AZDoug

When i have the calipers and stuff off for brake rebuild, what do I look for or do, to see if the trailing arms need work?

Not sure if they were ever done, and the car has 122K miles on it.

The rear spring is coming off for sand blast, powder coat and new bushings during the brake refresh, so the trailing arms will be pretty much free. I replaced the half shaft U joints a few years ago.

Thanks,
Doug

DUB

Rear wheel bearing run-out is the first thing....and then if the inner u-joint flange is basically centered in the large hole of the trailing arm itself.

Then make sure your rotor is correct when you measure it so you are not dealing with a bent spindle.

Trailing arm bushings more than likely need to be replaced.

Check parking brake components.

I would be careful on sandblasting the leaf spring....unless you are planning on having it re-arched when done to get it to correct standards.

DUB

AZDoug

I am sure there are dozens of threads on trailing arm bushing replacement I will start looking for, but in general, is is recommend to send them out for that, or is it a fairly simple do it your self job?

What is sand blasting going to do to a spring?

I know people get springs blasted for powder coated, or painting all the time.

Thanks,
Doug

GUSTO14

Doug, I believe that it is fairly simple job, for someone that has done them a few times, but it is a rather tedious process. I did them on my '73 shortly after purchasing the car in '88 and without the benefit of the internet. I had read a few articles on the process and felt at the time, how difficult can it be to rebuild a couple of wheel bearings? Again, not terribly difficult, but tedious.

The first thing I discovered was that without the benefit of a good hydraulic press it would be pretty near impossible to do the job in a reasonable time without breaking or damaging something. One side took 10 tons of hydraulic pressure to press the inner bearing off of the spindle and the other side took 30 tons of pressure. We bent a 1" thick steel plate in the process. Of course with the press we simply flipped the plate over and straightened it.

The most tedious part is setting up the bearings with the proper clearance. There are a number of different opinions on just how much clearance there should be, but I tried to set mine up as close to zero clearance as I could. They're still doing just fine some 26 years (and probably 20k miles) later.

There are a number of very lengthy threads on here (and the C1 Forum) on how to do this and many have strong opinions on how their way is the correct way and any other way is incorrect. Never-the-less they're worth perusing before you get started.

For some of those reasons and a few others, when it came to redoing my '63 trailing arms as part of a frame off restoration, I sent them off to Van Steel and let them rebuild them. They do this daily and have all of the equipment and experience necessary to do it correctly. There are also more than a few folks out there such as Bair's that can do these as well and allow you to concentrate on the things you are more comfortable doing... unless of course you just want to do them yourself, in which case I suspect you are more than capable.

Good luck... GUSTO

bondoboy

Good post, but I think he was asking about TA bushings. They're not hard to do. I had to borrow a tool to flare the end of the sleeve that holds the bushing tight.

doorgunner

You are probably right that he is able to replace the T/Arm bushings by himself with the kit (bushings and flaring tools).......but he may as well inspect the spindle bearings while he has the arms on the workbench (the seals and grease in the bearings is probably useless by now).

GUSTO14

Touché ...

GUSTO

bondoboy

Very true. It's a good idea.