Rear Suspension Arm Bushing

Jim Sims · 08-07-2003, 08:03 AM

My son and I are rebuilding the rear suspension of his 1973.5 T. We are replacing all the bushings and the rear wheel bearings. We are using the OEM rubber bushings (- 331-059-00) for the bushings at the small end of the steel "Banana" arms and pressed them into place using a hydraulic shop press. We noticed on one side that the flange of inner metal sleeve of one of the bushings doesn't seat all the way down (~.040" gap) despite 10+ tons of press load. Both arms exhibited this; is this normal or are the bushings locking up in the "eye" at the end of the arm prematurely? Thanks. Jim

marcesq · marcesq's Garage

Mine were flush before they were removed. Richard's were flush OE, and after being replaced by the shop.

Did you press the bushing in with the center sleeve in place (the sleeve that the bolt goes through)??

Jim Sims · 08:53 AM

Quote: "Did you press the bushing in with the center sleeve in place (the sleeve that the bolt goes through)??"

Yes; is this the problem? Jim

RoninLB · 08-07-2003, 08:51 AM

This is all the hard info I have. it's from the early P-Workshop manual.. I will do a crawl later........Ron

marcesq · marcesq's Garage

Only if the sleeve is a bit longer than the bushing being pressed together. What I mean is that the overall length of the metal part of new bushing halves is greater than the overall length of the OLD control arm, then the two ends would not sit flush against the arm on each side.
.

Jim Sims · 08-07-2003, 09:05 AM

I'll look at the old bushings and check the inner sleeve length. That may be the problem. Thanks for the tip! Cheers, Jim

Randy Webb · 08-07-2003, 12:41 PM

JIm, Suggestion before you get too far -- why not toss the steel arms and get the lighter, stronger Al arms off a '75 or later wreck. It cost me $125 to save 11 lbs of wt. off the rear -- and about 1/2 can be taken as unsprung wt.

Jim Sims · 08-07-2003, 02:58 PM

Randy, too late. We've cleaned and painted the arms and installed $77 worth of new wheel bearings in them. Bushings are almost the last step before reinstalling. Cheers, Jim

Jim Sims · 08-11-2003, 10:04 AM

We couldn't get the bushings to seat despite freezing the arms containing the stuck bushings (to shrink the rubber inward) and using 20 plus tons of force. All the force did was push the inner steel sleeves together without causing the outer sleeve to move. The factory shop manual gives little information other than the image RoninLB already posted. Therefore we pulled out (tore out!) the two bushings that wouldn't seat. We also noted that the inner sleeve of one of the seated bushings was distorted (probably from crushing against the matching sleeve from the bushing on the other side) so it had to come out too. We've ordered more bushings and will try again. Next time we'll polish out out the bore in the arm to remove any paint, etc., freeze the bushing, heat the arm and apply some silicone grease to the bore before pressing in the bushing. Any other ideas? I thought replacing the rear wheel bearings would be hard but they were a "piece of cake" compared to the bushings. Cheers, Jim

jyl · jyl's Garage

How much can you safely heat the arm? I'm trying to press in some monoballs.

RoninLB · 08-11-2003, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim Sims

Next time we'll polish out out the bore in the arm to remove any paint, etc., freeze the bushing, heat the arm and apply some silicone grease to the bore before pressing in the bushing. Any other ideas?

no interesting ideas, but
I did the above in a winter freezing small home garage. and did some propane heat by default, because I didn't want to install into a frozen hole.. and used a 3lb baby sledge.. so I don't remember if everything seated completely because that was 40k miles ago.. but the end result of the slam was definately doable to my eyes.

and I never installed monoballs

tobluforu · tobluforu's Garage

JYL. Unless you have a torch, I would bring them down to a shop. I got mine stuck half way in and had to be saved by the shop. It was worth the 50 bucks.

Jim Sims · 08-11-2003, 11:47 AM

250 degrees F is the temperature specified for heating the housing for the wheel bearing at the other end of the arm. Jim

jyl · jyl's Garage

I have applied a propane torch to the arm, and even so the monoball got stuck 2/3-way in. I doubt I can reliably tell the difference between 250F and "too hot". Well, I think I'm taking them to the machine shop . . . I've already pulled apart a piece of 1/2" threaded rod, trying to do it by hand.

RoninLB · 08-11-2003, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jyl

I doubt I can reliably tell the difference between 250F and "too hot".

welll, IMO, if the spit didn't spatter it's to cool.. so I would think that the early spatter is a good indication for a basis ...........Ron

Jim Sims · 08-18-2003, 08:11 AM

Success - froze bushings to -20F, polished bore in arm to remove all paint and debris, heated bore in arm to 250F with hot air gun, used silicone grease on outer metal sleeve of bushings and about 10 tons of press force. Warning - be sure and support bushing fully (no tubes or sockets) as the combination of press force and having rubber in the grip is sufficient to deform the metal washers on the outside end of the bushings. Cheers, Jim