Chassis suspension bushes.

if only it was that easy!!
i hired a saber saw this morn, €10, 20 mins saw bushes cut out of springs after i drilled out the rubber, 4-5 cuts in each chassis bush and they tapped out easy!
the guy i hired the saw off pressed the new bushes into the springs for €0,

chassis bushes is another story!
after stripping a few bolts trying to pull them in and hitting my knee with the big hammer, i gave up and went down to my fathers to make a press.
it consists of 3" x 6mm angle welded into a u to to hook behind the chassis and take a 2 ton bottle jack.
1st pressed in nicely, 2nd went half way in, then broke the weld!
at this stage the wind has picked up and its hailing hard.
a job for tomorrow.

so far springs, bushes and shocks have taken me 2 days!!

are polys much easier?
its a bit late now, but next time, i will spend the extra 20 on them if they are!

James

Little tip,you don't Need a press to put the bushes in the springs, where the spring eye curls around on itself there is a gap, if you hammer a chisel into this gap before you take the old bush out you will literally be able to push the bush out with your fingers because it opens up the gap.
Slide the new bush in the spring(With your fingers)and then tap the chisel out, just be carefull cos it will come out like a bullet!
If you don't open the gap before you take the bush out it will close up and then you've no chance of getting the bush in.
In 20 years of owning series landrovers Ive never had to use a press to put spring or chassis bushes in

good tip will remember that one!

Your press idea might work, but you'd need to relieve the pressure against the tube that the bush fits in not the chassis, it must have been tight to shove the chassis tube out.
I'm gonna clean up the inside of the bore with emery before shoving the new bush in, a bit of molyslip makes things easier too.

Nice improvising tactics with the jack idea, might make one of those with the alteration just decscribed, my floor standing press is made from a modded bottle jack and C section, I had to mod the jack as most will not work sideways or upside down.

Dont worry about taking so long, bushes are one of the worst jobs

if you own a reciprocating saw that does the job perfect. And the picture is of my 2a after fitting britpart parabolics it leans to the right i have now removed them & put normal leaf springs. It now feels good drives good wish i had never heard of britpart all that hard work for nothing.

Dont think it was the parabolics pat, more shatpart.

I got mine out with a sawzall, saber saw whatever you call it, you have to be carefull not to cut the chassis though.

Still waiting for mi new bushes for the front.

I heard that the good old Air chisel was good for taking bushes out, thats what I used to use on the diggers

i,ve resulted to usin an SDS drill before now when needs must

I nearly went and got an air hammer, but they use too many cfm's for a small comp.

hi all, sorry to butt in, i'm totally new to this site and fairly new to my land rover series IIA, may seem like a daft question but,-
where is the best place to buy chassis bushes?
are genuine land rover ones worth the extra cash?
and am i typing something wrong in but i can only seem to find the front pair for sale!!

Getting them out of the springs and shackles is normally easy, I have found it is getting the bush out of the chassis is the difficult bit! Tried drilling, burning, then took a step back...

I made a puller, works a treat

I use a suitably sized socket to push out the bush...smooth as, well, I dont know what actually.



I also used it to make the chassis straight! (where quite clearly, a bush was removed by the previous owner, the chassis was hit hard with a hammer )

As for using orignal bushes, yeah I probably would if they didnt come with the springs...although next time I would prob go for poly, saves hassle and they last longer.

Reading this with interest. Already had some correspondence with Oxides on the same subject. Quality of bushes and leany parrabolics.
Getting bushes out of the chassis is a pig of a job. I too made a press out of welded box section and jack. Lasted half a bush before the box section bent and the jack refused to work on an angle.
My method for getting new ones in is, freeze the bushes, coated with copper grease and use a threaded bar a la rustythinos to get them in. As for getting the old ones out. Burn, saw, bash.

Looks like its best to dump the parabollics and go back to originals to avoid the lean then. Glad I spent nearly 200 quid for a load of crap

I made something like rusty's too out of an old shocker, didnt work, ended up using a pneumatic saw to just cut through the outer steel tube of the bush, then bash the segments out, sort of curling them round an out leaving something that resembles a quaver on the 'shop floor.
Frezzing them before putting them in is a good idea, so's warming the chassis with a paint stripper hot air gun first.
Which ever way you do it its a bar steward.

I made something like rusty's too out of an old shocker, didnt work

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Lasted half a bush before the box section bent and the jack refused to work on an angle

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Hence why I made mine beefy!

Hence why I made mine beefy!

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Thats where I went wrong, I should have used steel instead of lego......

I used 16mm threaded bar and fecked it up, didnt really wanna go much bigger as I was concerned aboot squishing the chassis so I opted to surgically remove them.
Just dont get em stuck half way in when fitting the newuns.