I lubed everything every night for a week, everything else taken off last night, tonight was going to be the night... The trailing arms are coming off.
First swat with the mallet, nothing, a little heavier, nothing, a good hard shot......it moved!!!! another and another and another, in it went one thread at a time.
And then it stopped and moved no more
many swats more, another soaking of PB and go try the other side.
It moved about 2 threads and stopped and moved no more.

Turns out both sides didn't move, just crushed the rubber bushing over as far as possible and then everything was bunched up against the inside wall of the frame.

Sawsall and 4 Milwaukee bi-metal blades (1 blade cut both outsides, the other 3 needed since I had to cut partially through the inside shims which were fused to the bushing flange and jammed tight into the bottom of the pocket, outer ones came out with some prying.)

Anyway, both arms at off finally. Initial inspection:
2 inner u-joints with fair chatter marks on the bearing journal. Look to be originals

1 inner u-joint cap with partially stripped threads (didn't come off well at all, like it was cross-threaded)

1 lower shock mount with what looks like about 80% of the threads torn out of the nut (almost looks like a bushing instead of a nut. (my guess is impact gun at some point took it's toll)

.008-.010 end-play on the drivers spindle
.010-.011+ on the pass-side.

Arms seem pretty good, not puffed up anywhere or soggy. I'll blast them once stripped and have a better look.

Overall about 5 hours to get everything off, cleaned, bagged and tagged. and the arms out. Not as bad as I though it was going to be.

Have to make up a mounting plate and press the u-joints from the ends of the 1/2 shafts, they seem smooth but everything is getting changed while it's apart. Have to get a full set of spicers on order

Then it's on to getting the T/A's totally apart and ready for new bushings, bearings, etc.

At least if there's a nice day I won't be tempted to bolt the wheels back on and go for a cruise...

Mooser

 

 

Ok, Not sure why you want a picture but here's one of a bunny with a pancake on it's head, hope it helps




Seriously though, more pictures of trailing arms and rear suspensions covered in rust, goop and penetrating fluid???

I'll through some up and post a link
Mooser

 

Was a joke. Mostly just subscribing to your thread, to follow your progress.
Sounds like quite the project. Must take up a lot of spare time.

Cute bunny, btw...

 

Bet my dog would like that rabbit too, breakfast and lunch in one convenient package

U-Joint (ribbed for extra pleasure?)


Speed nut, slide on and turn twice to tighten


Just one more thing on the list to replace

(notice the end of the spring)

Tomorrow's job is to mill these out



Highly recommend these blades, went through the bolt in about a minute, shim/bolt combination took longer


Pocket itself doesn't look too bad

Was a lot of sand in the front drain area of the pocket, something I'll have to remember to clean out next time I bury it on a beach

At least there's more room to work now (should have waited till now to change the diff fluid)


.009+ with hand pressure

(I know it's on a slight angle)

More to come
Mooser

 

Mooser, make sure that pocket right under where the trailing arm is cleaned out too.. We see them all the time packed with dirt.

 

Yeah, that's where I found all of the "sand", (years worth of road dirt) packed basically full and plugged up the drain hole on the bottom.

 

Yeah I know, so was the bunny

What's this "spare time" you speak of? Do you buy it at the store or is it delivered?


Motor is mechanically done,
Transmission was going to be done but will wait until when keisler gets their backlog straightened out on the RS600's (doing a auto-manual conversion someday)
Brakes done,
Interior done,
body and paint done
This year it was time to tackle the rear bearings and related "while I'm in here" parts.
If there's time at the end, clean up the engine bay a little
Off to take out what's left of the bushings

 

So if you can pull the spindle out by hand that would be a bad thing right?

Removed the nut and the entire spindle started wobbling around, lifted the TA off from the spindle by hand.
Outer bearing has clearance on the spindle shaft
I'll clean and measure tomorrow, bearing area looks clean, wonder if bubba been here before

Other side is as it should be, try to separate the TA from the spindle assy tomorrow

 

Ok
Going to replace the spindle on the one side, other side looks ok. Decided to go ahead and buy complete rebuilt bearing assy. (both sides) probably from Van-Steel.


Removed the TA bushings








Checked the offset on both TA's, one is just under 2" the other closer to 1-3/4" and has a dent on the inside. Arms are in soaking simple-green to remove the gunk. Once they are clean I'll have a better look and see if it can be pressed back straight (well straighter)

Made up a flange plate (as suggested by Gary at some point, can't hurt) last night to work on the 1/2 shafts

Flanges sit nice and flat so at least they aren't bent (yet)

And while I'm in here
Backed off the brace bolts, soaked everything and inserted two chisels, a couple of decent swats and it dropped nicely
(and no I didn't bend that flange, was already bent, I'll have to straighten it out before everything goes back up)




And then removed the bolts and lowered it with the jack


Can't read the numbers on the diff case other than L
Looks like L??1320 then something that looks like the top of an 8
I believe the rear was changed at some point so I wanted to check the numbers to see what it was, gear does seem to closer to 3.55 but could be a 3.36 (LR code) \
I'll have to mark it and do a real check to see what's there.

Haven't decided if I should open it up or not, the yoke deflectors are kind bent up and should probably be replaced but look what happened already and all I wanted to do was rotate the the tires....

Mooser

 

Well finally got back inside the garage and pulled the u-joints out of the half-shafts and drive shaft

Keeping in mind that all of these joints "FELT" smooth and moved nice, not loose not tight just nice

One the diff side of the half shafts there were some marks (see above)
3 of the 4 u-joints had grease fittings (installed somewhere in the past) and would give them a shot 2x year (oil changes basically) with the knowledge that they were going away someday (today actually). Can't say what happened to them before me but...

Pressed them out with a ball-joint press

Look at the pattern here

Who needs to "save the wave" when it's right here


Nice shiny band all the way around


Shiny (although marked) except for 2 that are dull-flat grey almost as if you sanded them (worn through the case hardening?)


My personal favorite so far


Here is is after wiping it down with varsol (that isn't dried grease, it's petrified!)


Here's your grease path



Scrubbed it in the parts washer with bristle brush



Here's the cap, dry as a popcorn fart




The drive shaft had non-greasable Spicer joints and they are fine, no marks, lots of grease left, smooth. I'm changing them while I'm in here but really they could probably be cleaned, re-greased and put back

Now I'm not going to get into any kind of greaser vs non-greaser U-joint argument but I bought new Spicer Non-Greasable u-joints.

The saga continues
Mooser

 

Did this 2 yrs ago now, not quite as bad as yours for removal but a pia nontheless. I was planning on doing some work over the winter but just informed by our son that he needs much of the garage to build his longboards - kids eh, can't even ebay em off for parts anymore without some goody 2 shoes raising concerns.

 

You Can't!
Ummmm be right back, got to go take care of something...

Mooser

 

us canuckleheads have to stick together!

 

Well, got some stuff back together
Quick check of the yokes and guts, everything seems to be in one piece so I buttoned it back up quick without going any further than popping the yokes out to straighten the shields. (Somewhere in the back of my mind I have this disillusion that a 5sp will end up in here and this will change to a 3.55 or 3.70 so it'll come apart or be replaced then)

Good cleaning, 2 coats of POR and topcoat of cast






Half shafts and caps got the same treatment




Got the shafts and caps together today with the new spicers. Smooth/stiff seem to go together well with very little issues.







Replacement Trailing arms are in, need to relocate the e-brake bracket and drill for the sway bar


Still need to crawl back in and deal with the gas/return lines, not looking forward to that one.

Anyway, some forward progress is always a good thing.

 

do you have any dimensions for this plate?
recess dia and depth, bolt hole spacing etc
just trying to get everything ready for when i pull mine apart and dont have anything to measure till then.

 

I'll pull the dim's for you tomorrow (well today I guess) and post them for you
Mooser

 

Subscribed

 

Counter bore = 2.765 dia x .100 deep
Threaded holes are 7/16-20 unf on a 3.75 BHC (2.652 between holes)

grain of salt, mileage may vary, results not typical
Used the stock bolts with flat washers

Mooser

 

thanks
first job on the cnc when i go back to work next week....




just looked at your photo's,
apart from the the fact you got a 454 and different rims, our cars look the same
sunflower yellow and even the rack
mines an early june '72 build