|
I think, though I don't know for certain, that driving without the torque rods will cause the axle to move fore-and-aft enough to bind the driveshaft. Without the rods, the only thing to stop the axle windup is the binding of the big trailing arm bushings in the axle mounting flanges.
I can't say with 100% certainty that the driveshaft will be damaged or that the tires will contact the inner fenders. If either happens, it will be disastrous. I certainly would recommend against moving at anything more than parking-lot speeds. (5mph or so).
That said, I did drive a '72 164 once that had the front of the left trailing arm ripped out of the frame, and it actually drove OK. I didn't realize the extent of the problem and once I found it, I never drove it again.
As for the panhard rod, don't drive a car with this removed. Again, it would probably be ok to move it around in the driveway, or at very low speeds. Not for any appreciable distance. You WILL put the inner edges of one or both rear rims into the sides of the trunk box. You could also damage the shock absorbers and their mounts, the trailing arms, or even the flanges on the axle, as well as unintended extension of brake hoses and cables.
If you really have to make this zero-downtime for the vehicle, get a set of the three rods from a wreck, press the bushings in, then install the new rods on the car. You could probably repeat the process and sell the old ones with new bushings installed and recoup what you spent.
Good luck with it.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K
|
