You may need a darn sight more than 4t for P38 bushes and bearings! - you could be talking closer to 20t (if not more depending on condition!)
The Radius Arm bushes are oversized and require a tapered collar and follower to compress them to fit.
You could go split bushes or Polybushes as they are easier to fit, but they come with questionable ride and stability queries!
The Radius Arm bushes are oversized and require a tapered collar and follower to compress them to fit.
You could go split bushes or Polybushes as they are easier to fit, but they come with questionable ride and stability queries!
Henry_b
Think outside, no box required.
Yep "ok" in some cases but the car was designed with rubber bushes and I personally like to replace like for like..
Wazzajnr
Well-Known Member
We regularly push copper slugs that are bonded to steel plates out on 4t presses. I'd be amazed if 4t wouldn't do it.
That said, they do a 20t one for not a huge amount more.
Having said all that, if I was doing it as a one off, I'd be down at the local machine shop crossing their palms with silver and using their press.
That said, they do a 20t one for not a huge amount more.
Having said all that, if I was doing it as a one off, I'd be down at the local machine shop crossing their palms with silver and using their press.
martyuk
Well-Known Member
One other note about poly-bushes...
I did a workshop weekend for a few owners a month or so ago, with the aim of doing radius arm bushes (as I have the tool to compress the bush and press them into the radius arms, and a 20T press). One guy was putting standard bushes in as his had come with poly - and he wasn't happy with the ride.
All well and good until we went to get the old poly bushes out - and found that they were pretty much solidly held in there by rust. Because of the split design, they had let water in and rusted the bore in the radius arms, making a fairly routine job of pressing old bushes out and new ones in, into several different methods and attempts to get the old bushes out, and then him having to clean a load of the rust and scale off the inside bore of the radius arm so the new bush would actually press in OK. It took so long, that I ended up using one of the radius arms off one of my other vehicles to press one set of bushes in, so we weren't there all night.
Another thing worth getting with the bushes is new radius arm bolts and nuts - including the 2 big nylocs for the back of the radius arms. Numerous bolts were cut off on the weekend owing to years of corrosion, seized nuts on the bolts etc. including one bolt which needed to be helped out with an air chisel. You might get lucky and it all comes apart nice and easily - but if it doesn't and an angle grinder gets introduced to the equation, then new bolts/nuts will make the reassembly a bit quicker!!
I did a workshop weekend for a few owners a month or so ago, with the aim of doing radius arm bushes (as I have the tool to compress the bush and press them into the radius arms, and a 20T press). One guy was putting standard bushes in as his had come with poly - and he wasn't happy with the ride.
All well and good until we went to get the old poly bushes out - and found that they were pretty much solidly held in there by rust. Because of the split design, they had let water in and rusted the bore in the radius arms, making a fairly routine job of pressing old bushes out and new ones in, into several different methods and attempts to get the old bushes out, and then him having to clean a load of the rust and scale off the inside bore of the radius arm so the new bush would actually press in OK. It took so long, that I ended up using one of the radius arms off one of my other vehicles to press one set of bushes in, so we weren't there all night.
Another thing worth getting with the bushes is new radius arm bolts and nuts - including the 2 big nylocs for the back of the radius arms. Numerous bolts were cut off on the weekend owing to years of corrosion, seized nuts on the bolts etc. including one bolt which needed to be helped out with an air chisel. You might get lucky and it all comes apart nice and easily - but if it doesn't and an angle grinder gets introduced to the equation, then new bolts/nuts will make the reassembly a bit quicker!!
Henry_b
Think outside, no box required.
Further to this I just replaced the radius arm bushes on a '91 RRC The poly bushes were an absolute pain to remove. It took a 25 ton press, a number of different sized mandrels, hacksaws, hole cutters and just about everything else i could find short of burning them out, to remove them from the radius arms. When I finally got them out, I found that they allow moisture to get between the bush and the arm so rather than pushing the old ones out and finding a nice clean shiny hole, the inside of the radius arms were rusted to hell. It took a rotary wire brush to clean the surface, a punch and hammer to knock the rust scale off the inside of the radius arm and emery cloth to clean them up before they were smooth enough to press the new bushes in.
So the moral of this is poly bushes should be put into the same category as coil spring conversions, don't even consider them, atleast in my opinion..
So the moral of this is poly bushes should be put into the same category as coil spring conversions, don't even consider them, atleast in my opinion..
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I fully agree with that. Keep away from the bodgers bush and spring of choice.
ukadamwest
Well-Known Member
Hey Marty good to see you.. It's been a while !
Same as Marty's experience. I put original in mine and am now engaging smug mode.
I have a 20 ton press, that and the hot spanner does all i need.
