trailing arm bushings

[e30love]

The easy way i found was to heat the metal sleeve in the center and hit it with a punch. Then pull the bushing out. You don't have to take the arm off the half shaft. if you want more info pm me.

[redhatpat]

I want more info, but why don't you just post it here for everyone to see?

[tonytony]

are you talking about taking off the stock rubber bushings?

[e30love]

Yes the stock rubber bushings. Redhatpat what would you like to know?

[redhatpat]

You're saying you were able to swap out the bushings without removing the trailing arm from the axle shaft? Is this possible, is there room to do this? And what did you use to remove the old bushing, and press the new one in?

This is something I'll be doing in a few months, and I'd love to make it as easy as possible with as little rear suspension disassembly as I can get away with.

[e30love]

Well i lowered the sud frame and unbolted the diff. the disconnected the sway bar end links, shocks and pull out the springs. Then i disconnect the upper rubber brake line and unbolt the arms. now you can move the arm backwards to the rear of the car and drop below the sub frame. Then i heated the the metal sleeve in the center until the rubber had burned off the sleeve. I place a punch in the sleeve and hit the punch with a hammer. The metal then falls out and you can use a screwdriver to pull the rubber out. I put in three peace sport tuned bushings in so their was no need for any pressing.

[e30love]

This job is a pain the rear to do i actually had on arm out. All the presses i tried to press the bushing out with would not work w/o messing up my arms. A friend said i should try and heat the metal sleeve and that worked in minutes.

[redhatpat]

So the rear subframe still needs to be unbolted? Still, not too bad. Thanks!

[e30love]

Yes i does but it isn't really that hard to unbolt. Good luck

[ldsbeaker]

Thanks, I'm doing this in a few weeks.

[makaio]

Easiest way is with threaded rod, washers, nuts and a socket sized apropriately. With arms off the car, this can be done in 10 minutes.

[e30love]

with the arms left on the car i did it in about 10 minutes