By Dick Maury
This is usually a job that is not one people look forward to as it is very involved if following the shop manual.
Here is a rather large shortcut that will save a lot time and effort. According to the shop manual, you
disconnect the upper and lower ball joints along witht the sway bar, shock absorber and tie rod end.
Also recommended to disconnect the flex brake hose so it does not get stretched. What you have at this point is below:
At this point, the shop manual has you taking out the torsion bar. They are usually stuck in place both front
and back.
Also, you will loose your adjustment. The following is a shorcut that will work fine unless a big
case of shipwrights disease takes over.
First thing to do is to remove the front cotter pin and nut. Then unbolt the bushing holder. It can be taken
off by sliding forward. You will have to gently pry the front of the suspension outward to clear the front
subframe. Picture below is what you should have after this step.
Next step is to remover the two rear bolts and nuts at the rear of the torsion bar as pictured below.
You might need to pry the control arm downward to relieve the slight pressure on the bolts. In doing
this, the bolts will come out easily. You can see from the hole alignment that it will not take much
movement to free the bolts.
Now remove the rear cotter pin and nut and loosen the nut. You cannot totally remove it as it will foul with the subframe.
Now slide the whole assembly forward so that you can get the nut off
After you remove the nut, you can slide the whole assembly out and free of the car.
Now you have the suspension and torsion bar on the floor. Remove the rear bushing holder
and replace the bushing. You can paint the parts or just reinstall. Note that unless you take it
apart further, your torsion bar adjustments are unchanged. Installation is the reverse proceedure.