I've been told that to replace the bushing, I need to take the torque arm off. My chilton says that I have to basically drop the differential to do this.

Is this necessary or can I just unbolt the arm from the rear end?

Thankie!

 

the problem with just unbolting it from the rear end is that the rear end will try to rotate becuase of the force from the springs, there are two ways around this.

1) jack the car up by its frame, let the rear drop as far as it will when unloaded, and take the rear springs out. then you can unbolt the torque arm.

2) use a jack keep the rear end from rotating. this works, but i had problems getting the torque arm flange lined up correctly to get the torque arm back on.

once you have done either of those to keep the rear from moving, you can then take the torque arm and mount off.

 

I've done it both ways. Letting the rear down and jacking on the frame is the easiest, but if you jack the rear end you can HE Man it back where it needs to be. Just a couple of bolts and nuts. Real easy job.

 

I don't have a spring compressor so that is rather out of the question. What about jacking the frame up, and putting Jack stands under the frame (of course) and under each side of the differential?

Does this mean my rear end rotates now, because when I jacked the front of the car up looking at the mounts, I could move the torque arm around the housing of the bushing very easily.

Hey Dewey, wanna come help? :OP

 

Well wait, which way does it rotate? I had a side to side motion in my head, but I guess it's front/back up/down?

 

My 9 bolt never rotated the 4 times I took my torque arm off. I just put the frame on jackstands and let the rear hang down. Two bolts and the torque arm slid right out of the bushing.

 

I just took mine off this morning and when I took the bushing loose, my torque arm slammed my driveshaft tunnel...ouch!@! To get the bushing mount off, I had to drop the crossmember to get the top bolt out. That's about the only trouble I had.

Twilight, you don't need a spring compressor for the rear springs. Just let the rear down slowly and they practically fall right out.

 

hey paul, i can't really help you this weekend, and i just did schultzys torque arm, but it is pretty easy to do. you won't need a spring compresser as long as you let the rear go ALL the way down, you can pull the springs out by had on the rear.