+1 spreader
 

JJ you Brute ;-)

I found that a couple of washers and some lube helped with the wrench work to spread the ears. It took me two tries, but it worked well.

Chuck, at elephant shows this technique in his short bushing replacement video (listed on his site).

Mike makes a good point about tightening the through bolt with the arm at ride height to avoid over twisting the rubber bushing. There isn’t much rubber inside there.
chris

...now if I can only get my car down to ride height with no motor and trans.

Contemplating whether I should do this on my '88 with the engine out...I keep adding things to do. I am confused about the bolt/nuts being used to open up the bracket. I assume you have to remove them to get the trailing arm in so is the goal to bend open the bracket enough to get the TA with bushings back in? I assume you have to be careful to not push too far open?

I've done the arms on my '87 twice now - once with Elephant rubber and once with Rebel monoballs. I run into the same problem when trying to push the arm in from the back. I've found that if you push the arm up from underneath the ears, it's more likely to go in or at least start. I've had to tap mine in with a rubber mallet both times. I'll remember the threaded rod thing though. That's a slick idea if I get stuck next time.

Just did this with elephant bushings. I used a threaded clamp to squeeze the bushing partially and then wedge the arm in and wiggle.

I did the exact same thing with elephant bushings...clamp slips backwards and off as bushing slides in...worked great