Rear suspension after tyre change

Hey guys,

looking for some thoughts if you wouldn'mind please. I changed the left rear tyre this morning, using the original jack, hooked under the notch on the rear bumper. I left the weight of the car on both the jack and a car stand (mainly on the stand) whilst I went to the garage to pump the tyre up. Came home, tyre on, jack down all ok, all in all about 30mins.

The problem is, now the car sits quite a bit high on the back corner that I lifted. Is it something that takes a bit of time for the suspension to re settle? I've stood on the bumper, bounced it up and down etc and have done some local driving, but its still very high. Any thoughts? Is it possible to have 'twisted' the back end somehow??

Cheers

Dave

 

some of those fords if you jacked the car up too high the leaf spring shackle spun around and lifted up the back of the car . i don't remember which yrs but if it is correct it looks wrong

 

Well, its a unibody car. Any chance there is rust that you may or may not have been aware of? Do the doors open and close properly?

More likely, with the suspension at full droop, you rotated the shackle bushings or extended the shocks all the way, and now they "stuck" in that position. If this is the case, driving the car might allow it to settle back down after a while.

 

i think you may need to stick a screwdriver in the shackle and twist it . looking at my ford you would swear they are in upside or twisted the wrong way

 

Bounce the high side. If it doesn't bounce, the shock is fully extended and bound in the bore. If that's the case, you can usually get it back down, but it will leak shortly thereafter. If it's OK, and your shackle is flipped, you can flip it back with a BFS as suggested by 59 wagon man.

 

Thanks for your answers guys. The shackle has moved, so that the joint between the leaf the shackle has pushed up, and is resting on the chassis rail, and is basically higher than the where the shackle joins the body. Not sure if that makes sense, crappy phone camera doesn't have a flash so can't show a picture. But when I look at the other side, I can clearly see the are not in the same position. I'll jack it up again tomorrow and wrangle it loose with BFS.

Much appreciated
Dave

 

makes sense, if it looks right it's wrong kinda thing. nice wagon

 

You just ain't right!

 

Just jack up the other side, for ginormous rake!

 

So I've jacked the old girl up again, and am working with tyre iron (don't have a BFS as it turns out) to try and maneuver the shackle back to its original position, but even with the weight of the axle and tyres hanging, it still springs up in the wrong position. Its a real SOB, I cant get much room to move with fuel tank and rear under floor well all in the way. I need to get it so that the two pivot points line up underneath each other, but as yet no joy. Its as though the rubber bushes have slipped, and are now pulling it back up towards the chassis rail.

 

Are you able to jack up both rear wheels at once? You may have to. Chug it on down to your local shop with a lift. Maybe for 1/2 hour labor charge they can fix it easy.

 

Tire iron, BFS, fuel tank...............

 

Hi Krash,

Yeah, I have jacked up on stands at the moment, just enough to clear the ground. I have the driver side tyre off, and the passenger side on, but suspended in the air...... I had thought of the local shop, its literally just around the corner.

ModelT, I know what you're saying, however the angle and movement of BFS and tyre iron are sort of parallel so shouldn't be any damage. I hope. (or are you thinking sparks?)

 

Actually, a BFS is crooked 45 degrees on the end. This allows a variety of angles which aren't possible with a straight pry bar. I even had one in my shop that was 3 feet long and one inch in diameter. We called it "the persuader."

 

if i remember correctly this was a 2 man job ,one holding the bfs with the shackle in the right location while a 2nd person lets the jack down putting the weight back on the spring and popping it into place