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Hey Art,
No, the red stuff isn't part of the old bushing. It's part of the old garage floor covering that has flaked into near-nothingness in my garage. It makes it hard to shoot photos sometimes. :)
I took the time to build the slick TAB tool you have plans for on your webpage and it was very helpful for installing the new TAB bushings (as well as some of the other rear suspension bushings, albeit in different configurations using large sockets and such...). Removal of this bushing prompted the purchase of a very nice DeWalt reciprocating saw and many 18T cobalt saw blades. I had trouble cutting through the bushing on this one until I learned the trick of removing the inner bushing and the rubber. The rubber was smoking and melting as the saw cut it and caused the blade to dull quickly! The RH TAB bushing was not nearly as bad as this one and could have been pressed out using the TAB tool, but I decided to hit it with the Sawzall method. Here's the rundown of that:
1) With the trailing arms completely removed and the axle supported by jackstands at the disc brake "hats," I carefully torched the TAB rubber until it got soft enough to tap the inner steel bushing out of the TAB bushing case.
2) Now, with the thick inner bushing out of the way, I torched the rubber a bit more until it softened and then I carved out the remaining rubber.
3) Using the Sawzall from directly underneath (and being careful not to get near the brake lines), I cut half-way through the TAB bushing in 2 places making cuts oriented laterally with respect to the bushing (so the sawzall blade was pointing toward the rear bumper). I made those cuts about 1/8" from each axle mounting tang/boss to leave a little shoulder of the bushing case to tap on. NOTE: I didn't cut clear through the bushing to avoid damaging the parking brake cable and the rear brake lines. NOTE 2: The Sawzall cuts through the TAB bushing outer case like butter when the rubber and inner bushing are removed, so I had to be careful!
4) This created 2 short sections of TAB bushing which were easy to collapse. With hammer and short flat-blade screwdriver, I tapped the bushing case so that I collapsed it at each axle tang/boss. I seem to remember having a little trouble at first, so I sawzalled the bushing case longitudinally cutting from the inside outward. I carefully cut halfway through the case to avoid cutting into the tangs. This was enough to create a nice fracture point. More tapping at the fracture point easily collapsed the bushing so I could slide it out. Once the casing popped loose it was easy to slide it inboard and completely remove it.
I think my TAB bushings were in extra poor shape because I think the factory forgot to apply undercoating to these. I found a few traces of undercoating on the RH TAB, but as you can see the LH side was all rust! The car came from Des Moines, IA and I'm in central IL. I'm probably also the only owner of this car that's had the mercy/pity to spray the underside of this car during the salt season.
On the tire rubbing, I'm still partially puzzled. I wouldn't think tires and somewhat soft springs could do this. I really can't find any evidence of damage or bulging of the inner fender well. My wheels are totally straight and run true. The IPD trackrod instructions have you measure the distance that the wheel rim is spaced the outer fender. Now an outer body panel doesn't really count that much for accurate suspension alignment in my book, but they were right when they said that the typical solid axle RWD Volvo was shifted from 1/4" to 1/2" to the right (so you'd measure a difference of 1/2" to 1" between the L and R wheels). I incorrectly said that mine was off by 1/2", because that was the difference that I measured between wheels. It would be correct to say that my rear axle (based on this method of measurement) is shifted 1/4" off of the body centerline.
The IPD trackrod is intended for cars that are lowered, and I can imagine that by lowering the car (thereby straightening the bar) you will further shift the axle more to the right side. With my new struts, shocks, and suspension bushings, the car sits pretty high at rest and it looks fairly level.
On struts and shocks: I bought KYB struts and shocks and I'm very well pleased at the front struts, but the rear shocks are soft by comparison. Perhaps I'll upgrade to cargo rear springs and some better shocks for the rear someday? I've used KYB struts and shocks on 4 other cars and in every case they were more firm and lasted much longer than the OEM ones. They valved the 240 struts (and more especially the rear shocks) pretty soft, so this was my only disappointment.
Steve
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