Thread: Chassis Suspension Bushes.

I burned out the rubber to exposte the outer bushes.

I got the father-in-law to make the component parts for a puller and used high tensile all-thread.
By cutting through the inner & outer it was a lot easier to remove the bush.
You have to be careful not to cut through into the sleeve in the chassis. For cutting through the rubber I used 2 hacksaw blades in the frame (I'm not keen on the burning out method).

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/series-i-l...ady-cooma.html

Colin

I used a small drillbit to go "around the clock" and drill out all the rubber, then pulled out the inner sleeve. Hacksawed the outer sleeve and collapsed it for removal.

Putting new ones back in: Cleaned and honed the chassis. Popped the bushes in the freezer. Wipped each one out after a while, smothered it with grease and lightly tapped it into place.

Ah yes, the old freezer trick!

Worked beautifully on VW gudgeon pins too!!

I have available a hydraulic ram in a frame, with a horseshoe "anvil" that was built specifically to do jobs like this on old tractors. A relevant sized piece of metal is selected (or turned) to fit the bush, and the air-over-hydraulic ram pushes out the bush with the horseshoe anvil supporting the reverse side but allowing the bush to be ejected. It works a treat on tractors.....

However...... I forgot to bring it out to the workshop yesterday so I gave it a go without. I did the rear bushes last night by making a pair of cuts in each bush about 1/4inch apart, nearly all the way through the bush, and then using a punch to peel out the strip between the cuts. Apart from the laborious sawing it worked without too much drama. The fronts are this afternoon!

Question:

I have seen at least two Land Rovers where the front passenger side bush area of the chassis is pushed in towards the engine (and equally "out" towards the engine on the inner side). It looks like it may have been caused by an attempt to drive the bush out using a sledgehammer with no support on the opposite side. Has anybody else seen this, or have a better explanation?

it also starts to happen if the chassis has internal cancer and its steered hard, think farm hack type work where the condition of the bushes is ignored.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

it also starts to happen if the chassis has internal cancer and its steered hard, think farm hack type work where the condition of the bushes is ignored.

I wondered about that, but neither chassis looks bad from the outside, and both produce a "good" noise when whacked with a hammer - sections that are rusty inside often make a different sound.

One of the two vehicles has mostly definitely been abused on a farm, and has no rubber in the bushes at all, but the other vehicle has had a fairly sheltered life and the bushes are still quite rubbery (as opposed to hard and dry) and may have been replaced.

So how do I find out the state of the inside of the chassis? Maybe a 1" hole saw and weld the core back in afterwards?

All bushes are now out, the chassis is hanging on the front end loader. Next job is sandblasting (next week).

The front bushes have definitely been replaced at some point. After taking great care to avoid cutting the chassis whilst I sawed through the bushes, I have discovered that there are at least two other saw or chisel gouges in the tubes through the chassis. Also the front passenger side bush (the one where the chassis is pushed inwards) is a different bush, all one piece not the two piece version that was in the driver side. It also had additional packing washers, so someone had played with it in the past and made "adjustments". I wonder if the adjustments were the cause of, or a response to, the chassis issue....

The question now is whether to leave the chassis as is, with the dished sides, or straighten it back and/or cut the sides out and replace the dished metal.....