Hello everybody

I have a '73 bus and I've been plagued by the rear wheels leaning inward very 
noticably when the suspension is unloaded and a lot more when it is loaded.  
It has caused wear on the inner edges of the rear tires and I was wondering if 
there is an easy fix.  I had the rear suspension apart in the spring since I 
was rebuilding the engine.  The spring plate settings are spot on the angles 
mentioned in Bentley and Haynes and I marked the original relationship between 
the hub parts and arms and returned the same positions on assembly.  They did 
mention in passing that the lean issue could be addressed to a small degree by 
preloading the trailing arm with a pipe wrench but the correction was a best 
minor.  I think the suspension is common from '68 to '79 and involves a spring 
plate that attaches to the torsion bar and the rear wheel hub assembly.  There 
is also a trailing arm that attaches to the rear wheel hub and to the torsion 
bar housing about 1.5 feet inboard from the spring plate.  The spring plate 
and trailinf arm form a triangle to prevent side to side movement of the rear 
wheel hub and wheels.  It looks to me like the trailing arm is the thing that 
controls the lean of the wheel since the spring plate can twist due to the 
torsional load of the wheel.  It also looks like the trailing arm has 
developed a set to it over the years or the rubber bushing at the torsion bar 
housing end of the trailing arm has worn over the years.  I looked at the 
bushing but didn't take it appart since it seemed to have no twisting free 
play in it when I had the rear wheel hubs off.  To my mind it looks like the 
trailing arm has simply allowed the wheels to lean inward due to the constant 
loading on them over the years.

Last night I had a thought that since both trailing arms are the same it 
should be possible to swap them right for left.  This would flip each arm 
upside down on the opposite side from each arms' original possition.  The 
only problem that I can see is the little clip retainers that hold the brake 
line along the trailing arm would now be inverted.  This should lean the rear 
wheels outward by the same amount that they were leaning inward before.  Seems 
simple but am I right?  If I did this I would need a rear wheel alignment but 
it looks like the toe in and out is controlled by the position of the rear wheel 
parts and arms when the bolts clamp them in place.  

I'd appreciate any comments on this or sdvise from anyone who has tried to 
adjust the rear wheel lean problem.

Thanks

Andy Burczyk