fast89

I am removing my trans now and I need to know if I can remove the torque arm with no porblems. I have the rear end of the car sitting on jack stands. Is it Ok to remove torque arm now. I should be OK with rearend flex since I have the car sitting on the rearend, right???

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1989 Pontiac Formula L98 Ported Plenum, Edelbrock 6085 Heads, Edelbrock HI-FLO Intake, BBK 52MM TB, Edelbrock TES, FlowMaster 3" Exhaust, Dual Cats, 3.27 Gear, CompuCam 2032 Cam, 1.5 Rollers, Ed Wright FastChip, Accel Super Coil, MSD 8mm Wires

RB83L69

Not quite.

It works best if you support the car on jack stands, at the place where the front end of the rear LCA hooks to the "frame"; then lower the rear end as far as it can go; then jack it back up an inch or 2, just enough to get it up off the shocks; then support the AXLE TUBES (not the brackets, or spring pads, or anything else) on 2 more jack stands. If you do it like that, there is almost no force on it trying to make it go anywhere.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

TomP

When I did my trans swap, I had the rear subframe of the car on jackstands, like RB said (in front of rear control arms). The torque arm had no desire to swing upward.

But- I told that to someone on here (i forget who), and their torque arm still wanted to hit the floorboard. (In fact, I think it pinned their hand, oops!) So all I could figure is, my V6 rear springs probably didn't have as much "kick" as his V8 rear springs did. So where my V6 springs were at rest, his V8 rear springs were still pushing down on the axle, and causing the torque arm to go skywards.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

84TransAm

I have the front end of my car lifted up now and it has no desire to swing upwards either.

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--Steve S--
1984 Trans Am 305 LG4, 5 speed
Daily Driver, Flowmaster 80 Series
Holley 600 cfm & vacuum advance
Soon: Edlebrock Intake & TES

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

That was me, Tom. Actually, it had new V6 springs in it at the time, but...

The real issue is to not have the axle hanging by the shocks. If you have the tires on ramps, for instance, it will be fine, as long as you don't have any forward/rearward force on the car.

If you don't have it on ramps, the best bet would be to support on jack stands under the frame, remove lower shock attachment and lower the axle to remove the springs, then support the axle by the tubes like RB says. Then, you will ABSOLUTELY have no twisting force on the torque arm, guarenteed!

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/'87 LB9 block, ZZ3 cam and intake, World 305 heads, Hooker headers & y-pipe, 3" Catco cat).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. 0.030 over 396, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" Hedders, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Best 15.1 @ 5800' Bandimere w/open diff & slipping tranny. Daily driver while Camaro was being put together.