URGENT HELP REQUIRED, my britpart poly bushes wont fit into my chassis

[moore101]

AAAAARGH, I buy britpart because i'm an apprentice doing a rebuild on a very tight budget and I end up with the rubbish parts!

Just tried to fit my springs to my brand new chassis and they wont fit. The ones i'm trying to fit are the front of back springs so I guess the front of front will be just as hard. It seems the flange of the bushes is too wide and I can't think of any way to squeeze it all up and slide it in.

I bought 'polybushes' because I thought they were easier to fit, apparently not!

Pics attached, not brilliant as I was holding it all with one hand while taking the picture with the other but I think you can understand my problem.

Also, red oxide and chassis black is a rubbish combination of paint that chips of way too easily! Trusty old hammerite straight to rust for the rest of the rebuild!

[landy V8]

don't really know much about series susp but by the looks of the mounting it looks like one side is not straight and it's been bent inwards.try straightening it with some mole grips.

[MECCANO]

AAAAARGH, I buy britpart because i'm an apprentice doing a rebuild on a very tight budget and I end up with the rubbish parts!

Just tried to fit my springs to my brand new chassis and they wont fit. The ones i'm trying to fit are the front of back springs so I guess the front of front will be just as hard. It seems the flange of the bushes is too wide and I can't think of any way to squeeze it all up and slide it in.

I bought 'polybushes' because I thought they were easier to fit, apparently not!

Pics attached, not brilliant as I was holding it all with one hand while taking the picture with the other but I think you can understand my problem.

Also, red oxide and chassis black is a rubbish combination of paint that chips of way too easily! Trusty old hammerite straight to rust for the rest of the rebuild!

I had exactly the same problem ( not with britpart ones though) I think its common with all polly bushes.

I cheated. I took some studding a couple of nuts and some decent sized washes. Thread the studding through the bolt hole in the dumb iron with the two nuts in between the two faces, using the two washers to protect the newly painted surface. wind the nuts out until the legs are splayed out slightly( just a tad).... remove the studding

Then take a g-clamp and use it to press the bush tight into the leaf. Keep the clamp on until the bush starts to slide into the gap in the chassis leg. Once partically in release the clamp and work the leaf into position.

Don't worry, wheny ou tighten the bolt for the spring the legs will pull back in.

HTH

[Bowie69]

Lubing the bushes helps a lot

As above, once in a bit, jack it up slowly and encourage it with pry bars and small hammers until in.

Good luck

*edit* Is that a replacement Britpart dumb iron I see? If so that could be your problem. bend it 'til it fits

[moore101]

cheers for the replies!

Landy V8, they're straight as a straight thing, the chassis only got delivered today.

Meccano, just had exactly the same idea, gently jack the chassis mounting apart, doing the bolt up will pull it back into shape. But it's a new chassis so i dont really want to do that and I definitely don't want to be doing that once i've had it galvanised..

[Gremlin]

bend the legs ever so slightly, big hammer usually seems to do the trick, then lots of grease and squeeze the things into place, the chassis spring bolts will realign the legs again, i alway do mine that way.

G

[moore101]

Cheers for the responses.

In the end I bent out the chassis mounts slightly (almost cried doing that to a new chassis!) pulled it all together with ratchet straps, the bushes got wedged halfway through doing this (they were deforming into the bolt holes in the chassis), so I gave up, pulled the bushes out of the springs, threw them into the depths of the garage and just put it all together without any bushes.

When it comes to putting it all back together once the chassis has been galvanised I will be pressing original fitment bushes into the front of the springs and just using polybushes for the backs of the springs where they're easy to fit as the shackle splits so theres infinite space for it to go in.

Thought the bushes were too good to be true with how easy they are to fit into the end of the springs initially.

At least it looks something like a vehicle again now though! Even managed to start cutting out plates for engine mounts

[Snagger]

Let me guess - it's a Marsland chassis? I had the same problem with mine when I did my rebuild with standard bushes - the tube in the centre of the bush was longer than the gap it was supposed to fit. I did consider grinding the tube, but then I'd have to do that every time if fitted new bushes and the wraps of the spring would be tight on the chassis' hangers too. The problem is the thickness of the reinforcing plate inside the spring hanger, especially once you add the thickness of the galvanising. I used various power tools to grind that reinforcer down to suit the bushes and have had no trouble since, including fitting Polybushes.

I did have problems with the Polybushes - they all fit easily initially, but on inserting the steel tube, some of them would squeeze out of the spring eye. I initially though that once fitted to the chassis and shackles, they would be held in place, but the exterior ends took a mushroom shape and wore quickly with the suspension movement. Since I only replaced the spring bushes and not the chassis units, I still had some spare to replace the affected bushes. I found I had to cut some of the inner end off the bush material (about 5mm) to stop this problem from occurring, and everything has been fine since.