Re: 1956 Packard Patrician Rebuild Project

Posted by BDeB On 2014/7/6 19:29:46

Regarding the rear load arms - these can be difficult to remove from the torsion bars.

I have done this for 2 different cars and for the first one did it with the units in place by making up a fairly heavy 2 piece bracket to mount in front of the load arm and using a gear puller to apply force to the end of the torsion bar inside the load arm. This took a long time and a lot of soaking with penetrant. Finally had to use heat to get them to to break loose. Did try using a drift and hammer on these first before the puller but with no luck.

On the second set, the torsion bar and load arm assemblies were removed from the frame of a parts car by cutting the rear mounting brackets. I then used a 12 ton shop press to separate the load arms from the torsion bars.