Creaking Suspension
- Thread starter DayleW
- Start date
I can remember replacing the front bush of the rear trailing arm/cross member on my first car, a 2000TC. My Grandfather owner a motorcycle garage in Dorset and he was giving me instructions. The inside of it had destroyed itself, so it was no problem to get the inner sleeve out. Then I took a hacksaw blade out of the frame, passed it through the bush and placed it back into frame. Easy to cut the outer sleeve out carefully.
Then I got the new bush, which I had put into the freezer the night before with a piece of studding through it to give me some grip. Held the arm in a vice, and heated up the end of it a blow torch (better with a hot air gun but we didn't have them in those days). I didn't heat it up that much, just enough to get it warm. Then keeping it in the vice, slid the new bush with studding into place. It actually went in with firm hand pressure and allowed me to get it centred. You don't have a lot of time as the temperatures will even out quite quickly and the new bush will get very tight very fast.
If you get it right though, it saves an awful lot of messing around.
Then I got the new bush, which I had put into the freezer the night before with a piece of studding through it to give me some grip. Held the arm in a vice, and heated up the end of it a blow torch (better with a hot air gun but we didn't have them in those days). I didn't heat it up that much, just enough to get it warm. Then keeping it in the vice, slid the new bush with studding into place. It actually went in with firm hand pressure and allowed me to get it centred. You don't have a lot of time as the temperatures will even out quite quickly and the new bush will get very tight very fast.
If you get it right though, it saves an awful lot of messing around.
When it comes to having bushes removed and new ones pressed in, I have always relied upon a business with a press. Back in the 1980s it was my local Rover dealership, and in more recent years, a Range Rover Specialist. Luckily enough, I have never had any problems.
Ron.
Ron.