Lower wishbone bushings

[jastr3]

I am doing a frame off and discovered one of the lower wishbones was slightly bent. So I got a replacement, but have to install the metalastic bushing. As long as I am it, and have the set, I should do all 4. Removal was easy, but the new ones (From Moss) do not want to go in. I have tried gentle persuasion with a mallet and block of wood independently and in conjunctuion with using a vice, (with blocks of wood) but to no avail. I do not want to ruin them so perhaps I am being too timid? Has anyone done this? Also, when they say to ream them, how do you know how much and what tool do you use?

Thanks

jastr3@earthlink.net

[Trevor S]

Hi,

The outer lower wishbone bushes are a press fit, but you need a constant pressure to insert and a mallett and block of wood will not do the trick. Suggest you clean up the holes in the wishbone arms with fine wire wool, clean, and then coat with a film of oil to assist with pressing the bushes home. A reasonably sturdy vice should do it, although I once tried with a quite small vice and it wasn't up to it. Unless the vice teeth are smooth metal you may need to cover with metal strips rather than wood to prevent the ends of the bushes being damaged. From memory I think there is a slight shamfer on the outer edge of the bushes to help position them in place. I dare say increasing this very slightly by sandpapering to help start the process off would do no real harm. Once the bushes are inserted you will need to use a 5/8" reamer to ream them out to the correct size. Reamers are not particularly cheap especially for a one off job like this, so if you can borrow one from another Register member it would save a few quid.

Good luck

Trevor.

[jastr3]

I am doing a frame off and discovered one of the lower wishbones was slightly bent. So I got a replacement, but have to install the metalastic bushing. As long as I am it, and have the set, I should do all 4. Removal was easy, but the new ones (From Moss) do not want to go in. I have tried gentle persuasion with a mallet and block of wood independently and in conjunctuion with using a vice, (with blocks of wood) but to no avail. I do not want to ruin them so perhaps I am being too timid? Has anyone done this? Also, when they say to ream them, how do you know how much and what tool do you use?

Thanks

jastr3@earthlink.net

[jastr3]

Hi,

The outer lower wishbone bushes are a press fit, but you need a constant pressure to insert and a mallett and block of wood will not do the trick. Suggest you clean up the holes in the wishbone arms with fine wire wool, clean, and then coat with a film of oil to assist with pressing the bushes home. A reasonably sturdy vice should do it, although I once tried with a quite small vice and it wasn't up to it. Unless the vice teeth are smooth metal you may need to cover with metal strips rather than wood to prevent the ends of the bushes being damaged. From memory I think there is a slight shamfer on the outer edge of the bushes to help position them in place. I dare say increasing this very slightly by sandpapering to help start the process off would do no real harm. Once the bushes are inserted you will need to use a 5/8" reamer to ream them out to the correct size. Reamers are not particularly cheap especially for a one off job like this, so if you can borrow one from another Register member it would save a few quid.

Good luck

Trevor.

[jastr3]

Trevor, I have already cleaned up the wishbones with a dremel tool and buffer. The bushings are "slit" along their length, and when I try to insert in the wishbone the entire gap is closed. I wonder if the buishings are manufacutered sligthly over sized? and that I could file away this gap to allow for a smaller diameter when compressed which would then fit on the trunnion? I have quite a good sized vice and have already tried covering the jaws with wood blocks and compressing in that fashion. My next option is to take all in to a machine shop for installation. Not as satisfying as doing it yourself but effective. Regarding the reamer; how do you determine the correct size? Is it 5/8? Or do you mic(rometer) the trunnion arm and then oversize by a certain amount? Do you know?

Thanks for your response

Jim

[mike ellis]

I took mine to a local garage who have a press. It took about 10 minutes and they didn't charge me anything!

 

You need a 5/8 reamer or a machine shop could probably use a honer, taking off just enough to fit on the trunion. However many years ago when I knew little about TRs I just took a file to them and carefully removed enough to enable them to slide on to the trunion. This satisfied the MoT and didn't appear to have any adverse effects.

[littlejim]

the bushes for my TR4A, shaped like polyurethane cotton reels, came with a little sachet of the correct grease, but anything slippery should do, including detergent. To get them in I needed a longish threaded bolt plus 2 large washers and two spanners. things got a bit distorted when the bolt got a bit skew whiff, but with a bit of persuasion everything straightened up and popped into place. From memory a bit of shoving with a really blunt screwdriver was also required to tuck the recalcitrant edges into the hole in the wishbone.

No need for reaming, although I thoroughly cleaned any of the old **** and rubber out, nor for any other alteration of the hole in the wishbones the bushes went into. At the end, the 'far' washer will stop the last bit popping into place so you'll have to take it off and do a bit of judicious tapping from the 'near' end.

[Trevor S]

Jim, sorry to hear you are still having problems. I have done the job on two different sets of suspension ie 8 wishbone arms in total and the bushes have always gone in using a large vice. As I mentioned previously have you tried covering the vice jaws with a piece of metal rather than wood. The bushes will no doubt bite into the wood and will loose some of the force being applied. If that doesn't do it then it loks like a press at a machine shop is the only answer. Perhaps the batch of bushes yours come from are slightly larger?

I have never used a micrometer just reamed out the bushes with a 5/8 reamer as mentioned previously and tried it over the trunnion before assembly to make sure the fit is OK. I believe this should be adequate for the sort of technology we are talking about here. (The 4a assembly as you may know is completely different)

Regards

Trevor.

[jastr3]

Thanks to all who commented. Removal was easy, but for installing the new bushings I took them in to a shop and had them press them in. That fellow in turn took them to a machine shop who reamed them out after he had them installed; cost a few $$ but worth it for me.

Again, thanks to all.

Jim