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Well, it finally dried out enough here so I could take the Brick through the back ditch to my shop without sinking it to the floorpan! Unfortunately, when I built my shop I didn't have enough scratch left to put in a culvert and proper driveway into the back of my lot. :-(
The "homebrew bushing tool" worked flawlessly, both in and out, and the front bushings still looked brand new so I left 'em alone. My only hitch (if it could even be called that) was I had to grind down the threads on the inside of the 2" coupling (for clearance) but that was mentioned as a possibility on the web site.
The cast iron end-caps also worked fine, no busted ones and didn't even bugger up the edges. All bolts came out smoothly and the bushing puller had plenty of shove to be operated with a couple of end wrenches. I feel so fortunate to live a thousand miles away from the "rust belt" every time I work on the underside of this car!
Results: No more clunk in the back, and the car sets up at least an inch higher in the rear. My old bushings look like the ones in the bushing tool instructions that Art took pictures of, I was able to push the center sleeve out with my finger after the bushing was removed! I had been thinking about putting wagon springs in but with the new bushings the car now is back "on-the-level" so I'll stick with the stock springs.
As I was unable to find the "steel" end caps that were specified in the tool instructions I ordered enough stuff to build two bushing tools. Normally Murphy's law rules at my house and I would have gotten the second bushing half way in and had the tool break, but Murphy was on vacation today. Soooo, if anybody needs a pre-made bushing tool for reasonable let me know as I now have an extra.
I just want to thank all the folks that had a hand in "developing and tweaking" this tool for posting the instructions for all to share.
Later...
Justin B.
83 244 Turbo
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