In the process of changing the top diff bush..
Discussion
and its a right bas£@#ed of a job, guys, just take it to a garage! I was a mechanic previously so have a good bit of experience and the right tools, but been doing it on the drive after work in frezzing weather. Why oh why oh why........
Have to keep reminding my self "it will be worth it"
Have to keep reminding my self "it will be worth it"
Daston said:
Eeek I was just about to have a go at mine this weekend after getting an advisory on my service. How much time would it take a dealer to do? If I will be paying £200+ labour I might as well have a go at it myself as I have access to a car lift.
I was charged 5 hours @ 60.00 sheets per hour equating to £300.00 plus £16.98 for the diff bush + the dreaded at 17.5% equating to £372.45. shapeshifter said:
Daston said:
Eeek I was just about to have a go at mine this weekend after getting an advisory on my service. How much time would it take a dealer to do? If I will be paying £200+ labour I might as well have a go at it myself as I have access to a car lift.
I was charged 5 hours @ 60.00 sheets per hour equating to £300.00 plus £16.98 for the diff bush + the dreaded at 17.5% equating to £372.45. Daston said:
shapeshifter said:
Daston said:
Eeek I was just about to have a go at mine this weekend after getting an advisory on my service. How much time would it take a dealer to do? If I will be paying £200+ labour I might as well have a go at it myself as I have access to a car lift.
I was charged 5 hours @ 60.00 sheets per hour equating to £300.00 plus £16.98 for the diff bush + the dreaded at 17.5% equating to £372.45. It depends which ones you're having done....the bottom ones take about 1-2hrs each and I would definitely recommend a car lift!! Put a 6ft 2*4 piece of wood under the diff and then lower the car until the the wood is supporting the weight of the diff....
The top ones an absolute b
h!!! Steer well clear! 
The top ones an absolute b
h!!! Steer well clear! Whitey said:
whats the story on get a poly bush or something that lasts a bit longer?
Track v Road swapped my top bush for a Poly replacement at the last service which came in at 4 hours labour. I´d already sourced the bush as I was going to do it myself but after reading a few threads the 200 quid didn´t seem as bad. 
Jim Green said:
Not had to do mine yet............ But is it that you need a particular tool to do the job, or just due to the lack of space you have to work in.............. ?????
Don't think any particular tool is needed; just a decent socket set, some bleeding knuckles and loads of swearing......... 
It's the space that's the problem and being under the car.
Right not far off finished it... so I will give people a run down.
I have 9 years motor trade experience, as a qualified Mitsubishi technician, with a vast array of tools (now not in the motor trade thank god) and I can tell you its not easy. I wouldnt recommend doing it yourself if you have no, or very little spanner clicking experience, so to speak.
So to clear the symptoms up, on apply and letting of the power i had a distinct "thud" or "bang" coming from the back end of the car, almost feeling like it was coming from behind the middle of the seat's. The noise was especially noticable I was to be cruising at a steady speed, let off then reapply power.
So, a quick step by step so far..
1. Quite simply, raise the back end of the car nice and high and place two good axle stand's under the chassis. Remove both rear wheels (I was removing the wheels to have them refurbed anyhow so though I would bite the bullet and change the bush)
2. I inspected all of the mounting bush's by use of a large bar (called big bertha) the front two were fine however the top rear was badly worn result in the back of the diff sagging down causing the mounting bracket to rub on the chassis.
3. First of all I support the weight of the diff with a jack, and then released the centre bolt (16mm socket on a very long extention accesed from the n/s/r) Tap the bolt out thus releasing it from the chassis.
4. Now there is a big bracket that bolts onto the diff via 4 8mm alan bolts. You have to drop this braket down to gain access to the bush. Undoing the bolts was a nightmare. The alan heads had a fair amount of corrosion inside them so I had to clean them out (using a small wire brush and a right angled pick)and then using a modifed 8mm alan key (cut in half) and a 1/4inch drive 8mm alan key socket I undid all the bolts which were, of course, very tight. I had to use a various combination of bars, levers etc to move the alan key and socket. NOTE room is very very, very tight and if you have big hands like me be prepared to be cut to hell. seriously.
5. Ok, after a cheer of joy the last one came out. Now I thought simple process of dropping the bracket down. You cannot, you have to drop the diff down if you want to do that. Me not wanting to make more work than necessary I wiggled it with a combination of lowering and raising the diff to get it out the way enought to gain access to the bush (most of this done from n/s/r as you have better access)
6. With this out the way you have to remove the bush. Best way I findto do this is burn the rubber bush out of the middle (be really really careful) and then try to colapse the outer metal sleeve and hit hell out of to to get it out.this took around 2 hours.
7. With the out out it was time for the new, from clever trevor being a poly bush type, becuase they are easier to fit. Lube the bush up, get it started in the hole then wack it in and inset the metal sleeve inside it. This is still quite tight in the hole :-) so you may need to make your own technique to get it in ?(this sounds all wrong!)
8. Reverse process of building it up, copper greasing bolts to prevent seizing in the future. The bolts are fiddly to get back in 9 the 4 x 8mm alan key ones) into the bracket and this is the stage im at now. Hopefully another hour should see it done.
How long start to finish? around 5 - 7 hours. If I could have used a ramp and air tools you could maybe take 2 hours off that time. Its not a nice job to do, and its not for the faint hearted. I have really strong tools (snap on) and they have really took some abuse on this so if you have cheaper makes be prepare to break some and finding out you need to get different tools as the ones you have dont quite fit!
Hope someone will find this useful, with update with a pic and result when I have finsihed.
Ian.
I have 9 years motor trade experience, as a qualified Mitsubishi technician, with a vast array of tools (now not in the motor trade thank god) and I can tell you its not easy. I wouldnt recommend doing it yourself if you have no, or very little spanner clicking experience, so to speak.
So to clear the symptoms up, on apply and letting of the power i had a distinct "thud" or "bang" coming from the back end of the car, almost feeling like it was coming from behind the middle of the seat's. The noise was especially noticable I was to be cruising at a steady speed, let off then reapply power.
So, a quick step by step so far..
1. Quite simply, raise the back end of the car nice and high and place two good axle stand's under the chassis. Remove both rear wheels (I was removing the wheels to have them refurbed anyhow so though I would bite the bullet and change the bush)
2. I inspected all of the mounting bush's by use of a large bar (called big bertha) the front two were fine however the top rear was badly worn result in the back of the diff sagging down causing the mounting bracket to rub on the chassis.
3. First of all I support the weight of the diff with a jack, and then released the centre bolt (16mm socket on a very long extention accesed from the n/s/r) Tap the bolt out thus releasing it from the chassis.
4. Now there is a big bracket that bolts onto the diff via 4 8mm alan bolts. You have to drop this braket down to gain access to the bush. Undoing the bolts was a nightmare. The alan heads had a fair amount of corrosion inside them so I had to clean them out (using a small wire brush and a right angled pick)and then using a modifed 8mm alan key (cut in half) and a 1/4inch drive 8mm alan key socket I undid all the bolts which were, of course, very tight. I had to use a various combination of bars, levers etc to move the alan key and socket. NOTE room is very very, very tight and if you have big hands like me be prepared to be cut to hell. seriously.
5. Ok, after a cheer of joy the last one came out. Now I thought simple process of dropping the bracket down. You cannot, you have to drop the diff down if you want to do that. Me not wanting to make more work than necessary I wiggled it with a combination of lowering and raising the diff to get it out the way enought to gain access to the bush (most of this done from n/s/r as you have better access)
6. With this out the way you have to remove the bush. Best way I findto do this is burn the rubber bush out of the middle (be really really careful) and then try to colapse the outer metal sleeve and hit hell out of to to get it out.this took around 2 hours.
7. With the out out it was time for the new, from clever trevor being a poly bush type, becuase they are easier to fit. Lube the bush up, get it started in the hole then wack it in and inset the metal sleeve inside it. This is still quite tight in the hole :-) so you may need to make your own technique to get it in ?(this sounds all wrong!)
8. Reverse process of building it up, copper greasing bolts to prevent seizing in the future. The bolts are fiddly to get back in 9 the 4 x 8mm alan key ones) into the bracket and this is the stage im at now. Hopefully another hour should see it done.
How long start to finish? around 5 - 7 hours. If I could have used a ramp and air tools you could maybe take 2 hours off that time. Its not a nice job to do, and its not for the faint hearted. I have really strong tools (snap on) and they have really took some abuse on this so if you have cheaper makes be prepare to break some and finding out you need to get different tools as the ones you have dont quite fit!
Hope someone will find this useful, with update with a pic and result when I have finsihed.
Ian.
Edited by ian_r on Friday 5th December 08:06
tuscan_al said:
Thanks for the info, sounds like a pita job, and might be one for the garage! JUst dont have the space to get the car up and under really.
I´ve been working on cars as a hobby for 25 years and enjoy a challenge, but, for the sake of 200 quid, I couldn´t face trying the bush replacement once I´d got under the car and worked out how little room there is to work.Un-doing the 8mm allen bolts is easy with a stubby allen ket set that halfords do for about £20! The only tricky part i found, was cutting the outer bearing face with a hack saw, allowing is to de-size so it could be pushed through, Its not that hard if you put your mind to it and have a ramp and good tools. I would gladly do a top bush swop for £200!
Yes they are not nice to do. I have done many over the years and i still hate them to this day. I prefer to fit the poly bush alternative to the original as they are much easyer to re-fit back into the chassis. The best way i have found to remove the old bush as previously mentioned is to burn out the centre but make sure there is plenty of heat shielding put around so as not to set fire to anything and then cut a slot across the outer sleeve of the bush still in the chassis with an air hacksaw wich will then make it easyer to remove. Not a nice job but atleast i got paid to do them.
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