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It looks pretty bad to me....I know the bushings in the strut rods are shot and I have a good set to put on....I wasn't looking to rebuild the trailing arms. Any opinions are welcome....I'm going to tear it down far enough to replace the strut rods but as Ya'll know...."While I'm at it...."
yep, tear down time, might as well go thru all of it while torn down. u-joints, bushings, maybe the composit spring, pumpkin, new bolts, rear strut arm, etc. paint everything wile at it,, A GOOD WINTER JOB, just like I did once, was fun doing it. sent a-arms off for rebuilding, had the pumpkin gone thru everything replaced except the ring & pinion. GOOD LUCK>
No question you need wheel bearings. That's without a doubt the biggest job in the rear suspension/driveline. You might as well do everything while you're in there. You may not need to go inside the differential, but do everything else. Bushings, u-joints, mounts. Check the output yokes for end play. Go through everything.
Make NO mistake about it. IF you plan on doing the bearings yourself while the trialing arm is still in the car...AND you have the half shaft disconnected...the spring and strut rod disconnected...you will want to grab the trailing arm and rotate it and see how badly worn out your trailing arm bushings are.
"While you are at it....make no mistake...if you get it down to that point....I would service the trailing arm bushings.
I'll third that.. Bearing time. If you do tear this apart a good tip to check is that the bearing hasn't spun on the spindle. You do this buy using the new bearing race... if the bearing will slip on the spindle the spindle is bad (they are press fit).
Like Dub, I'd also eyeball the front bushings as well.
Yep....The trailing arm bushing is shot as well. My next decision is how much of the rebuild I'm going to do myself. I figure I'll have $500-$600 in parts and tools if I do it all myself or $900 if I just send them out for a rebuild.
I thought about doing the arm bushings myself and just have a shop do the bearings....I could save a few hundred that way and would only have to buy the bushing install tool.
The up side so far is the differential side yoke (passenger side) has less than 30 thousands play. I haven't tore down the drivers side yet....That side feels nice and tight with no movement....But I'm going to do both sides while I'm at it.
Brian
PS....Ernie I'm not sure I follow about using the new bearing race to test the old spindle...?
[QUOTE=Wee;1593470351]Yep....The trailing arm bushing is shot as well. My next decision is how much of the rebuild I'm going to do myself. I figure I'll have $500-$600 in parts and tools if I do it all myself or $900 if I just send them out for a rebuild.
I think you will find a vendor to exchange or rebuild your trailing arms for around $600. Just don't expect a fancy powder coating or new emergency brake installed.
I'm in the Atlanta area and I have not gotten any recommendations of rebuild service in my area....I can get mine dropped off and picked back up from Vansteel for free....Their rebuild service runs about $410 each side....Or about $210 each for the bearings only.
I know....several months ago....a forum member was offering the use of the spindle set-up tool and installation tool to other members. Hopefully if you do a search...you may find it...but I KNOW I read the thread where they offered these tools.
YES...you will need the trailing arm tool to compress it and then stake the sleeve....IF you are going in with the factory style rubber trailing arm bushings.
I have all the tools to do this because I do this type of work...so I can tell you that YOU CAN do this if you want to...but I will add ...having the correct tools is a must.
What Ernie was trying to 'say' is that when you get your new bearings/races...you.... A.) want to make sure the races will be able to be driven into teh bearing support housing and NOT just fall into it ( which I have had happen before).....and B.) the bearing will slide onto the spindle and STOP before it gets to where it is supposed to go...because they are pressed on...and NOT slip fit.
ALSO...this is IMPORTANT. Before you start to do the rear wheel bearings....take a good photo of the inner U-joint flange when it is still attached to the spindle. A straight on view is needed. I need to see it because with those photos I can tell you if you have a problem that may show up later. I will explain further when you post the photos.
I'm still debating on just how much of this project I want to do myself....I know I need to correct tools to do it and I have saw the tool lending thread myself....I'm not a fan of borrowing tools but I may make an exception in this case....It's worth looking into. If there is a rebuild shop out there that need some granite countertops we could work out a trade...That's what I do for a living.
I'm not going to put poly anything on my car too many horror stories so Yep Dub I will need the bushing install tool.
Thank you for the explanation of what Ernie was getting at....I understand now.
Below is a pic of the U-joint flange...If this ain't good enough I'll take some better after I get the arm off. It sure seems off center to me and it's not just the angle.
Well from what I'm reading the bearing mounting surface on the trailing arm has been tweaked at some point....I'm not sure if this can be fixed or not....Also it looks like a couple of chunks of metal has been knocked off the threaded end of the spindle.
My guess is that means this trailing arm wouldn't do to well as a good core....?
You are correct....in regards to how you can see that the U-joint flange is NOT centered in the large hole that is stamped into the trailing arm.
THIS is not necessarily the 'kiss of death'. It is like what you wrote...has been 'tweaked'. I can not state for a fact that it needs to be replaced due to depending how it was tweaked...if that change in geometry is not so drastic that when the trailing arm shims and strut rod may be able to compensate for the change in geometry and allow the rear end to be aligned.
MY other FEAR is that IF the spindle is also tweaked in regards to the flat surface that your rotor attaches to in relation the the spindle shaft itself. We want those two geometric planes to be perpendicular. This is also NOT the 'kiss of death'. Because the rotor can be shimmed to correct any problems in its run-out when the spindle is installed. Which is mainly done for your brake calipers.
AS for the damage at the end of the spindle....that is something I would look a bit more into when you get it out. It may be due to some Bozo who did rear wheel bearings and NOT knowing what they were doing or using the correct tools to do it. This also is NOT a deal breaker. I deal with many Corvettes in a year and do rear wheel bearing and I can look at the cotter pin and usually tell that someone has been into it at least at that point.
I got the caliper and rotor off tonight and I was surprised at how good the bearings actually felt. I was expecting them to feel real loose, to even spin freely but they don't. I hope to get the arm off tomorrow night so I can see just how much movement there is.
I now hope to get the arm off by Christmas....What a royal PITA this is going to be....My car was close to rust free....Not even many areas of surface rust....The nut came off just fine as did the outside shims...But the bolt is rusted to the other side shims and the metal sleeve inside the arm....Guess it's time to break out the sawzall.
I have an industrial grade air hammer that can break concrete. I try that first and see if I get movement. If that does not work..then I also begin the cutting with a sawsall.
Well I had about 15 thousands play and what seemed 15" of play in the trailing arm bushing, that thing was wore out. At sometime in the past someone had set up the spindle or the bearing to be a slip fit on the inner bearing....The shims and spacer were used but they just had too big of a shim....I cleaned everything including the grease and reassembled to double check the play....Yep still .015, not sure what they were thinking when they were set-up last.
I have read many post debating the whole slip fit issue and have decided to keep it set up this way...(Please keep this debate out of my post, there are plenty already on the forum) I drive this vette less than 1000 miles a year and it's not driven hard, my wife say I drive like a grandma.
Anyway I got new parts and some tools to order and cleaning and painting to do in the meantime.
Got the trailing arm cleaned and painted....I will sand the paint back off the mounting area.
I'm now starting to put stuff back together instead of pulling it apart....Got all the parts I need and I have just about all the painting done....I got the old race out and the new one installed....I don't have the tool to help with installing the race so after knocking the old one out I just ground enough off the outside of it to make it slip fit and used it as the tool....Time to set-up the bearings for end play. I think I have come up with a neat trick to install the new studs that hold the bearing assembly to the trailing arm...If it works I'll post it here.
Started to put the passenger side trailing arm back together today....All was going good till I realised I was missing the parking brake shoe guide plate on that side....I didn't lose it....It wasn't there when I took everything apart.....There is still one on the drivers side TA....Looks like I got more parts to order for the RH side, plus whatever I need for the LH side after I get it off.....Slow but steady.
The passenger side is finished and ready to go back on....I had more issues with the drivers side and needed a new spindle but it's going back together well. But the good old "while I'm at it..." set in and I have now decided to drop the differential to fix the leaking pinion seal and paint it as well as the spring.
11-12-2016, 01:46 PM
Rear wheel/bearing movement....? (w/video)
