Changing the Differential Pinion Angle

My spring wedges (sounds like a potato treat with greens), arrived yesterday so last night I set about separating the axle from the leaf spring on one side of the car. I jacked up the car under the diff housing then placed the two rear body jacking points on axle stands. Then I lowered the jack until it was only just supporting the weight of the rear diff/axle.
The U clamps came off pretty easily (with the aid of some CRC56).Once the U clamps were off, I jacked up the axle slightly to removed the top rubber mount.

You can see the leaf spring centre pin that locates the spring on the rubber mounts (next photo).

A slightly blurry picture of the U clamps, upper and lower spring mounts and shiny new two degree wedge.

 

View from the rear of the car.

The spring wedge in the upper insulator/mount. The upper rubber insulators are not in very good condition but I tried unsuccessfully this morning to get new ones. I'll put these back in and keep trying to find a replacement now that I know how easy it is to "drop' the rear axle. I think I'll make a thin wedge to go in that gap in the wedge as well.

The left hand side - still intact. I'm doing one side at a time. That way the "other" side holds everything in place and I don't have to worry that the whole axle will fall out on the floor - tearing the brake lines in the process. The oil stains are an old testimony to (now-replaced) leaking rear oil seals.
I'd love to pull the springs out and clean the whole lot up but I want the Vogue back on the road ASAP. Maybe next year...

A couple of paragraphs from the workshop manual. It's interesting that Mr Rootes sometimes fitted wedges. No, I didn't find any.