes for a ride), & with a pickup most any overloading weight one could imagine. It would seem this same tweaking over the axle issue if severe enough could result in the frame from that point to the rear being slightly tipped down & along with it an ever so slight at***ude change of the crossmember & tipping of the spring alignment independent of the spring hangers...thoughts ?
I found online that v8 torque tubes are 61 13/16” long and mine measures that. Here are more pictures for your enjoyment…lol.
Installed Posies main leaf on the rear end ***embly and jacked it up inside the crossmember and bolted it in. Had to guess at pinion angle though. Took some measurements on both sides, distance between front and rear of spring eyelets and spring mounts. Differences are .14” on p*** side and .08” on drv side.
Quit screwing around & go find yourself a stock '34 spring. Put it in and be done with it !!! Can't beat genuine Ford parts. Come buy my place & I'll give you one . . .
Did you put jack stands under the rear end & let the weight of the frame close the gap between the rear end housing & the frame? If you do that, it may take a little fiddling, but you should be able to achieve the ride height of the completed car. Do that & you will see how the shackles will be positioned when the car is finished. Does this make sense?
I have my original spring but because I lowered the front end I wanted to go with a posies lowered for the rear. I’m in NC, Cali too far to drop in but thanks. yes, jack stands are now under the axle housing. Today I am going to install just the original main leaf to see what that looks like.
One side has a new metal and rubber coverd bolt ***y that is longer than the other side which has a shorter ***y. They should be the same legnth. Or you can just run them as is, probably be fine.
One of the shakle bolts that they go on is longer than the other so the shakles are miss aligned because of it. Thinking Cap on.
Ok got it but the Speedway brand shackles I tried to use are not. Both bolts are same length. A buddy of mine has some Ford style shackles that I am going to use.
I misspoke Pete, I didn’t have the jackstands under the axle housings. They were under the frame so I lifted it up and put them under the housings but it bottomed out on the welded on shock mounts on the front side of the crossmember. Lifted back up and added the top 5 leafs for spacers and tried again. All looks perfect to me..!!
At the end of the day, the spring must be parallel with the rear end, and the spring eyes and spring-mount eyes must be parallel to each other. ***uming that you have managed the former, seems like bending the spring-mount eyes so they are parallel to the spring eyes is the easy solution.
First I will say that camera angles can make things look different than what they are. Looking at the pictures, when the spring is mounted in a "free state" rather than installed into the frame crossmember, everything looks like its in proper alignment and relationship. Once its placed into the crossmember and tightened into place, the spring leaves go out of alignment as well as the shackles. To my way of thinking, there are three variables here. 1. The spring. Since the spring lines up well in the free state, I think it is properly bent. Seems unlikely that the spring eyes would be lined up properly with rear end brackets in free state if they were wrong. 2. The crossmember. Since it is an OEM installed part and original rivets appear to still be in place.....and it doesn't appear to be bent from an accident. That seems unlikely as a problem source as well. 3.The rearend. Is it possible that the rearend is maybe 1/4"-3/8" too far back ? Or tilted too much? Trying to look at this logically, so maybe there is another explanation, but thats how it appears to me.
All good points Ekimneirbo but the only way to make sure rear is in right position and right pinion angle is to have engine/trans in place to bolt front of torque tube. I don’t have my engine available. I might be able to use some old rear engine mount and empty trans case to bolt in place to bolt tube to. more pictures of original and Posies main spring. Original is slightly twisted out of shape on one end.
Are you sure that frame is ok ? perhaps ok but that left side rail where it transitions to the inner reinforcement looks to be hammered & worked over.
When surveying the possibility of using a 34 rear crossmember in a 32 ch***is I found it to be approximately 3" too wide so put it aside. ***uming the 32-34 springs & rear spring hangers are equivalent I never quite understood the fact the 33-34 crossmembers being wider the 'U bolt holes are 1/2" further outboard which would seem to alter or tip the spring at***ude as it is secured further out on the curve of the spring, an insignificant amount perhaps & it must be correct just thinking out loud.
When you had the main leaf and five spacer leafs with weight on the axle and axle on jack stands, you said the angles all looked good, would the inner shackle plate slide on with reasonable amount of effort? Those two pictures looked pretty good to me ( an uneducated in Ford's, observer ).
I am late to this conversation but it appears that maybe the rear end was taken apart and the axle housings were installed with the hangers facing UP I seem to think the typical 32-34 hangers are facing down not up as in the photos, I am not stating this as an expert but as an interested observer my 2 cents I just went on line and saw pictures of stock 32-34 rear end ***emblies and this rear looks correctly ***embled MY BAD!
Are my eyes deceiving me or does the shackle on the spring side look smaller than on the axle side? It might be the angle of the pic though …. I apologize if someone all ready asked this ….
Maybe you have a 4 cyl torque tube. V8’s and B’s used different length torque tubes. They installed the trans mount in either direction to accommodate this. It looks to me that the only thing wrong is the torque tube is pushing the spring too far back.
^^^ How would the length of the torque tube matter if the front of it isn't connected to anything? Personally I think not having the front connected to a transmission is a big part of why he is having problem. When ever we put a rear back under a Ford after work; first thing was connect the torque tube and then swing the spring up into the crossmember.
∆∆∆ In his first post he stated that he has not installed the engine and transmission. Without at least the transmission there is nothing to connect the torque tube to. Closest picture of it shows blue tape covering the bell of the torque tube.
My torque tube is correct for v8. I found the tube length to be 61 13/16”. I’ve ordered a new set of Ford style shackles to use. May try to mock up my trans (without engine) in place by bolting it to the frame and then bolt torque tube to it or use my spare trans case and parts for mock-up.
I guess I really need to wait until my motor and trans are in place before I install the rear ***embly.
The trans mount can be installed without the the trans. I would just unbolt the mount ears and see how it all looks.
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