56 Buick century torque tube too far forward

[Bgs]

I’m 12 years in to my “4 year” frame off restoration of a 1956 Buick century. Never done this before, doing it in my garage on my own, so it’s been slow going. I reassembled the suspension and rear axle to the frame with out the body on. 

I finally got the body back on the frame, engine and tranny are still out. But when I Lower the weight of the car on the rear axle , the rear wheels sit too far forward in the wheel well and rub the body. I can’t seem to get the rear axle to hang down straight from the frame. I have tried following the procedure from original maintenance manual by supporting the car with stands on the frame, removing the lower end of the shock absorbers, and removing the axle end of the rear radius rod such that the rear axle hangs loose.  Then lowering the weight of the car on the wheels and tightening lower end of shocks then rear radius rod. No change. The rear axle seems like it just wants to hang free biased towards the front of the car. 

 

To me, it seems like because there is no tranny installed, there is nothing to keep the torque tube from moving to the front of the car. But there must be some way to do this without the engine/tranny installed. Any suggestions?

[JohnD1956]

Someone here posted a picture of a wooden subframe he built to replicate the tranny  and then bolted the torque tube to the wooden subframe to place the rear axle in the correct position.  The wooden subframe was pretty simple and was not bolted to the car's frame itself.  I have not had the cause to try this but it seemed very ingenious. 

[Bloo]

Yep, the torque tube is the suspension member that locates the axle front to back. Without it the axle can flop wherever.

 

I imagine if you need it rollable with the transmission out, you'll have to build something.

[Bgs]

Hmm... I didn’t consider building something up front, I had just assumed i was doing something wrong in the reassembly in the rear. Maybe I can fabricate some sort of plate to attach to the torque tube with some blocking around it, but that might be too rigid. I’ll need to take a fresh look at how the torque tube/propeller normally attach to the torque ball housing and try to replicate. Thanks for the tip @Bloo!

 

Anyone else here encounter this already have an example solution in mind?

 

 

[Bgs]

Thanks @JohnD1956, I’ll look around to see if I can find that photo. 

 

Maybe I will ratchet strap the axel from the rear to pull it back while I insert some sort of blocking. And if the wood isn’t rigidly attached to the frame, maybe that will help it move around a bit if needed. I’ll post whatever I come up with. 

[JohnD1956]

I think rigid is the correct attribute. There is virtually no movement in the engine-trans combo when bolted into the frame mounts.

[avgwarhawk]

25 minutes ago, JohnD1956 said:

I think rigid is the correct attribute. There is virtually no movement in the engine-trans combo when bolted into the frame mounts.

 

I concur.  I would fashion a bracket to bolt to the thrust pad mount and nose of the torque tube to keep it in the relative position as if the transmission was installed.  

[Guest]

two of the cheap ratchet tie downs will work just fine.  Around the housing on each side and around the rear cross member.  Simplest way unless you were to use two pieces of 1/4" polypropelene rope.

[Bgs]

All. Thanks for the tips. I ended up using the ratchet straps to pull it back. I drilled a 3” hole in a spare 2x6 I had and supported that with a 4x4 I mounted where the tranny cross member goes.