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During rear suspension assembly of my 69 restoration, I was connecting the drivers side half shaft and found that there is a gap about the size of the Grand Canyon between the spindle flange and the u-joint flange. Ok, it's more like 3/4's of an inch but at this point in the assembly, seems like a major set-back to me. I switched from OEM trailing arms to offsets. I put the same amount of shims when installing them as the oem arms had. I installed the proper spindle bearing shim to gain the required endplay of the spindle. I don't know where to turn from here. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Is your trailing arm just hanging there or do u have it supported with a jack. Have u tried jacking up the trailing arm a bit with the jack to bridge the gap? Once the cars on the ground the shafts should be close to horizontal.
I'm by no means a expert on your situation but in thought I'm thinking when i have changed trailing arms on off road VW buggies I have always had to change to different axles to accommodate the extra length and or with. I would seam to think that your off set trailing arms would have to be matched with new half shafts as well, just my thought. hope that is not the case here, the shafts look gooood, hopefully someone will jump in and solve this problem for you . I have been trying to get a question answered about my alternator on my 69 all day yesterday and nothing yet at least someone has answered you, maybe with no help but it can lead you to other questions and answers you may not of known to ask or thought of, again good luck. firstvett69
csradley
I was just coming back to the computer to announce how much of a dumbazz I am when I saw your reply. Thank you very much for the info. Yes, I still had the frame suspended in the air with jack stands. As soon as I let it down the gap closed right up.
Now I need to see if there is an icon for a bonehead
Thank you again csradley for your supa-fast reply.
You have no idea how many people will do or have done the same thing!! I learn something new here everyday!
I hear ya and I've also seen it many times with other topics. What threw me off this time was that the passenger side half shaft hooked up nicely. Soooo, I didn't even dawn on me that the suspension could be off from just hanging there. After letting it down in frustration to quit for the day, that's when I noticed that the problem was solved.
Thanks again everyone for your replies. I've said it for years and still proves to be the case.......This place is the bomb!!!!