Installing Trailing Arm Bushings

[TrailChaser]

Last weekend I started a trailing arm bushing replacement job on my 95 pathy. At first I thought it would be a simple job and since I have a good bench vice and a couple of C-clamps I didn't think I'd have any problems... I was dead wrong.

I had no problem getting the arm off the pathy, and also didn't have any problems getting the old stock bushings out. I ran into major problems when it came to getting the new bushings into the sleeve. The shoulders of the new bushings are alot bigger than the sleeve they have to pass thru. The bushings have a slight taper so I just figured that with enough pressure it would have to pop thru the sleeve. I was wrong. First off the new bushing will pop out from the side as soon as you apply pressure . Once I had the stock bushings destroyed from pressing them out I had to finish the job in order to drive my truck to work the next day.

 

First thing I tried was to make a C shaped sleeve with a top welded on that would guide the bushing into the sleeve on the trailing arm and prevent it from popping out under pressure. It worked, but didn't solve all my problems. It's almost impossible to get the bushing to evenly go into the sleeve even with the guide keeping it from moving side to side. So what ended up happening was the bushing went in uneven and ended up cutting a big part of the shoulder. I ended up cutting that bushing in half and putting it in from the sides to make it go quicker without completely destroying the bushings. I didn't like cutting it in half, and since I had only done the drivers side I opted to wait till the next weekend to do the passenger side after I machined something at work to make the job ALOT easier.

 

Here's the end result of my little tapered ring.

 

 

Take off the Trailing Arm.

 

Press out the stock bushings.(I made up a little tool for this out if 2.5x2.5" square tubing)

 

Next is cleanup time. I found that the best way to clean the old rubber out is to heat up a junky knife(it won't hold an edge after this) to red hot and cut the leftover rubber out smooth as butter. Burning the rubber out will also work, but it makes alot more smoke and takes about 5 times longer.

 

After it's cleaned up smear grease all over the inside of the sleeve and bushing.

Edited November 11, 2007 by TrailChaser

[TrailChaser]

You can see in the pic that the shoulders of the bushing is much bigger than the ID of the sleeve.

 

Here's the tapered ring I made to squeeze the bushing into the sleeve without damaging it.

 

The top is the same size as the OD of the bushings shoulder, and the ID is the same as the ID of the sleeve on the trailing arm.

 

With a little pressure from a C-clamp and the guide I made last weekend the bushing pops right in with no hesitation.

[TrailChaser]

Now you have to get the ring off the bushing and press it in the rest of the way. I just put a washer from my grinder on top of the bushing and squeeze it with a good amount of pressure. The bushing will go most of the way into the ring. Now you just have to pop the ring up off the bushing by prying under the lip of it with a flathead screwdriver.

 

Then to finish you just press in the crush sleeve.(Which is the easy part)

[TrailChaser]

I'm going to do a little more work on the tools I made to do this job. If anyone needs to use them to do there own Trailing Arm Bushing replacement I'll loan it out for free with a $20 deposit. You are responsible for shipping to receive and return the tools, and your $20 deposit will be returned when the tools are returned.

 

I'll post a pic of the tools after I do some work on them to make them better.

[barthel]

Hats off to you TC!

 

That is a ball buster of a job, i did it on my 88. Swore up and down i would never even consider doing it again.

 

I even went as far as to go to Harbor Freight and bought a bearing press to help. Probably just made it worse.

 

I still have a scar on my finger from that job!

[ILoveMyPatty]

I hated that job on my '90. I ended up using a 3/4" drive socket (can't remember the size) and a piece of flat 3/8" steel. Socket on one side of the arm (in a vise) then the arm, then the bushing and steel plate against the other jaw. Squeezed right in for me, with the use of the lube that came with the bushings from AC. To get the old bushings out I just yanked them out with pliers (they were that bad) but the metal sleeve was stuck in there, and I had to take a dremel with a cut disc and cut it up a bit, and chizel it out with an air chizel. That was horrible. Took about 45-60min per sleeve.