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I'm having trouble getting the left rear shock to fit in my 85.5 project car. So I crawled under to get a better look, and saw this:
Something is tweaked, obviously. I'm not sure what it's called, but the "blade" thing that comes off the torsion bar housing is pushed inboard. I put a little bottle jack in between it and the diff and I can push it back into position, but as soon as I release the pressure, it goes back. As you can see from the Koni yellow paint on it, the shock is hitting it, preventing it from fitting correctly.
I THINK the problem is part #10 in this diagram:
I didn't get a good picture of it, but it looks to have been kind of crushed somehow. It's obviously out of position, as you can see in the first picture, and the top bracket that's supposed to bolt to the unibody is bent way down and the bolt is gone.
So, I'm hoping I can replace this part, bolt it into place and it will pull the "blade" back into position. And then get the thing aligned to make sure everything is kosher.
But first I need to know what the heck it's called.
The 'silent bloc' mounts to the chassis with a single bolt on top facing outboard. You might take a peek at the opposite side.
The banana arm has a larger hole and it's fastener should be tightened with the wheel laden to locate the at rest position. (These are normally cut off when coil overs are installed.)
So, I have my new part thanks to Auto Atlanta, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the old one out without completely disassembling my rear suspension, which I'd obviously love to avoid. Since the banana arm is welded to the torsion bar tube, there's really no way to rotate it down so that I can replace the "silent bloc", is there? Which leads me to the conclusion that I have to remove the whole damn thing.
OR, and this occurred to me last night when laying under the car.... can I slide it backwards off the banana arm? The transaxle crossmember is in the way, but if I support the trans with a jack and unbolt the crossmember, I should be able to get enough room to slide the silent block off. Anybody done this?
How will the new silent bloc solve your issue of the banana arm being in the wrong spot? Honestly, dropping the rear suspension an inch or two (so you don't have to disconnect brake lines) might be easier than dropping the trans. I know it's a daunting task, but if you lower it slowly with a jack an hang it from the bottom of the car with ratchet straps it's really not too bad.
How will the new silent bloc solve your issue of the banana arm being in the wrong spot?
Well, that's a good question. I can bend the banana arm back into the proper position by wedging a bottle jack between it and the trans, but it pops back as soon as I relive the pressure. My hope is that, with a new, non-mangled silent bloc bolted to the chassis, it will hold the banana arm in place.
But it still begs the question of how it got messed up in the first place, doesn't it?
Honestly, dropping the rear suspension an inch or two (so you don't have to disconnect brake lines) might be easier than dropping the trans. I know it's a daunting task, but if you lower it slowly with a jack an hang it from the bottom of the car with ratchet straps it's really not too bad.
I'm not really worried about the brake lines, I just replaced them, so they'd come off pretty easily. And my halfshafts are already out since I replaced the wheel bearings, too.
Is it possible to unbolt the whole torsion bar assembly from the car and lower it without having to relieve the tension on the torsion bar itself?
Just to wrap this up, it's all fixed and back together now. I was able to unbolt and drop the rear suspension about an inch or so and get the old silent bloc out. Here it is next to my new (used) one:
Still don't know what caused it, but that bastard was truly destroyed.
Once it was off, I bent the banana arm back into place with a ratchet strap attached to a post in my barn. I left it like this for about 20 minutes (don't mind the mess):
Re-assembled and good as new:
But rest assured I'm getting a 4-wheel alignment as soon as this thing is on the road.
...But rest assured I'm getting a 4-wheel alignment as soon as this thing is on the road.
Great job and I like the ingenious way you kept tension on that banana arm. Back yard amateur mechanics at their very best!
If all you did was drop the torsion bar carrier and relocate that banana arm, you will not have to do an alignment back there. There is no adjustment at any of those points so they will go back in exactly the way they came out. Even the new position of the banana arm will have no effect on alignment.
Btw, that banana arm is only there to counteract the force exerted by the torsion bar on the carrier. If it wasn't there the force exerted on the carrier at the inner torsion bar mount would twist the outer edge of the carrier. As thomasmryan posted, that's why they are not required when coilovers are fitted, there are no forces to counteract on the carrier anymore.
If all you did was drop the torsion bar carrier and relocate that banana arm, you will not have to do an alignment back there. There is no adjustment at any of those points so they will go back in exactly the way they came out. Even the new position of the banana arm will have no effect on alignment.
Right, but I'm still concerned about how it got damaged in the first place, and whether or not any of the mounting points got tweaked when it happened. So the alignment will be just kind of a "making sure everything's OK" thing more than anything else.
07-22-2017, 10:41 PM
Need a bit of help with my rear suspension
