[DML] installed trailing arm bolts in my automatic this weekend (with pics)

["sweitzel_2000" <sweitzel@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I took the plunge and finally removed my old TABS with TOBY tabs. My
car currently has only 7,068 miles on it but I figured now would be as
good of a time as any to get them replaced. I had previously inspected
my OEM tabs and found them to be snug and in good condition. HOWEVER,
i did find out something interesting. First off, my car only had 1
jamb nut on the front of each trailing arm bushing bracket. The rear
bolt was shorter and did not have a jamb nut. I ended up finding out
what was causing the occasional rear end clunk even after I had
verified earlier that the OEM tabs were snug. Seems that the rear
bracket bolt on the passenger side (without the jamb nut) was over
halfway unscrewed and well on it's way to falling out!!!. Needless to
say the problem has been corrected. Now, onto the TABS. As most people
mentioned here, removing the TAB on the passenger side wasn't too bad
once I loosened the bushing bracket to allow for some flexability.
There was little if any corrosion on the TABs and both sides ended up
sliding right out of both the trailing arms and the bushings. For the
driver's side, I ended up following the advice dispensed on these
boards over the years and disconnected the trailing arm from the rear
carrier on the driver's side. I found that I had to completely unbolt
the bushing bracket from the frame in order to gain enough flexability
with the arm and the bolt to angle the arm up high enough and slide
the bolt out above the transmission. I also elected to double-nut both
sides with the nuts provided with the Toby Tabs. Since reassembly is
exactly reverse of assembly, I took a bunch of detailed photos of the
reassembly process of just the driver's side so folks doing this on
automatic cars have a reference. FWIW, I did this laying on my back on
the floor of the garage with the car on ramps above me. I hope the
photos are useful. They're in an album in the photo section called
Toby TAB install. Thanks to all for the good advice in previous postings.








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