Trailing Arms Wear

[DeRrO]

Gday Folks

I have a 62' Aussie Built Panel. I am currently going through the front end, will be doing a few of the usual mods.

It has one of the older style bushing beams. The trailing arms dont have the pressed on sleeve.

Anyway the trailing arms show some degree of wear, where they run in the bushings. Pretty much only on the top side though. My question is what are some of the methods people have used to fix this wear.

Iv had a bit of a search but didnt come across to much, probably missed it, or searched the worng thing so sorry if this has been covered comprehensively

Cheers in adavance all

Joel

[Clara]

I replaced trailing arms that are very worn.
If the arms are worn, tends to be the bushings are very worn.
Finding NOS bushings and the tool to ream them in place is difficult.

if you turn down the old trailing arms slightly, and ream the new bushes to fit, there you are.
Installing and reaming bushes is a big job.


old bush removed from my 56 westy, it has exteme wear:

NOS bush installed:

factory tool for reaming the bushes:

tool to push out old bushes:

[DeRrO]

Cool! Thanks for the info! Not sure where ill get a ream like that to do the job... does it have to be a VW specific tool? Perth is almost like a back water for this sort of thing, though ill ask the VW crew around here whats available... should be good for a laugh anyway

Today I removed the bushings with no drama's at all. Quite easy actually, made an oval tool, like the one in the picture above, and just whacked them out with a rod from the other end.

They are worn but no where near to the extent of the above, and I re-examined the trailing arms and im fairly certain they are reusable.

Could be a dumb question but ill shoot anyway. The wear on the arms is only on one side ie however minor or major it being, the upper surface that contact the bushing.... Can you swap the trailing arms from front lower right, and instead install the front lower left upside down?.... and the same with the top arms as well?

Another question has any one used needle bearings that match the dimension of the stock bushings? from the like of SKM, FAG etc.....

Cheer in advance folks!

Joel

[edgood1]

I have the same question. Can you swap the upper trailing arms from side to side? The parts manual has only one part number listed for upper trailing arm but mine are different.
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia powered by Subaru
1963 Panel to Deluxe Bus project :::: (photo album)
'65 Westfalia

[nshaddox]

I’ve seen a few threads like this lately. I’m wondering if there would be interest in creating a fixture for chucking used trailing arms in a lathe and doing a ‘grind-plate-grind’ process to bring dimensions back to nominal? Besides fixturing, you’d have to remove lower trailing arm shock mount and replace it. Uppers would be easy enough. Probably just have to counterweight the fixture to keep it balanced in the lathe. Biggest problem would probably be batch sizes. I doubt it would be economical <100pcs per batch.

[campingbox]

[edgood1]