RockyL32

I decided to tackle what looked at first to me to be a pretty strait forward little project. I started to change the bushings on my rear spring bolts hoping this will help the small lean my cat has and the old ones are pretty cracked. So I jack up the car, take off the wheel, c clamp a wood block to the spring, jack up the spring to take the tension off the bolt. Now here is my problem the bolt on the top is boxed in by a small box that is part of the rear swing arm..... How do you get this bolt out to replace the top bushing? I tried to wiggle the bolt to come out the top just cant get the bolt to go sideways enough to clear. What am I missing here?

toobroketoretire

It'll come out but you have to lean it way to the rear to get it out. But it will come out.

jnb5101

There should be a large hole in the trailing arm above the bolt that will allow it's removal.

RockyL32

So try pushing the bottom of the bolt as far as I can to the front of the car? No hole in the top of my trailing arm.
Thanx so much for these quick replies

Tom454

Stock trailing arms have the hole. Do you have aftermarket trailing arms?

Stock design trailing arm with small hole on bottom (not shown) and large hole on top (shown):
http://www.mamotorworks.com/Corvette...rm-lh-604533-1

0Willcox Corvette

You must remove the two bolts (10) that hold the bracket (9) to the trailing arm so the bolt can be removed. That is the easy part, the tricky part is getting the bolt back in and crushing the grommet so you can get the nut plate (13) back in place.

We have a tool here we made years ago out of some water pipe and some old spring washers. What you have to do is drop the bolts in place then insert the tool on the bottom. As you tighten up the stock nut on the end of the bolt you will crush the grommet so you can insert the square nut plate in place.

I've pasted a picture of this tool below should you care to make one. It's number 4 in the picture at the bottom and in number 3 you can see it in use on the bolt.


Willcox

Strokemyaxe

Did you not unscrew the nut and lower the jack back down?

78SilverCam

You can also try going to 7m52s of this video to see if that helps.

RockyL32

Thank you all for your help Wilcox thank you that is what I was missing. The top bracket and bolt strap underneath it completely covered that hole on top. I made a tool like you showed to compress the new bushing but it was not needed the bolt strap had enough room over the top of the bolt to slide back in, I checked the other side a couple times to make sure I didn't miss a spacer or anything when I saw I did not need to compress the bushing.
Thanx again everyone for the help... Great forum and Wilcox just a great Vendor.