Mud-club
Vehicle & Technical => Defender => Topic started by: Jimbo on June 26, 2007, 18:21:31
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Called into Dingocroft (High Wycombe) this afternoon, and picked up new OE bushes for the rear shocks and both ends of the trailing arms.
So, to fit them..........
Shocks - guess you jack the vehicle up a little (under axle or chassis ?), secure on axle stands, take the wheel off, unbolt the shock, extract old bush, whang in new bush and re-assemble in reverse order ?
Trailing arm - do you need to jack the vehicle up, or can the arm be unbolted with the whole thing sitting on the ground ?
Any advice will be gratefully received - I've done plenty of spannering, but not done bushes before !
Ta,
Jim
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For the shock jacking up the axle won't be much help as will be compressing the shock, so I jacked the body and had axle stands under the rear chassis.
getting the top bush out can be fun, bottom easy, getting the thing back on with new bushes even more fun
Trailing arms I think we did with it on the floor, getting the front in very easy, for the back not so, we were advised to carefully jack it into position with a trolley jack, makeing sure you don't pinch the bushes as a tight fit.
Biggest problem will be removing the old bushes
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Rear damper bushes should be no trouble provided the top nut will undo (I've never had one that new, but I expect they get like the lower nut) and use and angle grinder on the bottom nut it its being stubbon. I've never needed to use as jack for doing rear dampers.
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I did my top shock bushes last week and did'nt jack the back up at all.
If you think that the bolts are rusted give them a good soaking in wd40 2 to 3 days before up until you are going to do the job .Sometimes helps alot in getting those nasty nuts off.
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Biggest problem will be removing the old bushes
I've had some good advice from others on here about bush removal - drill out the rubber with a hole saw, and then cut the outer metal sleeve with a hacksaw............seems quite straightforward to me, assuming the rain holds off I'll be giving it a go today !
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OK, I did the chassis end of the trailing arms last night - nice and easy job, no grief (only one bashed knuckle !), but...........after fitting the new bushes - it still looks the same, ie: the bush is slightly compressed on the bottom edge, indicating that the back end of the truck is sitting higher than Mr LR originally planned.........or is this the norm ?
Pics below of the old bushes, it appears that the rubber is compressed, so the two metal plates no longer sit parallel - is this to be expected, or are the bushes knacked ?
(http://members.mud-club.com/galleryimages/663551ccc85aa9223a6e33dbc89cc349.JPG)
(http://members.mud-club.com/galleryimages/22bcd27ef9b22ef678ee0f73fe7a2d26.JPG)
Also did the axle end of one arm - not as easy as peeps make out, but I got there without the use of a press. Did have to fabricate a device (long M12 bolt and some lumps of steel !) to 'press' the new bush in, as I couldn't hold all the bits together at once and avoid hitting my thumb !!
Jim
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it still looks the same, ie: the bush is slightly compressed on the bottom edge, indicating that the back end of the truck is sitting higher than Mr LR originally planned.........or is this the norm ?
Yes. it the norm, if you jack the wheel (axel) up it compress at the top.
it just the way the bush is designed to work