Hi all-

I am relatively certain that my 740 wagon is in need of some rear bushings. I have a pretty severe "jerk" on take-off which is very similar to the symptoms described in the 700/900 FAQ. I'm planning to get under the car and do a close inspection when I get home from school and have access to the garage in about two weeks, but there's not much question as to what I'll find. (This doesn't seem to be a U-joint thing.)

So what I'm trying to figure out is what to do about it. Obviously, the best thing to do is probably to replace the 16-year-old bushings and end it there. But I'm aware of the difficulties of doing this, especially the trailing-arm bushings. So perhaps the best thing to do is wait it out for a while and have my mechanic take care of it for me. (Easy, reliable solution.) But I like to do my own maintenance and have become relatively comfortable working under my brick. (Have gone through hell with the O/D, but fixed it eventually.) Given time to prepare myself, do I stand a chance? By prepare, I mean fabricating tools.

I know that somewhere in cyberspace, there is a web page on how to build a tool which presses trailing arm bushings in/out. Estimated cost of parts was a reasonable $20US or so. It was esentially a big bolt and some pieces of pipe of the right diameter, I think. Does anybody know what I'm talking about or, better yet, have the link? I've come up empty using BrickBoard, TurboBricks, and Google. I'd like to have another look at it.

Thanks for any help that you can give me.

Tim