My apologies up front if this is stupid question but, I need to ask it. I recently pulled the bed out of my ’54 Chevy 3100 to work on the bed sills and remove the aftermarket fuel tank the previous owner installed. However after doing the work I noticed something strange. With the truck in [u]PARK[/u], if I grab hold of the side of the bed and rock the truck forward and backwards (just the inch or two that it’ll allow) the entire rear end pivots up & down. Rock the truck backwards and the nose of the differential housing noticeably raises up. Rock it forward and nose dips down. This is all while the driveshaft is still in place. I’ve worked on cars as an enthusiast for decades, and honestly, the only time I’ve dealt with a rear end is while the vehicle was up on a lift, or jack-stands. And I’ve never worked on a rolling chassis. So this is the 1st time I’m viewing this, from this angle, under these circumstances. I don’t know if this is “normal”. I thought the rear end never moved and if it did it wouldn’t be this noticeable to the naked eye, and the U joint was there to handle any movement (?). I should also note, the previous owner also lowered the truck. I’m not sure whether or not he removed one (or more) leafs from the rear springs. If so, is it possible he just might not have tightened back up the U-bolts that secure the rear end to the springs properly? Hence, allowing the entire rear end to rotate slightly?
Again, maybe this is a whole lot ado about nothing, but seeing this is a 1st for me, so I wanted to try and get some input from the forum. Thanks in advance for anyone’s input/advice. John
