ghoastrider1

Rear spring bushing are shot with one darn near gone. Any hints on doing this in the driveway. have new poly bushing. new bolts needed? No, my garage is full of woodworking tools for the winter. Thrying to get it ready for the forum meet in Indy april 10th. BTW, I am 69 years old so crawling under the car or on my knees, isnt as fun as it used to be.

MatthewMiller

It's a pretty simple job. New bolts are not needed as long as the threads are still in good shape (i.e. as long as you get the nuts on an off without much drama). For a stock spring, you'll probably need a jack under the spring end to keep the spring up on the bolt - otherwise the arch in the spring will make it want to drop down below the end of the bolt. Also, when you remove the nut on each side, count the number of turns it takes to remove it. When you put the nuts back on, spin them back up the same number of turns so you can run at the same ride height. Keep in mind that if you are replacing smashed or missing bushings with new ones, the ride height will go back up where it started out, before the original bushings went bad. So don't be alarmed if it sits a bit higher than you've gotten used to.

PS - I assumed in the above that the rear of the car is already up on jack stands. Per hcbph's reply below, this is really important! Technically you could support the car by just jacking up the spring end, but this would be very unsafe and a terrible way to die.

hcbph

Do you mean the ones that are on the bolt between the knuckle and spring? If so, then yes it can be done at home. Loosen the lug nuts on the wheels, put the rear on jack stands (insure you put them in the right place) and block the front wheels well. Count the exposed threads on the bolts. Raise the car and slip a jack under the spring near the bolt and take tension off the spring and remove the bolt on one side at a time. You likely will need to pull the tire, remove the nut and depending on how solid your setup is you may want to take tension off the spring temporarily by lowering it while swapping parts. Pull the bolt, replace the upper bushing and washer and slide it back into the knuckle. Put the lower bushing and washer on then the nut and snug it up by hand. Tighten the nut up to the same number of threads are exposed along with the cotter key, put the wheel on and snug it up. Now do the other side the same way.
Once it's all reassembled, lower the car and tighten up the lug nuts and check everything over to insure it's all assembled correctly. Move the car some to get it to settle and check the height etc. on the rear and see if it's even. If not, you may have to elevate it and adjust the nut on one side to even it out and check it again.
I saw no reason to replace the bolts as they were in fine condition and I was not changing the ride height of the car

Pretty much what I did on mine and it came out fine.

Just saw Matt was answering while I was. Be sure as I noted to support the car while working on the bushings as that bolt is what's holding up the rear of the car.