rear suspension upgrade ?

[michael lang]

Since I haven't been able to do much in the way of winter projects and now that I'm learning to walk again I can't wait to get started. Althought the parts have been coming there's a couple of things on my list that I'm not sure of so I thought I would turn to the forums for guidance.

Along with the gama of normal pre-season maintenance items to get ready for track season I'm also doing a couple of upgrades to my car. 1. to replace the rear springplates. 2. to replace the rear monoballs.

Questions:
When replacing the spring plates will I need to worry about the indexing of the rear torsion bars? After reviewing the Bentley manual it appears as though it is slightly more than bolt off, bolt on. Would someone comment on this please?

Can the trailing arm bushings be removed from the arm while it is still bolted on the car at the hub and hanging down from where it bolts to the chassis in the front or will the trailing arms have to be off first in order to remove the bushings and press in the monoballs?

I do not have a lift at home so I will be working with jackstands and crawling around on the floor and my skills are probably intermediate level and I am fully aware that an alignment and corner balance will need to follow. Does this sound feasible?
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[JimWirt]

You will have to remove the trailing arms to put in mono-balls. Also When replacing swing plates you will have to re-index bars. They slide onto ends of bars and the spline is part of the swing plate.

[MylesD55]

Mike,

I've replaced the trailing arm bushing in both my old 88 Carrera and C2.  You will need to remove the trailing arms from the car.  I found the best way to remove the old rubber bushing is to burn them out with a torch.  Do this outside, because I'm sure that the smoke is toxic and there will be a lot of it.  Not very environmentally friendly, but it works.   

To install the new monoballs you should not need a press.  Freeze the new monoballs and heat up the trailing arm.  Mine dropped right in using this procedure. 

Myles

[JimWirt]

Remove trailing arm. Use torch to remove rubber bushing. Put mono ball in freezer. Heat end of trailing arm to expand it. Slip new monoball in. It was a bitch when i did it.

[michael lang]

Shoot!! I figured that's probably what I was going to have to do, I was hoping someone had found a shortcut.

 

[JimWirt]

It really isn't that hard. measure the angle of your spring plate before you disconnect it and when you have released it from the trailing arm. I think if you get it real close you will be close to the ride height you had before. On pelican you can find a ride height calculator that uses weight of car torsion bar size and angle of spring plate. I think the spring plate gives you about a three quarters of an inch of ride height adjustment with out re-indexing the the torsion bars.