Andy Tuttle

Working on my sbc 68 coupe. Currently into the trailing arms. In disassemble found my Dad placed the trailing arm studs in backwards when he rebuilt them.



Upon further inspection of my trailing arms, it appears he did this because the splines in the t/a assembly are completely worn out or missing.




Looking at the t/a, and from looking at other pictures, there seems to be a slight indentation around the spline hole. I was wondering if the old splines could be pressed out and new ones pressed in? Any constructive insight would be appreciated.

GTR1999

There are no spline in the holes, well there are but they are from the studs which have straight kurls on them. Some have reversed the studs in their rebuilds to allow easy removal if they slip fit the axles and grease them all the time. If you assemble the arms correctly using a quality grease there is no need to remove them in the future unless you put on 100k miles and need to rebuild them OR leave the car sitting for years and moisture attacks the bearings- wrecking them.

To build the arms correctly
1- make sure they are not bent or rotted. Clean then powder coat or POR15 them.
2- Use Timken bearings
3- Check to be sure the axles are still good
4- set the bearings for -0- lateral play not specifically to an endplay number like 002" like everyone here seems to think is the magical number.
5- Use rubber front bushings
6- make sure the caliper brackets are not bent or have stripped holes
7 Recondition the flanges if you have access to a surface grinder and lathe.
8- Dial in the rotor runout to under 003"

Mr D.

Question, after outer bearing is packed and axle installed how much grease if any do you add inside the housing before installing the inner packed bearing?

GTR1999

There were 2 bearing supports used over the years, one has a well inside and the other is a straight bore. I grease the bearings good as that is really where the lube is going to come from not so much as from grease packed around the well or bore. I do pack grease inside for some possibly wicking but never beyond the ID of the bore. There has to be some room for expansion when hot although the newer greases are far superior to the old brown wax like pastes used 40 years ago.

Andy Tuttle

So there is no problem with using those trailing arms with the studs going through the "normal" way? Really appreciate your answer!

GTR1999

I would set them up correctly if I was building them. The hold the support to the arm so the base with the kurl would have to go through the support obviously. I have seen it done but I would never do it that way.