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My apologies if this subject has been dealt with before, but not all questions that I have on this subject have been covered.
My car is almost 48 years old, and one of the few rubber parts that have not been renewed are the rear suspension radius arm bushes. Some months back I purchased a new set of metalstik bushes. Now I am looking at installing them
I pulled one of the arms off my spare car and proceeded to remove the bushes. I found the best way to do so was to use a jigsaw to cut the center out, and then hacksaw a groove in the bushing case. I found you can do this with minimal damage to the arm itself, the bush can then be worked out with a cold chisel. The lip on the arm housing is on the car floor side. It's purpose seems to be to locate the bush in the correct position.
I measured the inner diameter of the sleeve and found it to be 88.7mm. The new bush is 89,0mm! Clearly a large press is needed to expand the sleeve to push the new bush in.
Now all my research seems to call for a 30t press to install these bushes. But how about the old method used for fitting tyres to wheels - heating up the sleeve and then pushing in the new bush. Has any one tried this method ?
Hi John,
I managed to press the new bushes in using a 12 tonne (Supercheap) press without heating the arms.
I was fearful the heat may soften the rubber parts too easily.
I used a suitable mandrel for the large ends.
The smaller bushes were easily inserted using a vise (vice?) and ordinary sockets as mandrels.
Ready to help next time you visit.
You can, of course, just buy new radius arms complete with bushes. Easier to swap out but more expensive for a DIYer, probably less so if you're paying labour to do the swap. https://www.sngbarratt.com/English/#...adius%20arm%60
My apologies if this subject has been dealt with before, but not all questions that I have on this subject have been covered.
My car is almost 48 years old, and one of the few rubber parts that have not been renewed are the rear suspension radius arm bushes. Some months back I purchased a new set of metalstik bushes. Now I am looking at installing them
I pulled one of the arms off my spare car and proceeded to remove the bushes. I found the best way to do so was to use a jigsaw to cut the center out, and then hacksaw a groove in the bushing case. I found you can do this with minimal damage to the arm itself, the bush can then be worked out with a cold chisel. The lip on the arm housing is on the car floor side. It's purpose seems to be to locate the bush in the correct position.
I measured the inner diameter of the sleeve and found it to be 88.7mm. The new bush is 89,0mm! Clearly a large press is needed to expand the sleeve to push the new bush in.
Now all my research seems to call for a 30t press to install these bushes. But how about the old method used for fitting tyres to wheels - heating up the sleeve and then pushing in the new bush. Has any one tried this method ?
I took my radius arms and new bushings to my local indie mechanic who has been doing this for 40 years. He had all the right sized fittings/washers/spacers to allow the press work to be done easily.
Thanks to all who posted. I must have had brain fade when I thought they could be fitted like an iron tyre- forgot about the heat and rubber not sitting well together.
I will most likely take then to my local machine shop and see if they have suitable mandrels for the job.
Putting the bushes into the deep freezer for 24 hours, placing the arm ends in boiling water for 10 minutes, grease the outer of the bush and you can press them in with a big vice, using gloves too!
Radius arm bushes.
