Technical Marea rear swing arm bearings and bushes

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Technical Marea rear swing arm bearings and bushes

kat7

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Hello,:)
I have a problem with my Marea ....it is wearing out the inner sides of the rear tyres MUCH faster than the rest. I think that this is probably due to worn rear swinging arm bearings and bushes :mad: ....as per this kit on Ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300629643170?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
The manual says that the fuel tank, exhaust and entire rear subframe needs to be removed to replace them !!!!..... but I have seen a site that says that they can be changed in situ on the car......Please can anyone tell me if these bearings etc CAN be replaced on the car and if so How is it done ? ......Explained simply and slowly please as I am a bit of a novice at this, so please be gentle.......
Many Thanks in advance,
Kat.
 
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Firstly, you only need to remove the fuel tank etc if you are removing the whole subframe.

You can replace the trailing arm bush without removing the subframe, however be aware these are not a simple fix due to:
- The trailing arm bolt will be very hard to undo. They're tight anyway, but plus years of corrosion. Many people end up cutting the nut off.
- The bearing shells need to be pressed into the trailing arm cups.
- The ABS sensor needs to be removed to move the arm. These are known to break.

The rough plan I would say is (ignoring some obvious steps like jack up car, put on axle stands etc).
1. Remove the handbrake cables, undo the brake lines ahead of the front flexible.
2. Remove the ABS sensor.
3. Undo the bolts for the anti-roll bar.
4. Remove the lower shock absorber bolt and take away the spring.
5. Undo the trailing arm pivot bolt and extract the arm from the car.

Working off the car...
1. Use the pivot bolt to knock the bearings out of the trailing arm.
2. Clean up the cups ready to take the new bearings
3. Press in the new bearings - using a threaded bar and the old bearings to avoid damage.
4. Repeat at the other side having remembered to include the plastic part, and plenty of heavy grease.
5. Put the bearing racers together and offer back up to the car.
6. Put the new pivot bolt through and re-assemble in the reverse of disassembly.
7. Blead the brakes etc.

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With luck it is easy. You just gotta pray the bolt has not rusted to the pipe hoding the bearings together. One side of mine came off with gentle tap and the bolt was clear as new, the other side....well had to take it off with angle grinder.
Remove brakes, arb, shocks and springs from the arm. If you got abs sensors, leave them and unplug the connectors under backseat.
Undo the nut from the bolts. Try taking the bolt off.
Incase it seems slightly stuck:
Beat the hell out of it. I used 15mm steel plate to hit from the nutside
Plan B: weld a nut or couple to it, thread bolt to it, use sliding hammer. If it wont come off, use bigger hammer http://never.mortals.dy.fi/marea/medium/24092011194.jpg
If you got a threaded rod, put ot there, get a pipe that fits over the bolt. Put a sturdy plate with hole for rod (same as square plates on pic above, 6mm and 4mm plates, and they aint flat anymore)against the pipe, put a nut (I had two welded together) and start tightening. Incase you used 2 or 3 nuts welded to the bolt and the threads shear off the rod, there is no hope.
Plan D: take fueltank off and use torch on the bolt and now as tank is off, there is room for sledgehammer.
Plan G: Undo the brake lines, drop whole frame. Now on my case it had a week of good penetration oil on it and pounding with big sledgehammer didnt even make room for a fingernail under the bolthead, the threads flattened by 5mm.
Cut the threaded end off between frame and arm with anglegrinder, rotating the bolt. Cut the Head off, twist the arm off the frame.
Dismantle the old bearing. Hit the inside of the bearing sleeve, the insides should come off. Remove the outer bearingsurface from the arm with pipe/something by hitting from the other side. http://never.mortals.dy.fi/marea/medium/09102011200.jpg
Install new bearings. Use waterproof grease. To press the bearings together I welded up steel frame that fit the arm and bottlejack as I dont own a press. When pressing them dont overdo it, I had to loosen one side a littlebit.
Reassemble.
You could cut it while it is in the car, but I just dropped the frame and repainted it and cleared the underside while i was on it. Its not a big step after removing the fueltank.

EDIT: Ok a bit late, but different setups :)
 
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as mentioned the main problem is removing the trailing arm bolt; I used a small angle grinder with a large thin blade and cut it between the trailing arm and the subframe on both sides (not that easy and a little hazardous); a friend used a power saw with a thin metal cutting blade......
 
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