castor advice , jimny

[jamesey]

ive come to do my castor weld mod on my jimny , taken the o/s front bolt out and come to do the other one and would it heckers like come out ive ended up bashing it out but that made it worsr by bending the bolt flat , i think its rusted into the metal surround that the bolt passes through.
anyway ive had to take the complete castor arm off , my first question is has anyone got any standard bushes as mine is no good now i only need the one , suzuki said they will have to order one , ive rung kap up and they said there on order and would be a week or 2 , .
my car is off the road till i can either do the weld mod with the standard bus or wait for kap and buy the castor correction bushes

which one is the best the correction bushes or the weld mod im now at a stage that i can do either , glaggs have you got a spare standard castor bush

[glaggs]

Sorry no, not got any spares. I used a polybush kit from Kap. The standard bushes were knackered anyway and I had to burn them out to get em out of the radius arm. Had similar probs to your self with seized bolts. The castor correction bush method is the easiest way to go but will always be a compromise. As the hole in the bush is off centre then there is less material at that point inthe bush. Polybush method is easy to repair if you get probs. Polybush kits are available else where. Try our friend at bits4vits or give the net a surf.

[wheelspinner]

Try Dave Jones at Bits4Vits he has a shedload of polybushes and may have the one you need....

Regards

Steve

[jamesey]

yeh tryed dave , he hasnt got any for the jimny , or any offset bushes, Ive bought some now from pro poly 88 squid all posted to me so i prob get them tommorow
do you know on the original bushes the one that ive taken out by the bolt that had spun it ,( its left like a metal sleeve in the arm does this have to come out aswell ???) , Im ment to be lanning on sunday so if they arrive ill need to get em in tommorow how hard was it to burn them out  and how easy was it to get the new ones back in, cheers

[glaggs]

Do you mean the metal spacer 'tube' that is in the middle of the Bush or the metal outer part of the original bush. If its the bit the bolt goes through then the polybush kit should come with new ones and I guess your using new bolts as well. Use a good synthetic grease on the bolts when you put em back in to stop them seizing. If you mean the outerpart of the bush then yes it needs to come out.

The old bush are fairly easy to burn out. I just used a gas torch to 'burn the rubber until it was brittle enough to knock out. Watch the fumes and don't use water to cool the metal after - if you get it too hot then coo it too fast it could become brittle. Once the rubber is out i got the metal outer part of the bush out by first cutting it through (carefully so not to damage the radius arm) with a hack saw to relieve pressure; then us an old screw driver or a cold chiesel to remove the outer sleeve.  Clean up the radius arm. Apply a small amount off grease to the new poly bush and persuade them back in. This is fairly easy as they come in two halves and the centre spacer then just pushes through. If they get a bit stuborn just use a vice to gently pursuade them back in.

[jamesey]

thanks once again glaggs  :D, i just hope they arrive today in the post or its no laning for me this weekend :'(

[jamesey]

the poy bushes arrived they were in 1 piece but luckily they prised in with the help of the vice and some grease , i had a pig of a job taking the old uns out
now ive got them in it doesnt feel a lot better it does a bit but noe much , Will i need a wheel alinment now         on full lock the wheels look like they are towing in on the inner turned wheel and tow out on the outer wheel just slightly????????????????????

[glaggs]

Poly bush's shouldn't affect your wheel alignement unless you took the drag link and sterring link off. You won't notice much difference in the way the truck drives just by fitting the poly bush's, but if you did the caster correction then it should feel more stable and less prone to steering wobble.

[jamesey]

they are the castor correction poly bushes , been for a long drive today and it is a lot better , last night i only took it round the block so now its had time to bed in , the  wheel that tows in must have been like that already im taking her for  whell alignment tommorow so all should be well then.

[edsute]

Hello, new member here. could you give me some details on the weld option for castor correction. What do you weld? how do you work out where it should be?
Thanks

[damohick]

http://www.mud-club.com/forum/index.php/topic,32616.0.html have a little look at this mate

[jamesey]

arnt the castor bushes exspensive , my mate has a plastics injection factory im thinking of making them id make a fortune even if i selled them for £50 a set , ive just fitted some on mine and the cheapest i could get was £85 all in delivered
watch this space :D

[damohick]

put me down for a set at £50   

[glaggs]

Not quite as easy as that Jamesy. First off, the plastic/rubber, you need the right stuff - not all poly bush kits are the same or any good. Second and the most important is the product liability insurance. You need to well covered, 'cos if some one has an accident and blames the product you sold em it'll be expensive. I looked into getting some radius arms made up - and in the end it was cheaper to buy them.