I am rebuilding the complete rearend on my 68(body off). i have the finished trailing arms in place and the new spring is hooked on the diff. and the shocks are ready to go but i cant seem to get the struts to seat right(they sit in the bracket hooked to the diff. at an angle), they are the originals with new bushings, but they have a little twist in them. they worked before and both are twisted, is this normal????? and does anyone know of a trick to hook the spring up to the trailing armsm its pretty strong, any tricks???

 

don't tighten the bolts...when you the car is sitting on all fours, the struts should straighten.

 

Hooking up the spring is one of the toughest things to do.
If possible wait until the body is back on the chassis to connect the spring. The added weight helps.
last body off I did I had to use floor jacks & ratcheting straps to hook the spring up it was a major PITA and took a couple of hours to do-especially hard if you're trying to be carful with the powder coated components

 

You definitely need the added weight on the chasis.
Steel or fiberglass spring? i think you said original so then its steel.
Once you figure out how to weigh the frame down, wrap something around the end of the steel spring a few inches inwards of the TA bolt hole. (towards center of car) Then put a very tight vise grip pliar on the spring, the cloth you wraped the spring in will someone protect the finish on the spring. Then use a floor jack and place the lift contact point right aside the vise grip and lift the spring up into place. The vise grip will stop the floor jack from slipping off the leaf spring as the arch changes. BE VERY CAREFUL. do not go near this spring at all and make sure everything is secure and no sliding is occuring. If this spring comes loose it can easily end your life or take some body parts with its recoil. As an added safety you could consider looping a ratchet strap around the spring and upper frame when the spring is in place. This way the spring is secure before you put your hand under it.

Just be very careful. If the frame isn't heavy enough which it won't be when you lift the spring with the floor jack the entire chasis will rise. Not good. Also be careful being under the frame doing all this as I assume your chaisis is on jack stands.
Safety first!!!!!!

 

i can try this tomorrow, but are the struts supposed to be a little twisted then??

 

the visegrip deal is a good idea, for the extra weight, i am going to use my tractor, i live on a farm and when i put the spring on the diff, i used the bucket to flatten the spring so i could sneak the new plate on and tighten the bolts, so im going to use the bucket again to hold the frame still while i jack up the spring. can i jack one side at a time or do i have to to them both at the same time? thanks for the replies guys.

 

Someone should come up with a tool or jig to do this. It would not be that difficult.

I've assembled 2 rear ends with the body off the cars in the past year. I would not call this a trick but it worked.

First thing to do after you have the differential mounted is install both trailing arms and half shafts. Tighten the half shaft bolts. Put the nuts on the TA pivot bolts but do not tighten them and don't put any shims in. You should be able to move the tailing arms up and down through their entire mortion by hand.

Second, mount the strut rod bracket with the struts installed at the bracket.

Third, raise the trailing arms up so the half shafts are parallel to the differential yokes. Block under the Trailing Arms where they enter the frame pocket with chunks of wood, cardboard, masonite or whatever.

Fourth, now connect the outer ends of the strut rods by inserting the shock mounts. Install the shock mount nuts but do not torque them.

Fifth is the spring. Mount the spring to the differntial cover. Snug the 4 spring mount bolts so the spring is against the cover but do not torque them. Install the 2 long outer bolts in the trailing arms and let them hang. The trailing arms shoud still be blocked up so the half shafts are parallel.

Sixth, I used 2 heavy duty, adjustable, wide jaw wood clamps from Home Depot and vise grips with cardboard and did 1 side at a time.

Mount the wood clamps so that they pull the end of the spring up towards the crossmember. Clamp the vise grips to the spring in order to keep the wood clamp jaw from slipping. Tighten the wood clamps in an alternating fashion and readjust as necessary. As the spring comes up, insert the spring bolts through the holes. Continue tightening the wood clamps untill there is enough bolt sticking through to get the big washer and rubber on and run the nut up a ways. Once the nut is started, use a wrench to tighten until it is full of threads.

Install shims on the trailing arms.

Do not torque the spring mount bolts, strut rods, and trailing arm pivot nuts until the car is resting on the ground at ride height.

 

thanks alot for this, it really does help, i had no idea what i should do first thanks again.