I have spent the past while replacing an acid-damaged suspension pan (necessary) and painting the wheel wells (decidedly silly). However, now I am back to productive work. I aim to completely refresh the suspension and brakes over the course of the winter.
First up was the banana arms:
I purchased new bushing cartridges which simply press in after you have removed the old bushings. These particular bushings did not seem to be in bad shape, but I replaced them just to be sure.
The only difficulty pressing them in is that the outer sleeve and inner sleeve are seperated by rubber and thus, there is a lot of squish. Hence, you can't (I think) reliably press them in simultaneously.
Pressing in the first one was a snap with a bench vise. Of course a press would be slicker, but this did the job.
To do the other side, I found a nice steel ring with a hole in the center just slightly larger than the bushing OD:
A large socket would do the job as well.
By putting this around the first bushing, it was possible to press the second bushing in against a solid back stop:
Next was the new wheel bearings. These are a much tighter fit and are tricky. If you get them cockeyed, you will be in a world of hurt. The best tool kit to press these in with is the SIR kit (~$250 I think). ACME threads and piloted pieces that keep everything concentric make it very easy with that tool. I went the budget route and found some 3/4" threaded rod, purchased a couple of bucks worth of pipe flanges (1" and 3/4" shown) and some washers and nuts.
The larger pipe flange backed against the inboard side of the banana arm and I basically pressed the bearing in from the outside, with the 3/4" flange pressing against the outer face of the bearing. The key here is that the force must be exerted through the outer race (or outer and inner simultaneously) or you will destroy the bearing. The second key is that the bearing MUST be started in straight. If it is cockeyed it will not self-correct, well, at least not until things are well and truly FUBAR! This is where the fit-up of the SIR tool, which keeps everything very concentric is a big advantage. Using the budget approach requires much more careful fiddling to get everything centered. I found that LIGHTLY tapping the outer race of the bearing with a hammer to just start it up square really helped. The other thing I did was store the bearings in the freezer for a few days to ensure they were as compact as possible. I think some people heat the trailing arms as well, which would probably be even better.
Here it is half-way in. It went in quite nicely actually:
Near the very end, I added in the old bearing because I could not remember if the bearing would need to go past the flange of the banana arm to be fully seated. As it turns out, at least on Carreras, the bearing ends up pretty much flush when it is seated. This picture shows the old bearing with just the millimeter or so of the old bearing still to be pressed in:
Everything turned out quite well, I hope that this might help someone else some day. Thank you.