re: One Trailing arm is done!!!

["Giller,Bruce C." <bgiller@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis,
	I had a look at your website and all your pictures and it seemed that
you were on the right track.  One thing is that your jack stands should
be located on the jacking points on the body (where you have the bottle
jack) and not on the axle tube.  Jack up the rear via the differential
as high as you can before putting on the jackstands.  The limit straps
will hold the axle from falling down on the ground when the trailing arm
is removed; no need to loosen them.  This way, you can use the floor
jack to lever the end of the trailing arm instead of your scissors jacks
but you need the car way up in the air.

	One time I had to remove the largish bolt that holds the upper A-arm to
car body (to replace the upper A-arm).  My 470 ft/lb air impact wrench
could not break it loose.  But my 1/2" breaker bar with 3' pipe
extension did the job where the impact wrench failed.  I would use the
same method on your other nut - breaker bar and if necessary, an
extension.  I use my feet to push the bar under the car due to the lack
of room.

	Loosen this bolt before lowering the trailing arm so that it is easier
since this bolt will 'clamp' the center bushing in one position.  Also,
do not torque these bolts until you have attached everything and lowered
the car to the ground.  Bounce the car a few times to settle it and then
tighten down the bolts.  Otherwise you'll 'clamp' the forward bushing to
a different position that it normally would have taken and the bushing
will fail; probably fail within the year.

	And put anti-sieze on the bolts for you certainly don't want them
fusing/rusting to the inner bushing.

	Bruce

	'73 GTV
	'86 Spider

> Hello all,
>  Thanks to all your inputs, I took a chance and started the job. I almost gave up when I couldn't get the nut at the frame out, it was so tight. I got the electric impact
> wrench from Harbor freight for 49.99 with 240lb-f of torque and try to open it, it didn't even move. With lots of WD40 and many times of trying, finally the nut
> came out. This is the passenger side which I can use the impact wrench by removing the fuel filter bracket to get access. I don't know how I'm going to do it with
> the driver side which got stuck with the muffler bracket. I need help on this one.
> 
>  http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/ltooz_alfa/lst?.dir=/trailing+arm
> 
>  The nut and bolt at the Frame is the hardest one to remove. Everything else is straight forward. I used all the jacks I have to get this job done (in the picture). 3
> hours of trying and figuring out how to get it done, I finally finished it. What a great feeling.
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