Hi all,
I have the rear suspension out of my 1969 to replace trailing arm
bushings, rear hubs, u-joints, and rear brakes. Last year, while in Kansas
City on business, I stopped in at Victoria British and purchased a set of
polyurethane trailing arm bushings. Anyway, the old rubber bushings came
out quite easily using a 7/16" threaded rod and a nut, a big washer and a
PVC pipe fitting on one side and a nut and a small washer on the other (I
didn't have a socket big enough to go over the outside of the bushing and I
figured the plastic pipe wouldn't damage the aluminum trailing arm). It is
apparent that the original rubber bushing never rotated in the trailing arm
bore, as the bore has no wear at all. Now, here is where I am concerned. I
have been told to lube the new poly bushings all over on installation, yet
I'm concerned that if I lube the exterior of the bushing it, that may cause
the bushing to rotate in the trailing arm bore, eventually wearing the
relatively soft aluminum. Wouldn't it be better to not lube the exterior of
the bushing, but lube the interior of the bushing and the steel spacer to
encourage the bushing to rotate on the spacer?
Also, I have been reading the thread on the stuck cylinder head. A few
years ago, I had a similar problem and managed to free the head by removal
of the studs and using the "rope in the spark plug hole" technique. I
wasn't too concerned about damage to the engine because of the judicial use
of force that I applied, the fact that with the rocker arm shaft removed the
valves were all closed, and I used plastic hollow clothesline as the rope.
It worked just fine. I do have a caution, however, about inserting
something in the ports to lift with. I tried this before discovering the
rope trick, and did some damage to the edge of one port with an oak hammer
handle that I was using.
Rex Townsend
Bainbridge Island, WA
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