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I managed to get the second torsion arm off. It was actually the rubber bush inside the torsion tube that was rock solid in the car. I just doused it in penetrating fluid and wiggled it every few hours. After half a day I stuck a pry bar between the torsion arm and the body of the car, and the whole thing just slipped right out. The torsion bar was stuck in the torsion arm mind, but in the end a little heat on the cap and a few cracks with a hammer saw it come free.
Looks rusty at the splines on that side so I used an old tooth brush and wd40 to wash / scrub the splines clean.
All tips I picked up from the reading I did on pelican, and the answers to my questions in the three or four threads I started during this project. Its a great forum and there's no way I'd be able to tackle some of the projects I've tackled over the years if it weren't for all the help available here. So thanks to all.
I've also become a master of getting the old rubber bushes off the torsion arm! The final one came off in three pieces clean, in about 5 minutes. That's a big contrast to the million pieces and 3 hours of labour that the first one took!
If anyone ever reads this, I can confirm the trick is to heat the inside of the tube, hammer in the tool that comes with the new bushes, and slit the bush in three. Peel off with pliers.
Now I'm going to get the torsion arms re-plated, they got scratched up during the cleaning process (wire wheels etc). The cover plates were toast too so I've replaced those, and I also picked up a hardware kit from ER. Whole thing should go together again a lot nicer than it came apart.
Thanks all. Replacement of these bushes just wouldn't have happened without this forum.
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