P-Methoxy- and p-nitro substituted analogues (1b and 1c) of the diaxial β-chlorothioether 2β-chloro-3α-(phenylthio)-5α-cholestane (1a), have been prepared and found to undergo the diaxial → diequatorial rearrangement. The rates of rearrangement of these compounds show the sequence p-methoxy > H > p-nitro. It is concluded that the transition state for the rearrangement is polarized in the sense of a sulfonium chloride (3). The rearrangement of 1a is 1600 times faster in butanol than in decalin (at 110°). There is thus no inherent insensitivity to solvent change in a rearrangement in which there may be a "four-atom arrangement" in the transition state, a conclusion relevant to previous work on the diaxial → diequatorial rearrangement of 1,2-dibromides (1). It was further found that the nitro group slowed the rearrangement (at 110°) more in butanol than in decalin, an observation regarded as consistent with, but not requiring, the incursion of a merged ion-pair, cyclic concerted mechanism.