aafadca

This morning I removed my first trailing arm. It took a little less than 3 hours. Luckily the the none of the bolts were frozen. This evening I jumped on the the other. It took a little less than an hour and half. Again nothing frozen. Actually after tapping the the bolt a few times, it came out very easy! I'm pretty sure the right arm needs bearing replacement since there's alot of play and movement. But there were no shims on the back side and the 2 front flopped around VERY loosely. The left has the shims on both sides and they were tight. Both sides appear to be original with the bushings and non-slotted shims. Why would there not be shims on both sides? Is that normal? Thanks

Bluestripe67

Since most of our cars, mine is a '67, have some unknow history/ownership, anything could and probably did happen. Alignment shop not well trained or it just never needed the shims. Be prepared with $$$ for a established and knowledgeable Corvette shop to do a proper alignment front and rear. Dennis

ditchdigger650

Blue Stripe67 is correct, just had mine done one of them was bent, so I replaced both Ta's and the front and rear alignment was $240, people did'nt buy those cars to go grocery shopping, so who knows what happened to those arms in the past.

mikem350

Slotted shims were not original, and need a LONG cotter pin to hold 'em in place, or else they can fall out.

Try the replacement stainless shims (used on later vettes) that have slots. Your alignment guy will thank you!!!

4440stevesvette

I replaced both my trailing arms over this past winter with rebuilt units from VanSteel. I used the slotted S/S shims from the many Corvette vendors and postioned the shims down low so that they are resting on the lower edge of the frame and can't fall out. Alignment by the best shop in town took 2 hours, front and rear, cost was $100.

Powershift

The cotter pin is 3/16 " x 4-1/2 ". GM# 217966 or equivalent from other sources.

Larry

aafadca

I think this may be the way to go with the slotted shims. Thanks for the info.