With all of the part and pieces on hand including the cut down axles, the disk brake kit and new axle bearings and seals it was time to finalise the rear end housing onto the frame one last time.
I measured the front leaf spring brackets to make sure that the rear end housing center would be at the correct point on the frame and that the mounts were equal distance from the rear of the frame to ensure that the car would not “crab walk” when complete and I welded the mounts to the frame while using a pipe thru the mounting holes on the front leaf spring brackets so that the leaf springs would be level, centered and would not be binding when completed.
I checked to make sure the the rear end housing was centered in the frame and that the center line of the rear end aligned with the frame in the long axis and then installed the U bolts and and rear end shock brackets and double checked alignments and locations of the rear in the frame. With the rear end housing on the springs I will be able to mount the axles, disk brake top hat and rotors and install the calibers so that the caliber mounts can be correctly spot welded to the rear end housing along with the ladder bar mounts.
I will need to weigh down the rear end before I install and weld in the shackle mounts so that they are at the correct angle with the weight of the car on the springs. I will use a spare Buick Nailhead 401 motor to simulate 500 lbs on each leaf to establish the shackle mounting points.
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