Poly Bushes

Hi Guy's

This weekend I fitted new superflex trailing arm bushes to the Beemer. This turned into a bit of a marathon as everything was rusty. The nearside trailing arm came off ok. I put if in the vice burned out the rubber using my blow lamp before sawing through the outer shell with a hacksaw. Have to be careful here that you don't cut to far and damage the trailing arm. The shell was then collapsed using a hammer and cold chisel. The new bushes pressed in easily using a G clamp.

If the offside had gone like this I would have been finished on Saturday but the drive shaft CV joint would not press out of the hub so I couldn't get the trailing arm off the car. It would have to be done in place.

The trailing arm bush bolt was rusted and wouldn't come undone, this wouldn't have been a problem if I had the trailing arm on the bench. Normally I would grind a flat on the nut and split it with a cold chisel but they are recessed by 5 mm so you can't reach the full depth of the nut. I tried anyway but no joy. I tried drilling the head off the bolt its an M12 bolt and my biggest drill was 10 mm. I drilled it to the depth of the bolt head and tried shear it off with a cold chisel no joy and it was 6 o'clock, I gave up for the day.

I went out to get a couple of larger drills an 11mm and a 12mm, couldn't buy them separate so had to buy a set which went up to 13mm. Came in handy in the end because I needed to go up to the 13mm drill before the bolt would shear. Burning out the centre of the bush and cutting out the shell, needless to say, took longer on the car then the bench but we got there in the end.

Both bracket housing's were rusty so I ground them back to clean steel, primered and painted them to keep the rust monkeys at bay. I want to do a better job of this using epoxy mastic but can't afford it just now.

Its not the best job I have done. My original plan was to do work to the car slow time as it needed it but since my job has taken me away from home I can only work on it at the weekends. Now I am commuting in it, jobs turn into a race to get them done before I have to drive back at the end of the weekend. Hence no photo's guys sorry I just had to get it finished.

Still done now on to the next job.

KBO