Joe's Rear Axle Replacement tool-

[George Des]

In one of your posts, you mentioned you had a tool that you use that facilitates re-attachning the rear axle torsion arms to the cones on the underside of the body. I'm contemplating installing a recently rebuilt 3.92 axle and I've been dreading doing it because of the difficulty I had installing the original axle during my restoration. The arms were most difficult to get back up into place. Would it be possible to put up a photo of the tool you use?

Thx

George Desiderio

[waqas]

Hi George,

Joe showed me the tool at PUB this year. These are the pictures I took (sorry they are blurry).

He made the tool out of suitably sized exhaust pipe and made cuts on one end so he could curve them inwards, and the welded a nut in there. He also welded a suitable nut at the other end, made to fit the big bolt for attaching the trailing arm.

It basically is very similar to the tool shown in the BBB.

[ja17]

Helo George,

I will take a pic and post it when I get home this evening.

[DavidBrough]

Hi George,

When I changed my rear axle I first tried to fit the trailing arms with the springs in place which proved impossible for me to do so I then fitted both trailing arms without the springs to pull the axle into place and then fitted the springs one side at a time which proved to be straight forward and quite easy to do on my own.

[jeffc280sl]

David makes a great suggestion to secure the axle and then install the springs one at a time.  It's likely you will need to move the axle forward 1/2 to 1 inch to center it under the cone.  This can be accomplished with a nylon come along or adjustable strap sold in Home Depot.

[waqas]

The pictures are now uploaded in my post below. I had technical difficulties when first uploading them, sorry.

I always find that the arms need some lateral movement to get them aligned. I haven't tried the technique of installing the springs afterwards because I typically don't use a spring compressor when working with the rear (except the compensating spring). Might be worth a try next time.

[George Des]

Thanks, guys. This helps. Will give it a try first w/o the springs installed.

George