HELP?! Rear Wheel Carrier Ball Joints in, can't line everything back up

[lapierce]

I've been a long time user of the site but this is my first post. I have scoured the archives for a specific answer to this, and can't find it.

My wife's 2001 3.0i developed the typical rear end squeak, first one side, then the other. My indy wanted like $1,000 to replace the wishbone arms and ball joints, which he was quite sure was causing the squeak. Hard to justify $1k for a noise, so we dealt with it for over a year. I decided after much research to attempt the DIY.

I ordered the Febi parts and rented the ball joint removal tool from faxman14. Well, now I'm about 6 hours in and the new ball joint and wishbone arm is installed on one side but cannot figure how to get the long eccentric bolt back in.

It is supposed to go right through the swing arm, then through the ball joint, then through the integral link, then out through the other end of the integral link.

HOWEVER....the wheel carrier ball joint ended up a good 2" below the swing arm, and I cannot figure how to maneuver everything so that it all lines up. Up top, the wheel carrier is tensioned by the spring right against the drive shaft. I have tried a crow bar to move it around (being careful not to pry against the drive shaft!) but cannot get the wheel carrier lifted up much at all.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Sincerely,
Lee