killervette6666

The rear end alignment on my 79 is quite a bit off and the shims to help align it are completely rusted into the pocket and to the bolt, the whole thing seems to be pretty far gone.
At one point (before the car was handed off to me) me and my brother were going to try to remove them ourselves but it ended pretty bad and we got nowhere, we couldn't even get the shock mount out (long story)

I'm wondering if anyone has paid for a shop to take out their trailing arms so they wouldn't have to deal with the pain of cutting the bolt out and trying to take it all out?
Any estimates?
I plan to call around here Chicago but I want to see what other people have paid so I could compare and maybe bargain.

Z-man

I did mine myself so I had no experience. It took a long time but I wasn't rushing either.

I'd ask if they were experienced at removing them. If so, 4 hours should be a good estimate to cut them out carefully IMO.

jim2527

Leave the shock mount on. Remove the the strut rod from the center mount and remove the trailing arm with it still connected. Cut the frame mounting bolt with a sawzall.

For mine I heated the metal where the shock mount goes in with a maap gas torch and beat it out with a big hammer. It destroys the bushing and shock mount.

ctgene

I just replaced mine on my '79 myself...my shims were completely rusted also...I soaked them with PB blaster for a couple of days and they came out rather easy...I took my time but it can be a time comsuming job and my guess would be a shop would charge a fairly high amount to replace them for you..

wjsullivan

I had my car reviewed when I bought it. It needed a whole new rear end, etc. The estimate for pulling and replacing the spring, shocks, and trailing arms was 14 hours of labor plus parts. I did it myself and would consider that to be a low estimate for a rebuild since they were going to rip out the tailing arms and toss them since they were so bad. I think for a rip and replace job it should have been more like 20 hours. Pull and repair should take longer as you can't just turn around and put the new ones up once the old ones are off.

This won't be cheap. You could do it at a Corvette shop. There are several here in Chicagoland. If you don't go to a specialty place, they will be expensive, I would find a hot rod place or a small father/son shop that has been around long enough they have seen a few of these. Especially for the alignment.

To get the shock mount off, thread something over the end and beat it with a BFH (hammer). The vendors sell a tool or somebody the DB or Batman can tell you the specs for a piece of NTP pipe cap. That way you don't mess up the threads. Those shock strut mounts are like $45 from the vendors. Since I'm done with this I'd sell you the tool I bought from the vendors. If you want it PM me.

killervette6666

Thanks for the advice
What happned was my brother who owned the car at the time decided to just cut the strut bar in the middle after we couldn't get it out using a rrrreeaalllyyy big hammer for a couple of days, and after that we just took it to a shop and told them to put in new strut rods and get the old ones so we could at least drive it for the summer, so I don't think getting those out will be too hard because they're brand new.
What worries me is that the guys at the shop where we installed the strut bars said that they wouldn't even think of touching the rear trailing arm bolt for no amount of money, although they weren't a corvette shop that was still very discouraging.
The way the shims look it seems as if I would have to cut through the shims all the way down to the bolt because those things would not budge.
Also, after the trailing arm bolt is cut, is everything else just a piece of cake and comes out fairly easily?
I guess I just don't want to get started and halfway through realize that there's no way I can finish and have a half disassembled car.

Scott Marzahl

Use a sawzal and cut them out in less than 2 hours. There was a huge thread in the C2 section last year. The poor guy got soaked for something like $900 to remove a trailing arm bolt because the shop didn't know to cut them out. Just kept charging him $90/hour until they got it free.
Bottom line, its not that hard.

Z-man

The whole idea is to cut the old ones out - right through the shims. It's not even worth it to try to remove the old ones intact because they'll be shot anyway...

ctgene

I just replaced mine, the shims were completely rusted, I soaked them with PB blaster for a couple of days. I took the shims out first with typical type pry bar. I then took off the nut, used a punch to knock the bolt out, but it got stuck half way. Couldn't budge it any further, must have stewed for a good hour trying different things. I finally found a 1/4" bolt about 4" long that fit in the hole perfectly. Gave it a few hard blows with the hammer/punch and had the TA bolt out in no time. Went to the other side and got that TA bolt out in about 2 minutes flat.

I have a 4 post lift which made this job a little easier for me. Getting the new TA's on is also a b____ of a job. Almost need a helper to hold your TA's in place while the other feeds the bolt in. Again it was easier because of my lift. I would recommend you find a friend who has one you can use.

wjsullivan

Mine were a real pain. I went through a lot of saw blades and much more than 2 hours but sawzall is the way to go.

Don't pay for something you can do easily yourself with some patience.

wallifishrmn

Just removed my shocks, struts, and TA's Everything was not to bad except for the trailing arms. After a week of beating on them and soaking with kroil--went out a bought a recriprical saw and went through 5 blades. Sent them to Gary to be rebuilt.

killervette6666

Thanks for all the advice, I decided I'm just going to take them out myself next week over spring break.
Where did people cut the bolt? theres shims and space to cut on both sides of the trailing arm, do I cut the inner or outer?
What happens once its cut through? Does everything just slide out/fall apart? wouldn't the remaining shims get in the way (if i don't manage to get them off and just cut straight through)?

Scott Marzahl

Try to get the shims loose, if not, just cut through them on both sides so the whole arm comes right out. Get several 6-8 inch Bi-metal blades and you should be good to go.

jim2527

When I was over at VanSteel I asked Dan how they did it. He said, "I use an oxy-acetylene torch and cut them."

Cut 'em. If you dont own a Sawzall most of your local tool rental will have them and the prices are very reasonable.

spedaleden

If you by 355 and Ogden ave. The Chevrolet dealer is a big corvette service department and reasonable. They work on 55 to new. They did some very nice work on my brother in laws 61 and it was a messed up car. Where are u located?

killervette6666

I live in Skokie, what town's that in?

spedaleden

I used to live at Howard & Crafford on Dobson by East Prarie school.

Bill Kay Chevrolet
601 Ogden Ave
Lisle, IL 60532
(866) 529-2438

This dealer is about 45 minutes from you, south of woodfield mall by 15 minutes.

RunningMan373

300 A side, all said. (600 for two)

killervette6666

allright sounds good, I'll give them a call and see what they tell me in case I run into some huge problem getting them out.

Dustup7T2

Hey Killer:
Looks like you have a plan but want to throw my .02 to this. I tried most all the non-torch efforts stated. In the end, I bought a quality sawzall and resolved the problems, literally in a few minutes. Ok, about 20 per side. My strut rods had been bent-by-bubba for tow hooks to grab. I wasn't planning to reuse so I cut them too. The original bolt was frozen on either side of front TA bushing and I cut both sides, slicing between shims. Felt so good to finally clear the chassis and didn't bugger the mount holes in the kickup part of frame. Being patient and letting the tool do the work, I didn't break any blades either.
Check it out.