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It's been ages since I've done trailing arm bushings. I need to do the ones in my 245. I built the tool back in 2001 and found it in my garage last night and was reminescing on how awesome it was to find the plans online to create such a great press tool.
I did three cars in the summer time, so that may affect things since it was done at room temperature.
Since 2001 I've learned a thing or two about press fit parts and can offer this advice:
The night before the TAB procedure, spray the old TAB with PB Blaster, diesel fuel, liquid wrench, or your penetrant of choice.
Don't skimp on the big bolt that goes through it. I went to a machine supply store to purchase a fine pitch, grade 8 bolt. Just to see what happened, we tried a grade 5 bolt from Home Depot and it snapped the head right off.
We actually bent a trailing arm (well, collapsed) by using the tool. It is powerful enough to do damage if the bearing is really stuck in there. So definitely don't skimp on your penetrant usage. This was on a crusty 242 GT. It's important to make sure the spacer piece is wide enough to keep the trailing arm from pulling in on itself. If you're hyper paranoid, a 2nd spacer piece might be nice for the other side.
Once the TAB pops free from one side, it pulls out by hand, like everyone said.
The new TAB should use a layer of grease rubbed around the exterior to aid in installation. Now that it's winter time in Iowa, I plan on using cold and hot to help me. The trailing arm will be heated with a propane torch and the new TAB will be flash frozen with a can of compressed air held upside down. This is a trick I use to install main bearings into Vespa scooter engines. The heated trailing arm and the chilled TAB will perhaps even tap in with a mallet due to the extreme temperature differences.
Once you've used the tool successfully it is a pretty simple procedure. It's sad to hear that people have loaned the tool and had it stolen by others. It took a great deal of effort for us to make ours. Drilling holes through pipe caps and then grinding and grinding that threaded cap to the perfect size took forever. Definitely only send it to someone trustworthy.
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