New front wishbones - how do you get em in

[naim32]

My lower front wishbones need replacing, the job for today ( and tommorow )

I've managed to get the old one out on one side after alot of struggling and now need to fit the new ones.

The bushes on the new ones are plastic not rubber and it's proving difficult to get the wishbones back in. I fitted the bushes and bearing and used the bolt plus washers to compress the bushes.
They still won't fit onto the chassis.

Are there any tricks in getting the new wishbones back in.

[Pink_Floyd]

I used a threaded bar with 2 nuts to force the chasis faces apart alittle, about 0.5mm, but that was enough to fit the new bushes in. Also put some copper slip on all faces so that things slide nice and easy.

[spend]

Lump hammer and wood to gently drift the brackets, I also kept the wishbones warm before putting them in (sad!). I still have some ground down 8mms that are useful starters when lining up the bolts as well.

[fatboychim]

Exactly what Spend said (not sure about keeping the wishbone in bed with you though).
Use a rubber mallet to adjust the positioning and grind your old bolts down to a point to help align the holes, pivoting the wishbone up and down can help, as some seem to fit better up and others down.

[GreenV8S]

Is the problem that the bushes are too long to fit between the flanges? That might indicate that they haven't been pushed into the wishbone fully. I found that my polly bushes had a tendency to push themselves out of the wishbones so I put a clamp over them to hold them in place while I got them in to the chassis. Once you have one bush in, a 6" nail shoved through helps hold that one roughly in place while you get the other one in. For accurately lining the holes up to fit the bolt I just use a tapered punch.

[Mr Nordic]

When the Poly bushes (instead of the rubber ones with the thrust washers) do you need to fit thrust washers as well?