Thinking of this plan. Get home, pull trailing arms off one at a time. Remove rotted out rubber bushings leaving metal outer sleeves in place. Grease and slide in new poly bushings. Bolt it up, set alignment shims back in as they came out and see if further work needed. If so, ship arms to Van Steel and let them use the poly bushings I already R&R'd... I am going off the idea that you can do this like the strut rods. On those, I drilled out the rotted rubber and knocked out the rubber and inner sleeves. I slid in new poly and bolted it back up. No more slack and that area gives no more worries... I also replaced all the other stuff nearby like shocks and rear anti-sway bar bushings..., so the slop has to be in the bushings (or bad bearings in which case rebuild is it...) I am willing to try the easy route initially and then see how it goes. I can check run-out in bearings when I get the arms loose to replace the bushings... Of course I will want one of those nice fiberglass springs. What rating for my BB car? I have new stock-rate springs up front. Will poly t/a bushings really harshen up the ride? With the new spring back there maybe it will be OK. The ride is pretty rough right now with the old steel spring.

Does this work for trailing arms? I know I cannot get away so easy if I want rubber bushings - would need special tools to remove sleeves and crush new ones on... Tell me I have it, or I am crazy... I like the idea of trying it in stages - would let me concentrate on rebuilding the engine if I know I have the suspension tight. Right now, the rear is loose and I am sure they are the original bushings...

 

All the posts I have read suggest going back with rubber bushings. The poly bushings just do not hold up. If you have a press you can rebuild your arms yourself. If i had them off the car I would go ahead and install new bearings, pack them and set the play and reinstall using rubber bushings. No squeeks and the bushings will last longer. My $0.02 after reading threads from other member's experiences.

Bernie

 

My trailing arms were rebuilt at Van Steel before
poly bushings were popular. I have not heard terrible things
about poly. Of course, the rubber ones will definitely last a few
decades. The poly TA bushing should not affect ride, since it
is at the pivot point on the TA. Poly spring cushions might.

 

I guess one thing I need to know is if the poly bushings are designed to just slide in where the rubber ones were? Is it really that easy? If it requires pressing, etc. regardless, then I will likely just suck it up and rebuild the arms to start with - Van Steel here I come! Anybody done what I am thinking of here?

 

Not on the trailing arms. The steel sleeve from the previous rubber has to come out, cause the poly should have it's own sleeve. NOT HARD. Soak em with penetrating oil, then pry between them from the inside. Snug up the t-arms in a vise if they start to spread when prying. Clean up the hole...grease it up (along with the bushings)...and press in the new poly with a vise. To be safe, I inserted two steel spacers inside the t-arm while pressing in the new so it wouldn't crush. Just did this last week!! Easy!!!
Eddie

 

I just replaced my trailing arm bushings with poly from PST. You dont have to remove the outer sleeve. The new bushings slide right into the existing sleeves. No press needed, very easy.

 

When I installed my poly bushing from VBP it required the removal of the outter sleeves. The kit contained everything, even a bolt/nut to flare the inner sleeve. The kit included various thickeness shims for the bushing. The bushing assembly was a tad wider than the original was. I had to remove a couple of thin TA shims to get the TA back in the pocket. So a alignment will be needed afterwards.