I have a terribly rusted out passenger side travel arm. Its so bad the wheel is now flared outwards. The car is just plain unsafe. Here it is:
I do not drive on a regular basis so I can afford to have the car on jackstands for days at a time, hence I want to undergo the repair process myself
I already have a replacement travel arm from a junked car, just need some more clarification on the install process.
Mark DiSilvestro was kind enough to provide this good post:
Quote:
I replaced the rusted left rear trailing arm on my '82 240D.
If you're only doing one side, it's possible to leave the driveshaft connected and using two jacks, lower the rear crossmember just enough on the side you're replacing, for the outer trailing arm bushing bolt to clear the body.
(Note: Reconsider attempting this yourself if you have any doubts as to the reliability of your jacks, or your ability to place them securely under the parts that need supporting.)
Jack up and place the rear of the car on jackstands. Remove the brake caliper and disc and disconnect the parkng brake cable for the trailing arm you're removing. Remove the upper backseat for axcess to the upper shock mount. Leave the crossmember attached at the side of the car opposite from the bad trailing arm. Place a jack under the bad trailing arm, then unbolt and remove the shock, undo the stabilizer link from the trailing arm, and remove the bolt and washer holding the axleshaft to the wheel hub. Make sure the outer axleshaft joint isn't rusted in place and will now slide out of the hub.
Lower the bad trailing arm till it contacts the stop bracket on the crossmember. Move the jack under the differential and unbolt it's mount from the body (4 bolts). Place another jack under the end of the crossmember to be lowered and unbolt that end from the body (3 bolts- 2 short, 1 long). Lower the differential and crossmember jacks just enough for the outer trailing arm bushing bolt to clear the body. The one end of the crossmember only needs to come down about 3 or 4 inches. In my case, once the differential and crossmember was lowered enough for the outer trailing arm bolt to clear the body, all tension was off the coil spring, so a spring compressor wasn't neccessary.
Also, I was lucky my trailing arm bushing bolts weren't rusted or seized.
It's tricky manuvering the arm, spring and axleshaft apart and then back togther, but IMHO much less hassle than detaching the driveshaft and removing/reinstalling the entire crossmember assembly.
The bushings and hub-bearing in the salvage-yard trailing arm I used checked out OK, so I installed it as is. It's up to you if you want to renew those items in your replacement trailing arm before you install it. Good luck.
Happy Motoring, Mark
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However, I'm just still not grasping the full process. Are there any pictures of the process? I may sound like a simpleton but I'm just a very visual learner and reading the procedure sometimes doesn't do it for me.
Any further detail to the process would be much much appreciated as well
06-03-2007, 01:33 AM
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