Replacing the Torque arm bushing this afternoon was a major pain. I was really thinking this would be an easy job, but doing this the first time was not a lot of fun
Here's my story, hopefully this helps save someone some time down the road

-Dropped the X Brace (I have a vert)
-Loosened bolts holiding TA in, I thought I could just take the whole housing out and slide it off the TA.
-Bolts were too long! couldnt slide it off.
-Misplaced my 15mm socket!!! spent 15 minutes looking for the damn thing only to find it was in the wrong place in my tool box... grr
-Lowered tranny crossmember in hopes of making enough clearance to get it off, pulled rear bolts off TA to get enough wiggle room. Still not enough room
-Tried loosening what looked like a Nut holding the clam assembly together on the passenger side (barely any room to work). After 15 minutes of swearing I realised it was welded in.
-Started working on the bolt that went into the nut holding the clam in. Tried a multitude of combos trying fit a wrench there. Deep socket, no room, normal socket, no room to move the wrench, swivily addaptor, still no room for socket, 1/4" socket + adapter success! FINALLY got it loose. Half the clamshell out... the other half still on the car.
-Saw rivets holding the rubber in on both pieces (one in my hand one on the car).
-Tried to use dremel using a power inveter. Too many amp's realised i needed to hookup to a wall socket.
-Had to find an extension cord long enough get to the car with a dremel. (was way out by the road, not even close to the house).
-Went through about 2 cutting wheels per rivet (fat rivets!) finally got all the rivets out and the old rubber things out. (2 still under the car, 2 on the piece i was able to get)
-Lubed up Torque Arm and bushings. Placed Torque arm back in, lined the clamshell up with bushing.
-Thought i had the bushing upside down. Turned it around, Realised i did have it right originally, turned it back (!@$%!@#) guess i was starting to get tired.
-Spent the next 30-45 min swearing trying to get the clamshell closed up! The bolt would NOT want to go in, lube from the phb bushing did NOT make it any better. No room to see, and cramped to begin with; Finally got in though.
-Put everything back together.. finally

Old bushing was looking a bit worn and cracked, wasnt too bad though. The good news is that I could probably do this again in no time. The bad news is that thats not likely for another 20 years now that the bushing is replaced.. lol

 

yep... that sounds about right

 

Yeah, I wasn't aware of the factory rubber being RIVETED in place until getting the mount apart . Thought it was supposed to be an easy out and easy back in ............. NOPE!!

Now that I have a poly mount already installed, I can change it out and back in in no time at all, and with my own 2 hands! The first time I changed one out (on my buddy's car) there were 3 of us under the car trying to hold pressure against the torque arm, hold the clamshell together, and start the first bolt!! And we were all cursing and swearing, and struggling with it!?

 

Taking that apart was a nightmare. I thought it was going to be a simple 1-2-3 job, boy was I wrong.

 

I guess I should feel proud I was able to do it all solo I'm sure sore now though

 

Closing the clamshell on my buddies automatic was a cake walk compared to closing the clamshell on my 6 speed, his you just had to shove the bolt through and tighten a nut, mine screwed into the tranny, prying that SOB trying to get the holes lined up to get the first threads started, god, it still gives me nightmares.

 

I wish I had that upper bolt, but for some reason it was missing on my car I only had the wee little one to line up... grr :/