This winter's project....Front Suspension rebuild.
I have read many horror stories on various forums concerning removal of the front suspension bushings. Well, never having backed away from a challenge I thought I would give it my best shot before the very very last resort......... and paying !!
I removed the controls arms with little hassle , t'was then I got the full picture of the task ahead. The polyurethane bushings I bought did not have the metal casing included, I don't know if some have, but mine didn't, therefore the metal casing had to stay.
I propped the arm up overnight with the cross shaft vertical and the bolt hole filled with penetrating fluid to try and get between the bushing sleeve and the shaft. I removed the rubber collar on the outside of the bushing which left 3/8” of exposed sleeve. Using a butane gas torch I applied some heat to the metal casing of the bushing to release the adhesion of the rubber to the casing. I placed a tight fit socket in the exposed sleeving to avoid it collapsing and then clamped the biggest pair of vicegrips in my tool kit to the exposed sleeve. After a big heave the sleeve revolved on the shaft and using a pumping action the sleeve and surrounding rubber came out with little protest. Applied the same technique to the other end using stilsons on the cross shaft to stop it revolving, and that bushing shifted..... and without the 12hour soak.
So either I am gods gift to mechanicking (yeh right !) or the fact that this car has covered only 46K has resulted in less rust and therefore easier extraction. I haven't seen this method mentioned before but as it appeared to work so easily I guess many have used but not worked. Well it did for me.
Having said all this I expect the installation of the new ones will be a right bitch……?


Bob