With the rear springs installed, thank you very much, the next part is the rear end. As you can see in the before picture below, this is one big rear end, I am talking J.Lo size baby.
The challenge is how to get the 400 pound rear end under the frame and into position. I have my “professional” reinforced dolly, my old man back support – just like they wear at The Home Depot, a hydraulic jack, many blocks of wood, and Preparation-H. All and all it worked out pretty well. With a few ups and downs, I got the rear end positioned properly and installed the U-bolts.
Okay, it wasn’t quite that simple, I first had to go through the spacer conundrum. It turns out GM used the same rear shackle for many models. The way they did this was to use a spacer to accommodate the different spring sizes. The conundrum is – which side does the spacer go – Port or Starboard? Let me translate the nautical analogy, the right way or the wrong way. The 1954 Truck Shop Manual which uses bold italics for important instructions stated that the spacers were on the inside of the shackle. Now for the hyperspace discontinuity, the 1954 Factory Assembly Manual shows the spacers on the outside of the shackle. She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…. Well I went with the Shop Manual instructions because I am a sucker for italics.
You got it, they go on the Port side matey. So once again I get to take it apart, move the spacers, and reinstall the springs. Belisima perfecto!
Yeah the rear end is on. In celebration I turn the u-joint pinion shaft a few times just to see the wheels turn, well it just seems like too much play. I mean I can turn it a mile and it seems to make a lot of noise. Brimmer is learning to listen to the little voices in his head - something is not right. So I use a life line and walk over to the Goodyear shop and ask them if they work on rear ends, my hope is a mechanic will come over to take a look. But no, they don’t work on them. Now I am desperate, I use a mobile shout out and call Richard, he is gracious enough to come over and take a look at my rear end. After he looked at the backlash, tolerance stack, reverb, and general wobbliness, he said the rear end was tougher than me and there was really nothing I could do to break it. He gave me a clean bill of health and the rear end is in!
Next were the rear shock absorbers and it’s always something. The bolt that holds the shock to the bottom hanger is 5/8 inch. That’s right and the hole in the hanger is 5/16 inch. Something ain’t right. Well I can make the hole bigger or get smaller bolts. Since they don’t sell the huge ass drill bits at The Home Depot, I opted for the smaller bolts, which to my surprise they had in stock.
With the rear shocks installed, all I had left was to install the last section of the drive shaft. This went on without any problems. Now I am nervous, because that means I did it wrong. The picture shows the fruits of my labor.
The old 1954 Chevy Truck has some serious booty.
The before picture shows how much progress was made.
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