VTHokie77Vette

Hey Guys,
Hopefully this weekend I'm going to be putting my new rear suspension on and I was wondering if anybody had any tips on reinstalling the trailing arms. The bolt was a pain to get to while taking them off, so I can only imagine how bad its going to be to get them back on.

OldSchool

One thing that I did was when I reinstalled the bolt, I used a heavy fishing line tied thru the end of the bolt. I fished the line thru the frame and TA and this way I could pull the line and the bolt thru... Use anti seize and take your time.. reinstal the shims the same way you took them out, and that should be close enough for you to get to the alignment shop..
Steve

Disco_Mike

Fishing line! Great tip!

Thumper76

What's the proceedure for installing trailing arms if you don't have the old shims for reference? Mine were basically destroyed in the rusty trailing arm removal phase.

OldSchool

Buy some new SS shims, divvy them up equally left and right, inside and outside. Bolt them in.. The alignment guy will most likely move them around or take some out any way..
Steve

Thumper76

That's the direction I was headed in. I've already bought the SS shims and bolts and just wanted to be sure. Thanks.
Jeff

69L68

Be patient. I did mine several years ago. I do remember thinking it was going to be a simple and easy job. One bolt right, NO PROBLEM. I was wrong. Literally took several days. The beer really didn't help either.

Steve

NHvette

You should be able to set the toe very close (by eye).
If you have the fishing line, then you likely have a fishing pole, too.
I check toe-in visually with my fishing rod. By laying it up against the
edge if the tire, use it as a sight. Sight down the rod and adjust the shims
until the rod sights toward the outer edge of the front tire.

You will be very close to zero toe - which will be OK to drive it to the shop.

w1ctc

I used this alignment method and took my time. It came out ok when it was checked on a machine. I modified the procedure a little. I used jack stands to hold the front of the string and tied it behind the rear wheel so I did not need a helper. http://www.fastcorvette.com/AlignmentSchool.htm

Frank75

It helps to support the T/A at ride height on some blocks or something. I've used needle-nose pliers to feed the bolt in and it worked OK.

norvalwilhelm

Guys I installed my trailing arms dozens of times for fabricating the rear coil overs and each time I just used a pair of plier, grabbed the bolt and in less then a minute every time I could put it through the trailing arm. I added the shims later.
For rough alignment I used a lazer lever, I install the rotors with the nuts and lay a lazer lever on the rotor with the triailing arms blocked up to about level and shine the spot on the front tire, I made both side equal.
By using straight edges along the rotor you can set toe and with the lazer level make the rearend point stright ahead,
If the bolts are new and you have clean stainless shims the alignment guy can easily set it up.

crazcorkath

I have done two trailing arm installs on both of my cars. When you get the new shims the u cut out portion is where the long bolt goes thru and the hole portion is where the long cotter pin goes thrru. I used a long punch to tap on the bolt while I was putting it in. Remember that you don't torque the bolts until the car is on the ground