Is there any way to remove the rear bolt on the radius arm without removing the lower bolt of the shock & spring unit? The bolt head has a flat side which I presume is to clear the mount for the shock bushing and shock base.
If not, any advice would be appreciated as to how to accomplish this.
I tried today with no success.
Spike
Hi Spike…i dont think so…with the rear suspension on full drop just lightly take the weight up under the lower wishbone with a jack so the spring/coil isnt under tension…then remove the nut on the shaft holding the bottom of the shock and tap the shaft back into the wishbone just to release the one shock. …then you can get the radius arm bolt out…Steve
Thanks for the reply, Steve.
I didn’t see any way other than what you described, even though I had hoped there was, as the car is suspended on cribs at all four wheels at the moment, so not simple to perform the task required.
Spike
For the benefit of future searchers… the above is true on late Series 2s. Earlier cars (e.g. my April 69 build) will have you removing the hub.
2 Likes
The build date on my car is Sept. 30, '69.
Hi Spike…jack up under the irs center and lift the rear of the cribs …then your good to go…Steve
No problem if the IRS is up in the air, loosen the nut and drift the shaft back, then the radius arm bolt can be retrieved. The rear shock holds everything in place, everything is contained and safe.
On earlier cars it’s a bit ugly. The flat is a bit of a ‘bodge’ but it’s a huge improvement over the original design!
Thanks guys.,
I had pictured that scenario, but it’s nice to hear that it has a good chance of working.!
I’ll give it a try the next warm (warmer) day.
The worst thing is coping with the odd flat. You will see that it is relatively easy and it will probably come out without any trouble at all. 
Thanks again to all who posted replies to my original post. I got the arms off and the bushings out. Now need to clean them up and apply paint.
Any advice about poly versus rubber-based bushings for this application? Are poly bushings worth the added expense?
As always, any advice is appreciated.
Spike
Rubber.
For racing the big end is turned 90° so it’s less flexible. Just stay with the factory alignment for everything. Lots of grease on the big end to body joint!!
Tighten the bolts that clamp the bushings with the car on the ground so nothing is twisted when the car is parked.
I too would favour the rubber bushes for this application. Given the difficulty in replacing them don’t go cheapo here. Look for Metalastic (as OEM) bushings.
1 Like
I haven’t reported back on this. I got the OEM rubber bushes and, after getting the old ones out and media blasting and painting the arms, pressed the new ones in.
I haven’t put them back onto the car as yet. Still thinking that I can devise a method of removing the rear calipers to re-build them without dropping the IRS, though not very hopeful at this point.
More later.
Spike
That’ll be tough and pictures appreciated.
They’re not easy to remove even with the IRS down and out.
I’m in the midst of helping @Len_Wheeler R&R his S1½ calipers and even with the IRS out we’re going to disassemble the thing to get at them. So many tight places to have to wrench and safety wire that our old hands are willing to wrench a bit more and struggle less.
1 Like
When I was wrenching for hire, and I had to do rear brake work, I found I saved a lot of time just by dropping the IRS. My dad and I could have and out in the ground in about 75 minutes…
And your preferred method for extracting the large and small radius bushings . . .??
Dad had made up extraction tools, but mostly would just burn out the rubber, slice the metal sleeve, and peel it out.
2 Likes
Press them out…its easy…you will need a press anyway to press the new ones in…but note the large bush only presses in/out from one direction…there is a lip on the underside of the radius arm…Steve
I preferred to buy new radius arms than try to remove rusted in bushes and straighten out the old radius arms. (Both had been used in the past as jacking points. My car has had a well used and not well maintained past.) I used poly bushes in the new arms, set for comfort rather than ‘track’.
I did not remove the whole calipers but managed to remove all 4 pistons from the calipers for rebuild without dropping the IRS on my Feb 1968 car. The outboard pistons were no problem but for the inboard I ground down a socket on a low profile swivel handle to fit between the pumpkin and 4 bolts for each piston. Not at all sure if anything like this would work on a Series 2 though.
David
68 E-type FHC