Mention the words "trailing arm bush" to most 90s Rover or Honda owners and they'll start to sweat like a nonce in a nursery - it's one of those jobs that's either a piece of piss, or hell on earth. Most of the time it's the latter, and that was the case here.
I needed to get the trailing arm to drop down slightly to get access to the bushing. I got everything partly dismantled, being careful not to touch the adjuster on the compensator arm. That in itself was a mission - the bolt that attaches the trailing arm to the compensator arm was seized beyond even my impact gun's capabilities. Ended up turning it a fraction at a time with a ratchet and a scaffold bar. Got the trailing arm down far enough to access the bushing, and spent a ridiculous amount of time beating the absolute shit out of it with a lump hammer. Tried it both from the inside and the outside... bugger all. Cunt wasn't moving. I really needed to get the hammer on it vertically, where I could hit it harder - which would mean removing the arm entirely. I really didn't want to go through the ballache of taking the hub off, disconnecting the brake lines etc, so I managed to get the arm loose and then position it on its side, with a block of wood supporting it to avoid stress on the brake lines. More walloping with a lump hammer later... success.
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Old and new side by side... definitely seen better days!
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Then using slightly gentler hammer taps, got the new bushing into the arm, being careful to make sure it was the right way round and vaguely at the same angle as the old one...
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Reinstalled the trailing arm, which actually turned out to be nearly as much of a fucking arseache as getting it off in the first place. Everything is under tension and wants to separate, and trying to hold everything in position while I bolted it all back together was a nightmare. But... eventually it was in place and back together.
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Took it for a test drive, no suspension noises or suspect handling, so I'm reasonably confident the transplant was a success. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I genuinely think that one little bushing was more sodding hassle than the Saab's exhaust replacement.
Just hope the MOT man doesn't give me an advisory on the other side this time...
Jesus wept, that was a lot of fucking words for "I gone done replaced a thing".