Taking off a set of ladder bars off of my 70 Chevelle for good. Removed passenger side ladder bar and lower control arm and spring. Problem is rear end shifted towards front and I can't get the arm back in. Any ideas...I did what the shop manual said to do.

I had this happen before, i used a jack under the arm or frame whatever it may be to jack the holes back into alignment to shoot the boltback in there. I am not that strong so i have to use jacks to mak eup for it.

Good luck, mine took me about 4 hours to get the bolt holes into my arms after i removed them both @ the same time.

As gumball said, it needs to be closer to normal riding height before it will come together - use a jack to get things back to "normal"

it's not the up and down that's the problem, I need the rear end to move towards the back

Try it. It should move your axle back at the same time.

tried that already....didn't work

Originally posted by chevelless1:
tried that already....didn't work Try jacking under the front of the rearend. That should get it to pivot backwards so that you can install the upper bolt(s). Then you can jockey the height around to put in the lowers. I made this mistake installing new bushings and spent 3 hours monkeying with it. graemlins/clonk.gif

Good Luck!!

Where did you put the jack stands? Under the rear axles? Or under the frame with the rear end hanging? Reason I ask is that they usually shift rearwards when you unbolt the lower control arm.
Its possible the other ladder bar is binding somehow.Try loosening it up.worse comes to worse you can always use a come-a long to pull it back into position.

I put them under the frame

Had the same problem, and jacking the axle up was my solution. Don't understand why it doesn't work for you. Any photos we could check out? Do you have things removed from both sides of the axle?

I only have one side off. I don't have any pictures. You think the fact that I only have one side off could be it? Thought I heard of people doing only one side at a time.

chevelless1, I am removing my lower arms now. The left side bolts are a real pain, not much luck yet. I am probably going to sawsall the bolts out. If the rearend moves too much I am going to try removing the driveshaft and the shock on the side that the removed arm is on, then is should be able to move the rear end around enough. Maybe a second floor jack on the axle tube to help move it abit. Let me know how it works out.

I guess I'll take off the other side this weekend and see what happens.

If you need to get the rear end back, use a tie down strap with ratchet. This worked great on my 67 for aligning the lower holes.

Don't know for sure if it matters whether or not both sides are off, but it seems logical that it would. And if both sides are off, you should be able to place it where you need to. Although that ratchet idea sounds good...

A floor jack under the pumpkin and a bottle jack under the pinion snout. Set height with the floor jack and front rear with the bottle jack. Going up with the bottle jack will swing the bottom of the rear end forward. At least, that's how I did it. It's best to do one side at a time. I had mine out completely once and it was a bear to get lined up. Once one side was in place the other was easy. Another trick that might help is to grind a taper on the end of the bolts. This will let them pull the bushing into place. If you have a tapered drift pin you can use that to pull the holes into alignment.

well I removed the drivers side and the passenger side lined up nicely, now the drivers side doesn't line up. I'll try the jack under the rear end to see if it will line up.

Didn't read this thread until now. Seems your problem and solution is fairly simple. XTREME70SS396 has it right, the rearend will line up properly at the proper ride height. Easiest way to do this is disconnect the lower shock mounts and pull both of the springs. Of course, this would be with jackstands under the frame. Next, jack up the rearend until you can get the upper arm that's off back on. The lower one will bolt right up, then. Put your springs back in, hook up your shocks. I had the same problem once, about 15 years ago. Been using this method since, and it still works great. The angle on the upper arms is the biggest pain. They need to basically be parallel with the ground to line up, which means getting the rear up there. Too hard to do with springs in. Hope this helps.

Darren

well I finally got both control arms on. Used another jack under the front of the differential. Now all i have to do is put on the new shocks and new sway bar and I'm good to go. I forgot, I also have to put in those darn rubber bumpers by the shocks in those tiny slots