Trailing arm bush removal press tool

[sean f]

Now I have the lathe up and running I have been having a play.

One of the first things was a press tool to remove the trailing arm bushes, generally these are very tight after they have been there for a time and previously I have always used a socket which never seems to be quite the right size. Also getting everything to line up and balance in place on the press was a pain and really involved two people or a few attempts.

So the plan was a tool of the right diameter, then I though add a recess so it sits over the steel inner to locate it, after that I though why not drill it so it can be held in place with a bolt.

What I ended up with was this.

The idea is that it is assembled like this with the short section at the top to get the bush moving giving as short an item as possible in the press keeping it as stable as possible whilst the highest load is applied.

When in the press the lower section acts as a guide to help postion the base plates on the press as close as possible to hold the arm and prevent the situation where you find what you though was a really tight bush is actually that you have been trying to push the bush through the plate.

This is it in the first press I used, unfortunately the press had a bit of a leak and wasn't up to pushing the bush out.

So I moved onto a bigger press got the bush moving then switched over to the longer side and pushed the bush out.

All worked quite well and as an extra we realised that it would also work well to guide a new bush in straight.

The plan is to make some more on a similar style for other bushes, working on one for the front radius arm bushes next.

I have now made a couple of these for a few other people and have the design pretty much sorted, if any one would like one let me know, can't garantee when I will be able to make one as this is strictly a hobby and gets done around work.