W116 rear spring installation

[postman70]

Hell guys, was wondering if anyone can shed some light on installing new springs in the rear of a W116.. replaced trailing arm bushings bushings as well.. my problem is that if I get both of bolts in for the trailing arm and also have it above that annoying tab that i assume is a stopper there isn't enough room to get spring into place in control arm. If i get spring in and above that stopper with one of the trailing arm bolts removed I then cant seem to get the trailing arm in place to put that second bolt through..Any help or step by step instructions would be of great help to me...Thanks...Charlie

[Harv]

We have a wonderful factory service manual on this site. 

https://handbook.w116.org/Chassis/32-230.pdf

[postman70]

Thank you for that..i looked it over and it says to use spring compressor..i trying to do it without a compressor..i seen it dome on a w126 the other day..figured my car probably not much different

[TJ 450]

It is basically the same as the 126, although I would not be doing it without the compressor. Definitely worth purchasing for future work if you're keeping the car long term.

Tim

[postman70]

Hello all.. I ended up getting springs installed without compressor.. What I did was leave forwardmost trailing arm bushing bolt out and installed a skinnier bolt temporarily in rear bushing bolt hole..Then I jacked up trailing arm while using a screwdriver as a ramp to guide the arm over the stopper. the skinnier bolt allowed just enough slack to make this work.. The second side I installed in like 5 minutes..