How the devil

[gali]

Another vote for warming them out. I used a propane/butane torch too.

1. warm the steel inner tube at both ends until the rubber squishes itself out a bit.

2. tap or push rubber bush with a screwdriver.

3. Use the blunt hacksaw blade (the one you used to try and saw the hardened inner out ) to run round the soft rubber

4. Then a sharp hacksaw blade to cut two slots about 3-4mm apart almost through the outer.

5. Then use a cold chisel to peel the 3mm wide strip out and remove outer. Easy.

6. Repeat until bored, then give up until energy/insomnia returns.

must do the front of the vehicle soon.

Pete

Did any of you guys tried once to use a hydraulic press? It comes out easily.

Why to torch half of the vehicle?

If you don’t have a hydraulic try a mechanic. It's less easy then the hydraulic but still does the job fairly.

Gali.

[ob1]

Tell you what. We started with the rear trailing arm. I'll try and get pics on. The guy that could get it out in 5min will get a bottle of proper whisky from me if we ever run into each other....

Not saying it is BS, but this is what happened

We drilled, burned and hacked trough the bush, as explained. Did grooves on 3 places, hammered for three hours, got some blood flowing, messed up chisels to no avail.

I guess rear trailing arms are the worst (like mentioned) and the fact that the bush was there for 12 years did not help either

We ended up going to a friend of a friend with a hydraulic press. 10 ton work WAAAYYYYYYbetter than hammering your fingers tot tatters!!!!!!!!

I think Ill get me a sturdy frame with a sturdy bottle jack next time!!!

[Bowie69]

Like I said... 'with practice'... don't know why you had such an issue, maybe I'll video and youtube it next time

[gruntus]

Like I said... 'with practice'... don't know why you had such an issue, maybe I'll video and youtube it next time

Now thats the sort of gauntlet I like to see thrown down!

I would like to see a first timers video compared with yours although I think just a sound recording would be enough

As you say though practice is the key, I think next time for me will be easier as the knowledge is now gained in doing it more efficently!

Cheers

G

[Aragorn]

The only way i'd be doing it without a press is using a large vice and some suitably sized sockets to act as a drift. I've done a number of wheelbearings like this, and it works just fine.

I tried the various methods above and found it was far too time consuming, and in the end i figured my time was better spent at work earning money, so i dropped the arms into a garage and let them sort it, as i dont have a suitable press or vice to do it myself.

The way i see it, its better for me if i do a shift, earn 80quid and pay the garage 40quid to do it, rather than spending an entire day off work beating lumps out of it and cutting/drilling/burning etc. First way nets me 40quid and no hassle, second i've wasted an entire day messing around and undoubtedly lost bits of finger etc in the process!

[gali]

thats what you should use if there is no Hyd press (meachanic & Hyd)

all the rest takes ton of your time & effort.

Gali.

[Briarston]

Some years ago, my friend who ran a small motor repair business, allowed

a friend of his son to use his very large (and expensive) bench vice to press

out some car wishbone bushes. The vice snapped, and the freed part of it flew

quite a few feet. My friend was definitely not amused, neither was the user, who,

furtunately, was standing to the side as he hauled on the handle.

So, take care if you are doing it this way!

[ob1]

Now thats the sort of gauntlet I like to see thrown down!

I would like to see a first timers video compared with yours although I think just a sound recording would be enough

As you say though practice is the key, I think next time for me will be easier as the knowledge is now gained in doing it more efficently!

Cheers

G

Sorry, mate. The first timer is going to take up too much of the you tube video length to make it entertaining. Imagine listening to three hours of cursing, you'll get the idea

The only way i'd be doing it without a press is using a large vice and some suitably sized sockets to act as a drift. I've done a number of wheelbearings like this, and it works just fine.

I tried the various methods above and found it was far too time consuming, and in the end i figured my time was better spent at work earning money, so i dropped the arms into a garage and let them sort it, as i dont have a suitable press or vice to do it myself.

The way i see it, its better for me if i do a shift, earn 80quid and pay the garage 40quid to do it, rather than spending an entire day off work beating lumps out of it and cutting/drilling/burning etc. First way nets me 40quid and no hassle, second i've wasted an entire day messing around and undoubtedly lost bits of finger etc in the process!

Yep, agree.

It was a good excercise, glad I did it. Made me respect a mechanic, and I now know how to double check the guys. It would be more economical doing it on a Sat afternoon, but time away from my fam, damaged hands (disadvantage if you are a denitisit and work in other peoples mouths) might make me consider leaving it to someone that knows better than me

[GBMUD]

How the devil? Here is how:

If you are lucky the centre of the bush will fall out. This means the bush was properly knackered. On mine one bush had worn oval and was well overdue for replacement, the other was starting to de-laminate but the centre was still well attached.

I started by removing the centre from the bush which was still intact. I prefer burning them out but some people claim this is a horrid messy operation which creates clouds of acrid and toxic smoke and prefer to drill the rubber out all round. Mine took about two or three minutes to get the centre out - the trick being to only heat the centre metal tube. You may just be able to make out what I am doing through the clouds of acrid smoke in these next two pictures:

Beware, the tube will be unpleasantly hot:

Once you can get at it, saw a groove right from one side of the bush outer sleeve to the other. You will need a decent hacksaw for this, not a Mickey Mouse junior hacksaw. Take care not to damage the hockey stick too much.

Once hacksawed you can then collapse the bush in on itself with a small chisel or similar.

With the bush collapsed it can easily be knocked out.

I used a vice to start the new bushes in. With these they are just too big to reasonably press them in with a vice - and mine is a pretty big vice! You will see I am using a 'tool', this is just a bit of flat steel with a 25mm hole in to allow me to apply force to the bush outer rather than the centre tube. Once the bushes are started I use a big hammer to drive them all the way home while resting on my big block of wood. A proper press would be ideal but needs must.

Once I had done one arm I thought I would try deleting a step or two on the second arm. I just drove the small chisel right in without any burning or sawing. The bush collapsed beautifully and knocked out easily. I am not sure if this would work on a smaller bush but on these big hockey stick bushes it worked a treat.

HTH

Chris

[tychoS]

The bushes are all in pieces that can be removed from the Land Rover, and are easy to carry, so remove them all and take them to a garage with a hydraulic press worth at least 20 ton and have them press the old bushes out.

It takes a minute or two per bushing, is less dangerous than the other methods, costs less(no drill bits, hacksaw blades etc espended) and while not risc free carries a lover risc of causing damage to you and to the parts.

If you fit polybush you can insert the new ones by hand, if you fit genue bushes, have them pressed in using the press while you are there.

[gruntus]

thats what you should use if there is no Hyd press (meachanic & Hyd)

all the rest takes ton of your time & effort.

Gali.

Hi Gali,

The picture on the right looks like bearing pullers, how did you use them to get the bushes out?

Cheers

G

[Waldorf]

If you put the new bushes in the freezer for two hours they are much easier to fit.

[gali]

Hi Gali,

The picture on the right looks like bearing pullers, how did you use them to get the bushes out?

Cheers

G

Hi, I used a much bigger one with two arms; around 5 Kg or even more. Once it is locked with a socket (I think it was a 25mm) while the arm gripped on the vice nothing can stop it from pushing the bush out - it just pops out with no fight.

I use the same method as suggested to line them in (with the vice) then I use my big bearing puller again to give it all the way in.

I'll do my best to take a picture of the big puller.

Gali.

[gali]

Yep, so here it comes...

[jonathan day]

either push with 20 tonne press on edges of bush, has to be exact size, and not too big, or hacksaw two cuts sideways through the tubes and rubber together,then hammer out, very tough, some people burn them out, tons of poisonous smoke! be careful. good luck

[gruntus]

Yep, so here it comes...

Thanks Gali, I dont think that would have worked for me on the rear trailing arms, there isnt a great deal of "land" on the arm to grab onto (without slipping off) and I managed to dent the top of my frame with the amount of pressure exerted with the botle jack before they popped (more of a bang and quick look to see if anyone spotted me jump )

I get the feeling that some bushes come out easier than others, I know that the front radius arms came out easily enough as expected but the rear ones were very hard to come out (they are are very deep compared to their relative width).

Maybe I just need to start working out instead of eating out!

Cheers

G

[ian_s]

at least with the coilers landrover had learnt not to put the bushes into the chassis like they are on a leafer!

i've only had to remove 1 of mine, and that took me about 3 days using the burning and cutting method, and it really made a mess of the sleeve in the chassis which needed cleaning up with a round file before the new bush would go in

[ob1]

WTF @@#$%^#$#$

After a few days of driving, the clonk in the suspension is back. Audiable when I turn left after I braked, or after reversing then pulling away. Will retorque all the bolts shortly. Should I have replaced all the locknuts? Oops

They are hard to come by over here, not even the dealers want to help...

[clbarclay]

Good practice is to replace nylon lock nuts when rebuilding as the nylon insert looses its effectivenes. I have though reused this type of locking nut numerious times in the past without a problem. A good bolted joint should stay tight due to the friction between the steel nut and thread from the preload from being done up to the correct torque. The bolt can be considered as a spring, by tightening the bolt up to the correct torque you are stretching it and the bolt is then trying to force the components together, which in this case braket and bush center tube.

There are several reasons for using lock nuts. In the case of suspension bolts, the pre load is lost the nylon insert stops the nut vibrating off and the bolt coming out. Although not good, a loose bolt is still a lot better than no bolt.

Another reason for using locking nuts is where for whatever reson the joint cannot be done up tight enough to get sufficient preload.

[gali]

One of the option is that you or former owners of the vehicles cheeped out on the locknuts or didn’t tight them well along the years – then the mount of the arm is becoming oval and the bolt is loose inside the hole.

There is a quite easy solution for those cases, use new bolts and assemble them with washers. Once assembled and tighten weld the washers to the original mount with few picks. Don’t weld too much so the poly-bush or rubber bush won't melt.

But you should check it before by taking the arm aside and assemble only the bolt and nut at the mount.

Do it once good, and it will pay you back in long life. Even later remember you own a Defender not a Honda, means you should tight and check bolts as a schedule.

Gali.

[forkrentfitter]

Some years ago, my friend who ran a small motor repair business, allowed

a friend of his son to use his very large (and expensive) bench vice to press

out some car wishbone bushes. The vice snapped, and the freed part of it flew

quite a few feet. My friend was definitely not amused, neither was the user, who,

furtunately, was standing to the side as he hauled on the handle.

So, take care if you are doing it this way!

i managed to break a record six inch vice doing the same a few years ago,i now use the melted rubber method.

[gali]

By the way, I am wondering if any of us here had the pleasure to replace a poly-bush style bush, is it much easier to pull them out or the same method as the original style rubber bushes?

I though to purchase the outback kit of all bushes since mine are more then 4 years old., one of my friends used the britpart kit and disappointed.