(i found this on the net).

Re: Spring bushing replacement.

Just replaced all of mine. It has just has one small catch, you need to have access to an air compressor.

The way I managed after much cursing with hammer and hacksaw was to go down to the local tool store, anyone
who handles air compressors and related equipment, and for 30 quid, buy an air chisel. These little guys are
for the do it yourself body mechanic who has some serious cutting to do, they rip through sheet metal like a
hot knife through butter. Anyway, these come with an assortment of cutting, munching, ripping implements,
and the one that applies to our little bushing problem is the 1/2 inch punch. It's just a pointed spike, 1/2
inch in diameter and about 3 inches long, with a large shoulder where it mounts into the air chisel itself.

All you do is get the appropriate bushing in position, (ie. unbolted, chassis jacked up to let the spring hang neutrally,
rotate the shackle out of the way) then take the punch/air chisel without its retaining spring and mount a 1/2 drive
impact socket of the appropriate diameter over the spike so that the shoulder of the spike rests against the socket
where the ratchet would normally be. Slightly smaller than the bushing outside diameter is perfect. Then lay it on the
bushing, lean on it, and pull the trigger. In about five seconds the old bushing will be rolling on the floor.

The spring may clamp onto your socket, no biggie just stack another smaller socket on it and use the air chisel again.
The punch fits right into the inner bushing, acting as a centering guide for installing the new bushing, just use the
same or slightly larger socket to drive it in.
Clean the spring or frame hole and put a light coat of grease in the hole and on the outside diameter of the new
bushing before pressing it in. As you drive it in, friction heats things up and it expands the metal, causing things
to stop momentarily. Just have a sip of an adult beverage for a minute till things cool down and the continue till
its driven all the way in. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to do each bushing in 15 minutes, start to finish.
4 hours and I have all new bushings in springs and chassis.

The air chisel does a great job on the chassis bushings as well as the ones in the springs. I too had a couple that were
as they say "at one with their surroundings" ie the were totally welded to the chassis. In this case, you have to out flank
the damn things. Switch bits in the air chisel to the body sheet metal bit, which has a forward facing tooth on top
and bottom making a V shape. This little guy actually takes a narrow swath out of the material you're cutting, as in
the frame bushing. Just lay the tooth so that it's cutting only the bushing and not your frame and let 'er rip. I ran
it through twice, once on top and once on the bottom, thus splitting the bushing into two pieces. Then switch back to
the punch bit and use the socket method to drive out the pieces. It takes much longer to describe than it does to do.

About 15 minutes per bushing. Hope this helps you all out there......

You just wouldn't let it lie would you.

jings! it must be that time of the year again.. does the exhaust air from the air chisel mix with the rubber from the bushes causing a deadly toxin to be released? does the air chisel tend to rip through yer wrists causing instant death?...no? i though not so this can not be a legitimate way to do bushes. what you have to realise(for those of you unfamiler with bush removal) is that removing bushes has to be deadly and totaly harmful to the enviroment. this is the reason that burning the buggers out is the only acceptable way to do it. so lets have no more talk of easy safe ways of removing them.

here here, don't want any more exploding bushes

GRUNT said:

You just wouldn't let it lie would you.

Click to expand...

changing rubber bushes: part 2.
-------------------------------

Re bushings on a landy 88.

I undertook to replace the bushings on my otherwise beautiful Series IIA. I wanted to make this an easy job,
so I decided a bit of thought and toolmaking needed to go into this process before I started in with the hammer
and hacksaw. A mechanical contrivance to remove and insert the bushings seemed in order here. To this end, I came
up with a tool modeled on the concept of tools sold in the LR magazines for inserting and removing bushings.
It took me about 20 minutes to make, and was cheap - a junkyard jack and 3 quids worth of hardware shop items.

The first item on the list is an old scissor jack. Just about any one will do, with 2 caveats:
The screw has to be less than 9/16" diameter, to fit through an intact bushing.
The screw also has to be a minimum of 2.5x the length of a chassis bushing.

The second item on the shopping list is a piece of heavy-wall 1-1/4" iron pipe, about 5" long, preferably unthreaded.
To assemble: Using a grinder or other suitable tool, disconnect the screw and its nut and thrust plate from the
jack assembly. Once completed, this should leave you with a jack screw with a thrust bar on the working end, and a
loose nut bar from the other end of the jack.
Remove the nut bar from the jack screw - this is going to have to come on and off to be useful for us.
Now, we need to modify the pipe to hold the thrust plate. When I removed the screw from the donor jack, the thrust
plate on the screw was left with two round (for lack of a better word) tenons projecting from the sides.
These, when the edges of the thrust plate were beveled on the grinder, matched up nicely with the sides of the
heavy-wall pipe. To seat the tenons I drilled a matching-size hole through both sides of the pipe at a right angle,
then opened up the holes to form U-channels to accept the tenons.

Insert the jack screw into the pipe, engaging the tenons into the U-channels, and you're ready to go.
To use, insert the screw through the ailing bushing, and put the new bushing on the other end of the screw from the
pipe side. Thread on the nut removed from the jack, and crank the screw, either with the old jack handle or a hefty
ratchet (I wimped and used my air impact socket). The old bushing slides out of the spring and the new one in slicker
than grease on a hot day. I wasn't able to try this on a chassis bushing, as my project 88 is not to that point yet.

I was able to install 2 new bushings in one of the 88's replacement rear springs in less than 10 minutes using this
method, however. Slick and cheap. I like it! If you just want to pull a bushing (for welding or whatever),
you can do it with no damage by using a thrust collar. I used a 1/2" to 3/8" iron pipe reducer coupling and a length
of pipe as a spacer. It worked fine, once I ground the OD of the reducer down a bit to fit.

In conclusion, considering the amount of grief inherent in removing and replacing bushings, a bit of time and effort
spent on a tool like this can pay off in a big way in reduced effort and frustration.

alternativly you could use a length of pipe bigger in dia than the bushes, a length of threaded rod, a nut to fit said rod with a bar welded to it and some big washers. total cost ferk all cos it was lying about me workshop floor.
for the pipe i used a bit of stainless exhaust and the screwed rod was actually two spring bolts welded together.

you could just burn em out

yup! thats the best way cause it so dangerous

hello, it must be cold and dark out in the woodshed. cause hes back online again.

who you talking aboot?

Yd.

he's been busy

playing with his half inch britool?

i aint got no britool some theiving scumbag broke into my garage and nicked em about 15 years ago