trailing arm
 

as you may know i have been planning on replacing my trailing arm on my car. i have all of the bolts loose but cannot get one of them out. its the on closest to the doors. it looks like the only way to get this out is to drop the sub-frame. i tried dropping just one side but had no luck. do i need to remove that bolt in the center of the mount(lokks like it has rubber under it. how did you do it when you guys do it when you replaced the bushings? please help. any info would be appreciated

i have done a search but i cant quite under stand it. so do i need to undo the diff. so that i can lower the sub-frame? is the cener bolt just mounting it to the rubber?

I replaced the trailing arm on my 123 body several years ago and did not have to undo the differential, just the three attaching points as I recall.

Len

a picture
 

Please.
A picture would help.

I certainly hope that you've used a Klann or SirTools style spring compressor and removed the rear suspension springs before getting to where you are now.

If you have not removed the springs, stop immediately!!! Removing the trailing arm pivot bolts without first removing the rear springs has the potential for causing serious personal injury.

When did the bushings on Thing One's car, we pulled the springs, pulled the shocks (his is a TD) disconnected the emergency brake cables and then dropped the front of the subframe. The trailing arm bolts weren't easy to get to or get loose but, we were able to do it.

You might check out dmorrison's thread about rebuilding the suspension on his W123: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=60964&highlight=bushing

i got it done. i used my home made spring compressor,it works really well once you get the hang of it. i got it all done by disconnecting the driveshaft and lowering one sinde of the sub frame. those bolts on the trailing arm were so tight that i broke a pepboys ratchet getting one of them loose. i got it done and ill see if i can post a pic of the two sid by side. thank you all.

no my program wont size the image down so i can post it. i took a pic of the broken one beside the new one.

http://www.irfanview.us/

is a wunnerful utility for quick imagine viewing and resizing. And it's free..

:)

there

thats the best i can do. the one on the left is the one that the shock pulled through and the one on the right is the good one

top left of most image viewers, something called "file", a list should drop down, select "save as", and save whatever image it is as a .jpg instead of the .bmp you have there. This will allow a much larger image at a smaller file size. .BMP is not a very effecient way of compressoin images(if at compresses them at all), therefore .JPG's can be a larger image but a smaller file and look just as good. tada.. ;)

I'd be willing to be when the car was built, the subframe and suspension and such was assembled off-car, then bolted in. OEM's like doing things this way. You may well be better off droping it. I don't know the back end of these cars well enough to say for sure though.

yea i thought it was just my car but apperently thats how theyre all assembled. but i got it changed and left the bolts the same way they were in there

see if this works