I had the shock absorber go through the passenger rear trailing arm on my 83 300D. The threads I read made it sound like I did not need to remove the entire rear end to take out the trailing arm. I removed the carriage bolt and was able to remove the bolt that attaches the outside of the arm to the subframe. But I cannot slide the bolt out on the inner mount- it hits the transmission flex plate.

Is there a way to lower the subframe more to make clearance for the bolt? Do I need to remove the flex plate (I just had it installed recently)? Is there another option here?

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Rich

83 300D
98 E320 Wagon