Elephant rear monoball install questions
 

I'm getting ready to order a bunch of Elephant suspension parts. Car is an '88 Carrera.

For the rear trailing arm monoball, will it be possible to remove the bolt with the tranny in place? I remember reading that on some cars the bolt was installed so that the tranny had to be out to get the bolt out. My Bentley manual shows it installed with the bolt entering from the outside, so it wouldn't be a problem, but I'm too lazy to crawl under and look.

Also, assuming that end of the arm can be dropped, is it possible to remove the bushing and install the monoball with the arm in place, or does it have to come completely out?

Thanks!

On your '88 you can remove the bolt with tranny in place. It is on '72 and earlier cars that the bolt orientation is backwards.

It will be close on a G50 to get the bolt out. The bushing can be removed with the arm in the car but I don't think this will be too much fun. Doing it under the car falls in the "anything is possible" category!

Jeff

Here, you can learn from my mistakes.

On my '89 the bolts were inserted from the side away from the transmission, so they should have been removable without interference.

However, I found the nuts extremely tight and hard to access, being somewhat recessed. That is where I was stupid. Instead of going and getting the appropriate offset box wrench, and doing the appropriate prep work with penetrant and/or heat, I tried to bull forward with the tools I had on hand, and ended up mangling the nut so that, by the time I got the correct tools, they didn't work. So I ended up dropping the engine and transmission just to remove those nuts.

It was interesting to drop the engine, but still I caused myself unnecessary work. Be smarter than I was!

Thanks, gentlemen. I can't see doing everything else and leaving the original trailing arm bushings in there.