4 minute bush removal

[olemisery]

Just renewing my suspension on my beasty for a nice shiny set of protechs , getting the wishbones sandblasted as a we tad rusty . Was dreading trying to remove the bushes . Clamped them in my trusty workmate and decided to heat them up first with a blow lamp , after a couple of minutes the rubber caught alight at both ends , it oozed out as it burnt and with more encouragement from my blow torch soon all of itsurged out the ends , then gave it a push with a metal bar and came out virtually clean as a whistle . Did it with all 8 the front ones in just over 35 mins .Only 2 didn`t come out completely clean but there was only some rubber residue which would clean out easily .Not an indoor job though. Got to be better than risking the drill and hacksaw method but probably not so good for the ozone .

[David H]

But it sounds like you've left the metal outer in place because you state: "but there was only some rubber residue which would clean out easily" There would be no rubber residue if the metal outer was removed.

[tuscanx1]

Surely thats not the fastest bush removal!!

[olemisery]

he! he! he! , your right the bottom wishbones have an metal outer to them , top ones don`t though !!?? , will attempt to remove outers when back from sandblasting,to late to start banging around now , should be easy enough now with all the gubbuns missing (or perhaps not) - bloody amatuers , kids loved the fire though!

[victormeldrew]

3 hours? Closer to four I recon, with tea breaks.

[victormeldrew]

Metalastic bushes should all have two metal bits, inner and outer, bonded with the rubber. You didn't already have poly bushes in there already did you? From the sound of how they melted I think you did. Rubber would have stunk to highheaven and taken ages to burn away.

[olemisery]

If its gonna take 4 hrs I`m going to be drinking something a little stronger the tea I can tell ya!!

[barreti]

Generosity is a virtue of mine.

I'll say you can do it in 2hrs.

But I'll cheat and help you out with a tip: use an old socket as a drift and a wooden mallet to smack it with. (or a normal hammer if you don't mind knackering the socket)
Or use a junior hacksaw with a nice new carbide blade.

[olemisery]

_____________________________________________________________________
Metalastic bushes should all have two metal bits, inner and outer, bonded with the rubber. You didn't already have poly bushes in there already did you? From the sound of how they melted I think you did. Rubber would have stunk to highheaven and taken ages to burn away.
_____________________________________________________________________

The bottom ones were definetly metalastic but didn`t take any longer to burn out but did smell a little different

[olemisery]

you have all overated this job , iI have foreseen in my crystal ball that this is
gonna be pimps .

[seasider]

Quinny said:

Best put that away and get the bloody vice out. You'll need it

& make it a biggun

[johno]

Mine fronts were done in 30 mins, but thats the advantage of getting thm done at a workshop with a 20 tonne press ;-)

I've doen the drilling, sawing sleeves approach to bush removal for years on both TVR's and if you're doing 1 or 2 then it's not too aggravation.

But these days, I just can't be arsed breaking drill bits and nicking the wishbone with the hacksaw and all the other crud associated. Find a press, and get them out in no time and no mess, and get on with putting them back together ...

Most engineering shops have one to hand and will do them for next to no money, dunno how much as i don't even pay

Edited by johno on Thursday 25th January 22:36

[johno]

barreti said:

Generosity is a virtue of mine.

I'll say you can do it in 2hrs.

But I'll cheat and help you out with a tip: use an old socket as a drift and a wooden mallet to smack it with. (or a normal hammer if you don't mind knackering the socket)
Or use a junior hacksaw with a nice new carbide blade.

If you're lucky you can drift out the outer sleeve in the vice with one smaller socket and one larger one against the other end, did the last ones like that. Fiddly, but effective ..

[spend]

His blowtorch must be more like a flame thrower, in this weather mine would take about 10 mins to get the rubber flaming + another 5 to get them to pop out? I'm not sure I could stand the fumes from doing them any faster anyway...

BTW, Those hole enlarging drills cut thru the rubber great, I would rather use them now after having to use them on the top diff bush (too yellow to use the torch up there!). If you drill down the edge it forms a perfect slot for the hacksaw..

Dave