Hi. This is the first time I am working on my rear suspension, starting with replacing shocks and springs.

I pulled the old shocks/springs just now and there are a few unexpected things I have noted on the right trailing arm...

1) When I lift up on the hub and of the arm, the assembly moves but squeaks and needs some help to get it back down in place. The left one moves up silently and then smoothly returns down without any help.
2) The outer nut and bolt (see pic below) on the arm moves when I push up on the assembly ... but the inner bolt does not. Not sure how that could happen as I understand they are connected.
3) The right unit has 4 shims (see other pic below). There are no shims on the left. Which seems odd.

So ... these things are troubling to me but having never working on these particular bits on a 914, I am looking for some guidance.

Is it time to pull the arm "while I am in there" to dig in deeper? Or just motor on? Note that this is meant to be a fun driver - no plans for AX or racing.

Thanks very much.

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If one bolt moves and the other does not, my guess is shaft is broken. 4 shims on one side tells me the frame may be twisted from an accident Something home made going on with fender strap screwed to arm mount. Maybe rot in control arm mount.

I would at least take the squeaky side apart, you'll probably find your squeak pretty easily. The shims are for rear alignment, I'm going to guess someone hit a curb and bent something on the side with all the shims.

Yea, that’s a lot of shims.

Sounds like you may have an ovaled out hole in the mounting plate for the trailing arm, not terribly hard to weld up.
Use a washer, welded in place.

For the squeak and up/down friction.
Search here for rear suspension bushings
Get educated
Choose your path to fix/replace/upgrade etc.

As usual, you guys come through with some great info …

Overall, I think the frame is tweaked. There is sign of trauma on the passenger side - mismatched door, poor paint along the length of it. It’s stuff I would notice now but did not when I bought the car. But that’s how these things go.

My instinct is to dig into the problem, figure out what is going on and fix it. I did a bit of reading on the bushings, replacement options, shims for alignment, etc., and have a better picture of what is going on with your input layered on top.

So next step will be to pull the arm and inspect. I am 93% sure I will be welding a washer onto the wallowed out hole on the outside end. And likely replacing bushings as well. Will probably do both sides ‘while I am at it’. It’s winter and the salty roads are keeping us in anyway.

While it is rusty, I’ve found no signs of rust through/ rot, but will also poke around in this corner to see if that may be at play as well. Fingers crossed.

I’ll send pics when I have it opened up.

Many thanks!

I've had good results welding out of round holes partially then correcting the shape
with a rat tail file. Open the hole only enough to allow the threaded shaft to fit
through.
There is very little thread to spare on the ends of the trailing arm shaft.
Adding a washer (or two) reduces thread contact and puts the serrated shoulder on a
less supported surface......if the oblong hole is not repaired.

Checking back in with some news on this one.

First off, I pulled the T-arm and sure enough, both holes are wallowed out. See pics below. Ouch.

Second, when working with the T-arm, I noticed that the indent on the outside, where the brake caliper sits, was way bigger than on the other arm. It really took a wallop at some point. I think between the oval holes and this damage, I might have an explanation for the 6 (!!) shims.

As I was figuring this all out, I got a DM from @gandalf_025 , who, in a crazy coincidence, had a spare right T-arm. I visited him today and brought home the piece, after a tour of his fleet, of course. (Al - thank you thank you thank you!). This 914 community rocks!!!

I'll use the shaft from the donor as well. My original has its shoulders worn off from the movement in the oval holes.

The pic further below shows my damaged arm above and the donor below. Looking at them together you get a good feel for how bad it is.

So ... time to clean up a lot of parts, do some welding, re-bush both sides, put in a new bearing and get this thing back together. After a cleanup and repacking of the CVs, that is.

Any recommendations on getting the hub out of the old bearing??

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In preferred order:
Press - take to local machine or repair shop if need be
Bearing puller kit - uses threaded arbor and sleeves - Harbor Freight has them
Big hammer and appropriate size drift

The problem after you get the hub out is that the outter bearing race often needs to be removed by cutting with a die grinder and splitting with a chisel.

I use a 30 mm impact socket on extension and tap out hub out with hammer. Socket is a little less than diameter of hub and will drive all the way through bearing. After removing the 4 bolts on the bearing cover, I use a 36mm socket and drive out the bearing. You do not have to worry about leaving bearing shell on shaft. Took about 10 minutes.

Just did bearing on my car this weekend and ended up using a very similar setup after digging through all of my available options. Mine were a bit more stubborn though and took more than 10mins, but its done none the less.

Patience and persistence.

Thanks @914Sixer and @Superhawk996 . I ended up going with the drift and hammer route. It took some PB blaster, a good deal of heat and ultimately taking a die grinder to the inner race and splitting it with a chisel to get it off the hub ... but the hub is out!

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Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Cute, but no, that is not coincidence. If Gandalf is like any other long time 914 owner, the weird part would be that he only had ONE spare right trailing arm.

I have wondered whether an ovaled trailing arm hole might contribute to the road noice.

Good Job!

I wish there were an easy way to remove the bearing race from the hub. Can be done in a more controlled manner with a press and a beefy bearing splitter but the old grinder and chisel method works with the tools most of us have at hand.

So on the bearing and hub reinstall, let me state restate the bearing installation rules for anyone not familiar.

1) Press the bearing in 1st. Pressing only on the OUTER bearing diameter. NEVER press the bearing in by pressing on the inner races.

2) Press the hub in while simultaneously supporting the inner bearing race behind the hub being pressed.

Improper bearing installation techniques and/or insufficient torque on the axle stub after assembly (i.e. bearing pre-load) leads to more failures of a double row ball bearing (914 rear) than other factors like grease, poor bearing quality, etc.

Depends on your definition of road noise.

If road noise is defined by high frequency noise like tire tread pattern noise and/or tire carcass noise like tire slap, carcass ring, or basketball bounce kind of sound while crossing tar strips and expansion joints . . . . the answer is no. An oval hole (would not increase that kind of noise). Those kind of high frequency noise are not usually transmitted by the vehicle structure. They travel though the air as accoustic noise as their primary path.

On the other hand, the oval hole could certainly account for metalic clunk and bump noises as the pivot shaft moved around due to bumps or hard braking. I would not call these road noise.

The biggest risk of an oval hole is losing control of rear toe-in. With a semi trailing arm rear supsension you NEVER want toe-out.

Well, the truth is stranger than fiction..
As a long time owner…. almost 49 years.. I have to admit.
I have only owned 1 914..
No parts cars and no real stash of parts..
The trailing arm in question came into my possession no
more than 3 months ago…. And now it is being put to good use..




Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Cute, but no, that is not coincidence. If Gandalf is like any other long time 914 owner, the weird part would be that he only had ONE spare right trailing arm.


[/quote]bopq

I probably have a dozen spare pairs of rear trailing arms.....I would actually have to get out there and count them.



Clay

UPDATE
So, after a bunch of practice I managed to correct the oval hole on the TA console. Before and after pics below.

Started by welding in enough metal to fill the bad section. Backed up the hole with a bit of copper so it would not pour through. Then sanded flat with a flap disk and filed it to size. I have mad respect for people who can file well. They make it look so easy …

The outside is still a but wonky so may fill that in a bit more and refile.

Ive been working on the TA as well. Next step there is to press in the pivot shaft with new bushings.

Now on to the wallowed out “ear” on the car!

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nice repair!

- Tony

A bearing separator is faster (especially if you're removing two inner races from your trailing arms), easier, and less likely to damage your hubs compared to a cutoff wheel or saw.

Plus it gives you an excuse to buy another tool (and you can always wait for a sale):

https://www.harborfreight.com/bearing-separator-63662.html

Thanks - will have to try that on the other side when I get there. And, of course, I am always looking for excuses to get more tools!

Hi All. I am back to this thread with a follow-on question.

I am preparing to correct the wallowed out hole on the inner right side of the TA - the “ear” connected to the car. It was pretty trashed so waited until I got the left TA off to see if I could get a measurement to the center of the correctly-placed hole with a plan to duplicated that on the right. It ends up the left one is a bit beat up as well so not a great example to follow.

The below pic is of the left - the worse of the two. Intuition tells me that the original hole is the green one on the bottom as it likely would have wallowed the hole “up” due to the weight of the car. But I’d hate to choose wrong and have to redo everything when I cannot get the camber set.

Could someone who has wrestled this issue please advise on red vs. green and/or give me a measurement from the bottom of the “ear” to the center of a properly place hole. I will then use that as my target to rebuild both.

Thanks as always for the all the help.

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Experts will chime in I am sure.

Although the green circle would have been my first thought too, wouldn't this go against the fact that you have a tall stack of shims?

Many shims are there to lower the outer anchor point because the inner point is now lower (green circle)?

38.8mm from bottom of ear to bottom of hole on my OEM left side mount.

Measurement will be approximate due to variance in die trim from part to part so don't think that measurement is accurate to more than +/-1 or 2mm.

Also the pivot hole is more of less centered over the drain at the bottom of the ear. (While you're working down there - make sure your drains are cleared).

@Chaznaster

I'm going with green hole:

1) due to what appears to be part symmetry
2) would seem to be centered between the spot welds that frame the drain hole
3) Stock 914 can't develop much acceleration force. It can develop nearly 1G of braking force that would force the pivot up and forward (assuming the outer pivot was tight - which seems to be a dubious assumption since your outer was also ovaled).

Please post on what your measurement turns up Red vs. Green. We may have to start a betting pool.

Assuming the hole is essentially centered I'd measure up from the bottom edge of a known good original and use that dimension. I'd then make it equal distance from front edge of the flat and back edge.
I think you'll find it very close to your green location.

Thanks for the measurement @Superhawk996 . @rgalla9146 - that's exactly what I was thinking.

And the winner is ... RED!

That is not what I expected. Check out the pic with 38mm at the bottom of the ear.

Oh, and the drain was plugged with dirt. I probably would not have noticed it was there. It's clear now.

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If it would have been green, something else would have been wrong with the car (trailing arm, the outer pivot point, frame itself...)

Inner pivot now being higher, less shims you should need.

Good luck with the rest of your repair!

OK. Time for an update - maybe the final chapter.

I just finished filling in the worst of the wallowed out holes. I am not a super welder - and have never had the b@||$ to weld directly on my car ...

That said, I am really happy with the way it came out - pics below. M14 bolt in the hole to represent the shoulder on the pivot shaft.

Many, many thanks for all the help and guidance on this job.

I have one additional question - is it OK to re-use the original "lock nuts" for the trailing arm pivot? The ones with the slit cut in them. Or go to NyLock or yet another nut locking tech?

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Reuse away, there is nothing special about those slotted "lock" nuts that limits them to 1 use only.

Update - everything is welded and back together. I replaced the left trailing arm with a donor from @gandalf_25. The new arm and hole fixes also resulted in needing only 4 shims for camber adjustment instead of the original 6. With new bushings and shocks, the back end is much more solid. But the front end … ugh …

I’ll bet you will notice it handles better.

Charlie