Do I need to remove the rear hub to remove the tailing arm?

[andyt11]

Edit - the car is an 88 911.

I'm renewing bushings in the trailing arm and at the torsion bar spring plates. First things first is to remove the swing arm.

I've done a bit of reading on here and I've reviewed the Bentley manual and I have a question.

Is it really necessary to remove the hub from the trailing arm (Page 420-7) , or does the Bentley manual only say that because I'm reading the procedure for removal and replacement of the trailing arm.

From what I can tell, I can remove the rotor, half shaft, roll bar and shocker and then put a jack under the end of the trailing arm and lower it down before separating from the spring plate.

I could really do without the hassle of messing with the hub / wheel bearings. On the other hand, I don't want to get half way into this and find out I need to crack that 300ft/lb nut off with the car in the air!

[OffCamber00]

Nope. you don't even need to remove the half shaft to pull the arm.

[Tigerrat]

I re-bushed my 88 last year and didn't take the hub apart. The bear is the trailing arm monoball bushings inside at the transmission. I think you'll need to buy or make some special tools for that. Ken

[andyt11]

Thanks for the quick answers.

How can the driveshaft remain in place?! Or does it slide out the back of the hub somehow when you remove the trailing arm?

[Jesse16]

Get them from Elephant and follow the directions. You only pull the torsion plate off, nothing else. Of course the cover comes off. Bananna arm is either just supported or hangs, I didn't find that critical. You don't have to do anything with the monoball unless you choose to. Mine car an 87.

[Jesse16]

My bad, I see you want to do the monoball. I've read where others say its much less likely to need renewing. Guess you have "a lot" more disassembly to do than I did, its still a big job. I'm gonna wait till I need a clutch and get the monoball then.

[OffCamber00]

Originally Posted by andyt11

Thanks for the quick answers.

How can the driveshaft remain in place?! Or does it slide out the back of the hub somehow when you remove the trailing arm?

Disconnect the axle at the transmission. When you pull the trailing arm, the axles go with it.

If the transmission is still in the car, the inner trailing arm bushings are damn near impossible to remove ( I did mine when engine/trans was out). But i think if you sacrifice the bolt, it can be done. You just have to slide it a bit, cut, slide it a bit, cut, etc. I believe the ERP kit is made to be reinstalled w/ the trans in place.

Its a decently big job, even w/ the trans out of the car. You may want to just wait until you pull the engine for another reason and do it then.

[andyt11]

Originally Posted by OffCamber00

Disconnect the axle at the transmission. When you pull the trailing arm, the axles go with it.

understood. thanks

[andyt11]

And you are right too. Lots of people noting that their old trailing arm bushings were in just fine shape even after all these years. I'll have a look. It's just a case of getting a tool on to the bolt. If I can get the bolt out I'm pretty sure swapping the shells on the bench wont be too bad. Seems a thin wall 22mm socket is required at the very least.

[andyt11]

ok, so I got the car lifted up tonight and all the fasteners are soaking in kroil. I'm a little concerned if I have the car high enough to allow me to lower the swing arm/spring plate all the way down to a point where there is no tension. As it sits, the bottom of the rotor will be about an inch above the garage floor if the arms go all the way vertical.

The bottom of the rocker panel (sill) is about 23" from the garage floor.

So first question is do they go all the way vertical or do they stop before that point?

Next question is, since I am intending not to remove the rotor or the shield behind it, can I make a wood shoe from a piece of 4x4 and put that on top my trolley jack, and then lower the whole trailing arm and spring plate using the bottom face of the brake drum?

[911pcars]

Do you have any reference manuals? There have been several on the market; many including selected repair procedures of which removing the control arm is fairly common. To highlight:

- The spring plate is bolted to and is separate from the control arm.

- Lower the suspension at the shock mount area of the control arm.

- The hubs/brakes remain with the control arm. Depending on how far you have to remove the control arm from the vehicle, the emergency brake lines could stay in place.

- Confirm the control arm pivot bolt can be removed with the engine in place. I believe that's so, as opposed to early 911s with the bolt head factory-installed facing inward which necessitated engine removal to access and remove.

- It looks like your half shaft/CV joints are unbolted at the gearbox as opposed to early shafts which provide the option of unbolting at either end. To remove the entire axle, remove the large axle nut on the outboard end of the hub (~300 ft. lbs.). Also, remove the lower shock bolt attached to the control arm.

- Chances are the torsion bar may want to slide out with the spring plate and lose the indexed ride height adjustment. Before doing this, after unbolting the spring plate from the control arm, use an inclinometer to measure the free angle of the spring plate. Record the angle. Measure and record the angle of the door sill. If the vehicle remains stationary during repairs, it's relatively easy to reassemble the pieces at the previously recorded relative angular difference and maintain the ride height at that corner (Replacing worn spring plate bushings may change it). Repeat for the other rear corner. Setting ride height is another thread - much in the archives.

Hope this random info is helpful, but review a ref. book for the suggested sequence.

Sherwood

[James Brown]

jack under the shock if you can, hate to have that disk start to rotate at the wrong time. did you take the axle nut off?

[andyt11]

Thanks guys. No I did not remove axle nut. Not intending to remove any of that. Just going to undo cv at the gearbox and lower the whole thing until it has no more spring. Then I'll unbolt from the trailing arm and measure the angle so I can put it back where it came from.

The question really is how low will the arms go, how high does the car need to be to achieve this, and where to put the jack that controls the descent.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by andyt11

Thanks guys. No I did not remove axle nut. Not intending to remove any of that. Just going to undo cv at the gearbox and lower the whole thing until it has no more spring. Then I'll unbolt from the trailing arm and measure the angle so I can put it back where it came from.

The question really is how low will the arms go, how high does the car need to be to achieve this, and where to put the jack that controls the descent.

I would do this in two stages. Remove the spring plate and replace the spring plate bushings first. The control arm can stay in place for this procedure. This is also the procedure for resetting the ride height if the spring plate adjuster isn't enough.

If you need add'l vehicle height, lift the rear of the vehicle from the middle of the front gearbox mount plate, then place the jack stands on a couple of 6x6 (or larger) lumber on each side. Keep the floor jack in place as a secondary safety. Don't use cinder blocks, 5 gallon paint buckets or equiv. unless you have a will and a family trust in place.

Remove the lower shock bolt to allow the control arm/spring plate to hang freely.

[James Brown]

whoops, thought you were also replacing the wheel bearing, my bad

[andyt11]

Did a bi more tonight. Got the spring plate separated from the trailing arm and undone from the side of the car. Do I have to completely remove the rocker panel in order to wriggle the spring plate out?! I guess it will give me an opportunity to clean the seams etc in there and clean where the rubber moulding goes. I was hoping I could get away without disturbing the little fasteners that hold the rocker panel on though.

[Flieger]

It is harder on a G50 car because you have that big long protruding snout from the spring plate, not the short one on a pre G50 car. Looks like you need to remove more stuff.

[Lyle O]

You must remove the rocker completely. No other way to get the spring plate and torsion bar out, especially if the bar is stuck to the spring plate (like mine was on both sides). It a lot easier to work around there when its time to put it back in also.

[andyt11]

Good times! Seems like every time I work on this car I have to turn it into a million small pieces before I can get to the part I want to change!

Anyway, spent another half hour on it tonight, took off the rocker and pulled out the torsion bar. (took angles first)

Looks good, I can see no cracks or rust in the torsion tube or on the torsion bar. The torsion bar itself had a nice layer of grease on it which I've now cleaned off.

Three questions:

1. I've heard people grease the inside of the torsion tube? Is it really necessary? Its painted and not subject to any weathering or moving parts. Seems like a good way to make a mess.
   
2. I will grease up the torsion bar again, I can see that we really don't want that getting wet and staying wet. What type of grease? I have wheel bearing grease handy. Am I right in thinking anything will do?
   
3. Last question is re the opening in the side of the car where the rubber bushing rides. Mine has some black smooth hard stuff on it. Should I wire brush it off or leave as is and forget about it.