I will soon be replacing worn out rear trailing arm bushings and am trying to decide between Boge rubber bushings and polyurethane bushings. My main concern is the harshness of the ride and additional noise with the poly vs. rubber. If there is not a significant difference in the ride/noise, I'd be tempted to go with the polyurethane bushings for durability and what sounds like a slightly easier install. Thanks in advance for the advice!

Tom
'86 245 DL 232k

I havn't noticed any extra noise with the poly ones that I put on my '90 240 wagon.Rides and handles great.
Hardest part was burning/cutting/cursing the centers out of the old large shells, but next time it will be a breeze

Also had to take an air chisel to a small piece of metal on the frame side of the front trailing arm bushings, looks like it was there strictly as a reference point for the factory bushing where the metal inner tube stickes out a little on the end, but with the poly, the poly runs flush with the tube and won't fit in without cutting that piece off.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD

I just bought the poly bushings. I have a question. I plan on removing the trailing arm to bring to a machine shop to press out the old bushing. Do you reuse the metal sleve on the front bushing? If so, then the bushing has to be burned out, no? And for the rear bushing, so you burn it out while the sleve is still in the axle? Now, what did you use to burn it out? Any tips? Thank you. These bushings are the culmination of a complete rebushing.

From what I remember, the front one, you just press the whole thing out, grease up the new one ( it should come with the bushings) and press it in. It helps to leave the new bushings in the freezer for awhile to shrink them up a bit.

To burn the large rear ones out, I wrapped the brake lines and anything else that could burn in foil, then took a mapp gas /oxygen torch and cooked out what I could ( with a garden hose w/trigger sprayer in arms reach to keep teh surrounding things dcooled dowmn., then took an air chisel to the heavy residue, and finished it with a wire wheel on a small air drill. Quite tedious, but next time it will take about ten minuits to replace the things.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD

I don't have an air chisel. Do you think it could be done with just a torch?

A normal person should be able to do it with a torch and a regular chisel and hammer, my body just doesn't work that good any more and I have to use an air chisel or I'd be out of luck
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD

Good answer! Thank you!

I posted the same question earlier about the front bushings on the trailing arm and was told you don't reuse the shell. You have to press out the old ones and press in the new poly bushings.

I don't intend to change the front trailing arm bushings, just the rear. I don't see a problem with the fronts and have read here that they rarely fail. I learned my lesson doing the front control arms where there is a similar situation - the fronts last forever and are hard to remove, the rears fail and are less trouble to replace. Well I went ahead and replaced the still good fronts while I had the control arm off and it cost me a trip to the mechanic ($80) to beg them to get the damn things out and the new ones in. The rear I was able to handle myself without much trouble.
Thanks for your input,
Tom

Sounds like the local Volvo shop that charged me $75 bucks to press in my torque rod bushings.

I had success removing my torque rod bushings with a gear puller and some properly sized washers, sockets and grease. Insertion was easier since I replaced them with polyurethane. Because of the geometry of the front control arm bushing, I couldn't get that method to work - I should have left well enough alone since those bushings still looked very solid, but I was stubborn and started cutting and drilling and eventually got one out by cutting it with a hacksaw. But, even with a bushing pulled from the freezer I couldn't drive the new one all the way in. At that point I gave up and decided to take them to the friendly but pricey volvo only shop. It seriously wounded my pride to leave a job unfinished, my car on Jackstands waiting for Monday to roll around to get the shop guys to use their press for 15 minutes. Live and learn,
Tom