Rear Axle

[49 Caddy]

  I have my 49 Cadillac Series 61 on a lift and have been doing undercarriage restorations.  Rear shocks and links rebuilt, etc...  Problem is, I let the car back down to put tires in dollies so I can move the car around and the rear leaf spring shackle on the drivers side folds up and hits the frame rail.  Passenger side hangs as it should.  I did have the rear stabilizer rod out to replace the round bushings, thought that might be the problem.  Re-installed with new bushings, same issue.  Anybody else had the same problem?  Thanks in advance for responses.  1st pic. is drivers side, 2nd is passenger.

[J. Russo]

Glenn,

The same thing happened to me with my 1941 Series 63 when I had it on jack stands all winter long. Mine happened on the left side also.

After doing some research I found that this is not uncommon with the old Cadillacs. I can't explain an exact procedure I used to resolve it, but I ended up using multiple lengths of 2x4s and wedged them in certain areas between the spring and the frame. I kept raising and lowering the left side until I could manuever the spring to go back to it's normal position.

[35-709]

Common on lots of older cars with this type of rear suspension setup, went through it on my '42.  Next time you want to jack it up, place a wood wedge as shown below before lifting the car.
   

[49 Caddy]

  Thanks for responses.  Guess what the task for the day is?

[Rossoroo]

That happens with my 49 every time you let the rear axle hang.As the photo shows it looked pretty ridiculous. I would fix it by jacking each side up separately to get the shackle pointing reward. I now jack the centre of the diff. in order to keep this from happening.
35-709s suggestion of wedging the shackle is brilliant.

[z3skybolt]

It wasn't an issue when these cars were new. Lifts were generally "drive on" and the vehicle was lifted while sitting on the tires.  Today vehicles are lifted via the frame. Thus the shackles on our old leaf springs reverse and jam.

It is a common problem.  Solutions that work have been suggested here.

Bob R.

[35-709]

35-709s suggestion of wedging the shackle is brilliant.

Thank you Ross, but the credit belongs to someone else here.  When that happened to me, I knew what had happened but how to prevent it happening again was suggested to me by someone else here.  Wish I could remember who it was, but can't right now. 

[J. Russo]

There are a few different methods on this forum to resolve this problem.

I thought I would provide some input to this since it just happened to me when removing my rear shocks from my 1941 Series 63. The left rear spring flipped on me when I jacked the rear up by the frame.

I took some photos this time on how I resolved the problem.

1. Place a floor jack under the frame just in front of the bracket that holds the emergency brake cable in place. Raise the car to a point where the wheel is about an inch above the ground.
2. Cut a piece of 2x4 and place it between the bracket (if there is one) around the leaf spring for the jack stand and the frame in front of the fuel filler tube.
3. Place another floor jack under the same bracket with just enough tension so the leaf spring bracket will rest on it when lowering the other jack.
4. Very slowly lower the jack under the frame and watch to make sure the end of the leaf spring is moving in the right direction. Lower the jack just enough to where the end of the spring is in a good position. You don't want the 2x4 wedged too tightly.
5. Knock the 2x4 out of the way with a hammer.
6. Lower the jack under the spring.
7. Lower the "frame" jack the rest of the way.
8. The Leaf spring should be in the correct position.

I guess the moral of this story is to jack these Cadillacs by the axle instead of the frame to avoid having to deal with this.

[Lexi]

Thank you Ross, but the credit belongs to someone else here.  When that happened to me, I knew what had happened but how to prevent it happening again was suggested to me by someone else here.  Wish I could remember who it was, but can't right now. 

Could have been in this older CLC Forum posting. Clay/Lexi

https://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=120558.msg209551#msg209551