jimmbrooks
Member
So, forgive the fact that I was too much in a hurry today to take pictures of the process and it was 110 outside today so I wasn't thinking clearly, but here is a how to to help you out if your suffering from the all too common rusted out trailing arms.
Side note: I am not a mechanic nor do I claim any automotive insight besides what I have learned on my own, and from trial and error. If you hurt yourself or your truck following these steps I am not liable.
Step one.
Gather the following tools.
If you feel that jack stands are not a required tool, leave this page now. I refuse to go into detail on how important they are and the following steps are assuming you are adult enough and intelligent enough to perform this safely. Think about your family, pets, friends, drinking buddies, what ever you have when your deciding on whether or not you will climb under your truck without proper safety equipment.
Step two through a whole bunch....
Break the nuts loose on the driver's side rear wheel
Jack the truck up under the shock mount on the axle
Place the jack stand underneath the frame in the middle of the rear door.
Remove the wheel.
Because the gasoline tank is in the way, I suggest starting with the top bolt on the drivers side trailing arm. This gives quite a bit of frustration here so take your time and be patient.
Using a breakerbar and ratchet loosen up that top bolt. You should spray some of your penetrating oil (blaster de PB) and let it sit for 5 minutes if you have difficulty with that, or any bolt for that matter.
Once the nut is off of the bolt, push the bolt out until it makes contact with the gas tank.
Don your face shield and using your rotary tool cut the head of the bolt off
DO NOT REMOVE the bolt yet.
Make your way to the bottom bolt and remove the nut the same way as above.
At this point use your jack to find the sweet spot in the suspension where both the top bolts and bottom bolts are loose and you can wiggle with your hand the trailing arm. Using the drift pin push the bottom bolt out, and let that part of the trailing arm drop.
Do the same to the remaining part of the top bolt and remove the trailing arm.
Install the top of the trailing arm first. using either your replacement bolts or old hardware. (This time install the bolt from the outside)
You hopefully will have the lower bolt hole line up. In the case like mine, some massaging of the hole with the drift pin allowed me to line up the holes to press the bolt in by hand. Try raising and lowering your jack in small increments to make it easier if your having a hard time. DO NOT BEAT the crap out of it to get it in there. You will bugger up the treads and have to take it out and start over again. What you can do is use tie down straps to move the axle if it is that far out of whack.
Congrats you've installed a new lower control/trailing arm.
Put the wheel back on and that side is done.
The passenger side is the same except no need to cut anything. The two bolts on the passenger side are easily accessible.
The above process was my exact procedure. The driver's side took me an hour and a half with removing the top bolt. and the passenger side 25 minutes.
I hope my first post helps some of you out. Feel free to PM me if you have questions
Side note: I am not a mechanic nor do I claim any automotive insight besides what I have learned on my own, and from trial and error. If you hurt yourself or your truck following these steps I am not liable.
Step one.
Gather the following tools.
- Breaker Bar
- Ratchet
- Metric and standard sockets (18mm to 24mm and 5/8 to 15/16ths)
- Rotary tool with cutoff wheel (zipo de roto)
- floor jack
- jackstands
- face shield
- drift pin
- penetrating oil (blaster de PB)
- 5/8 x 18threads x 3.5 inch bolt (i only needed 1 as i reused 3 of the old bolts)
- Nut for the above bolt
- lock washer for above nut
If you feel that jack stands are not a required tool, leave this page now. I refuse to go into detail on how important they are and the following steps are assuming you are adult enough and intelligent enough to perform this safely. Think about your family, pets, friends, drinking buddies, what ever you have when your deciding on whether or not you will climb under your truck without proper safety equipment.
Step two through a whole bunch....
Break the nuts loose on the driver's side rear wheel
Jack the truck up under the shock mount on the axle
Place the jack stand underneath the frame in the middle of the rear door.
Remove the wheel.
Because the gasoline tank is in the way, I suggest starting with the top bolt on the drivers side trailing arm. This gives quite a bit of frustration here so take your time and be patient.
Using a breakerbar and ratchet loosen up that top bolt. You should spray some of your penetrating oil (blaster de PB) and let it sit for 5 minutes if you have difficulty with that, or any bolt for that matter.
Once the nut is off of the bolt, push the bolt out until it makes contact with the gas tank.
Don your face shield and using your rotary tool cut the head of the bolt off
DO NOT REMOVE the bolt yet.
Make your way to the bottom bolt and remove the nut the same way as above.
At this point use your jack to find the sweet spot in the suspension where both the top bolts and bottom bolts are loose and you can wiggle with your hand the trailing arm. Using the drift pin push the bottom bolt out, and let that part of the trailing arm drop.
Do the same to the remaining part of the top bolt and remove the trailing arm.
Install the top of the trailing arm first. using either your replacement bolts or old hardware. (This time install the bolt from the outside)
You hopefully will have the lower bolt hole line up. In the case like mine, some massaging of the hole with the drift pin allowed me to line up the holes to press the bolt in by hand. Try raising and lowering your jack in small increments to make it easier if your having a hard time. DO NOT BEAT the crap out of it to get it in there. You will bugger up the treads and have to take it out and start over again. What you can do is use tie down straps to move the axle if it is that far out of whack.
Congrats you've installed a new lower control/trailing arm.
Put the wheel back on and that side is done.
The passenger side is the same except no need to cut anything. The two bolts on the passenger side are easily accessible.
The above process was my exact procedure. The driver's side took me an hour and a half with removing the top bolt. and the passenger side 25 minutes.
I hope my first post helps some of you out. Feel free to PM me if you have questions