Front suspension bush: how d'yer get it orf?
 

Am following MarinaBrian's (till now) excellent How to here
but when he says "the old bush can now be knocked rearwards off the arm" I give up. There ain't no room despite wedging various bits of timber. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. (The nuts were a doddle)
Most grateful

Dave

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...1&d=1571405134

You are probably doing nothing wrong- I have only ever succeeded in getting one bush off a lower arm with it actually on the car, and this was only with excessive brute force - much hammering and using a massive crowbar.

I always take the arm off now to replace the bushes. It does mean you have to crack the inner ball joint/taper that goes into the subframe, but I have never failed to shift one yet using a good bearing puller- there are other tricks that people use to shift this tight joint. With the arm off the car, I put it in the bench vice then use the bearing puller once again to gently and easily pull the bush off the arm. Much more relaxing than fighting under the car trying to shift the bush in situ.

Pete

I use one of two methods depending on the condition of the one im taking off. If it has already separated in to 2 halves then i use a hacksaw through the inner part to spread the inner steel ring. If like yours it is still fairly strong just a bit split, then i use a bearing puller from the back end, pressing the puller screw in to the tail end of the arm.

(Just like you, “knocking them off” never works for me either. My hammer must be too small)

Took me 2 days to do mine had to resort to a cut off tool in the end

Stan

What garages sometimes do, with the car up on a ramp, is to burn the bushes off with a blowtorch on the inner rubber part (makes a horrible smell and gives off lots of toxic fumes), or else just take an angle grinder to the them, being careful not to damage the arm once you have cut through the outer /inner metal parts of the bush. Not recommended for DIYers at home, though !

Pete

Must be an element of luck involved ! The two times I have done this job , the inner sleeves tapped off quite easily :D:shrug: They had been liberally dosed in plusgas , and the rubbers had completely failed so the outer part fell off once the bolts were out ! Perhaps that gives you that little bit more room to play :shrug: I used a very long ,old screwdriver to do the tapping.

My conclusion
 

I give up. After several hours of struggle I just cannot get the housing off. Because it is split and not completely perished there's just not enough wiggle to coax it off the arm. Raising that side with the jack gave me more room but still not enough.
Bearing in mind the similar comments above - many thanks - I just don't believe it's possible without using a torch or grinder in some fashion to destroy the old bush. But now having undone the two bolts, which was supposed to be the hardest part, I now can't get the d. . . things back, so it's off to my village garage and eat humble pie for them to get it drivable off the ramps again.


This is without doubt the worst job I've ever attempted in many many years of DIY motoring. I suppose I should have remembered that with Age should come Wisdom.

Neither of you has searched well enough, though it's by far from easy to find anything on the forum these days.
Anyway, here's what's reckoned to be the 'easy' way: http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...d.php?t=240928


TC

Ah but I did. This is the post I linked to in my very first post above. I would never have attempted it without reading Brian's instructions. I can only assume that Tynesiders are a good deal tougher than us Southern Softies . . .

Can you get hold of a puller something like this?

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s...09&postcount=3