Castor Rod Bush Replacement on MX83

[takai]

Ok, another of those little guides from me. A while ago i replaced most of the suspension in my Cressida, including some castor rod bushes which according to all the cattledogs are not available from anyone. Well as of now Superpro/Fulcrum produce a bush for the MX83. The part number is SPF1324 (will check on that one), and it comes at about $60 on trade.
The installation procedure is fairly obscure too, so i took some pics and finally got around to uploading them the other day. So here we go.

When i bought the bushes they came with a small sheet of paper which was quite waterlogged for some reason and completely unreadable, so we had to figure out what to do ourselves. Basically the bush which is on the Cressida has to be the most annoying castor rod bush in the world to replace (as i think most things on the MX83 are). So hopefully this makes it a bit easier:

1. Remove swaybar and brackets
The first big thing that you will have to remove is the entire swaybar and the bracketry, which also happens to be the brackets for the castor rods. A few notes here: on most MX83s the swaybar links will be getting quite old, and the rod ends will probably be shagged. So best idea is to use a spanner and an allen key. Spanner goes over nut, allen key goes into spot in middle of rod end bolts, undo. Also, the bolts which hold the brackets on are not interchangable, the ones on the chassis rail are slightly longer than the ones on the rad support. if you interchange them the longer chassis rail ones will bottom out on the rad support and cause a knocking sound so bad that you will think your suspension is about to fall apart.

2. Burn out existing bush and washer
Ok, here is the fun bit. As the bush is laminated to the bracket the only way to get it out is via the application of heat, and in our case a hell of a lot of it. We used an oxy torch in order to burn the bush out. I tried getting pics but the oxy flare just blanked out the screen. Sorry.
Also make sure you clean out the bracket entirely afterwards, the new bush is extremely hard to fit as is, and having small pieces of rubber left in there will just make it harder.
You will also have to burn out the rubber off the front washer, as you need to reuse this as well (why in hell do Toyota laminate all their bushes in).


3. Reinstall brackets and swaybar
Ok, i reccomend just slotting the swaybar through the brackets but not doing it up, when you put it on make sure that the ends of the bar are above the lower control arms and generally in the right place. Its a pain to take it all off again if you stuff that bit up. Once the brackets are on the car you can ziptie the swaybar up and out of the way, so you can maneuver the castor rods easily.

4. Install bushes and castor rods
Now here comes the biggest pain, actually getting the bushes and rods in. The bush is a two piece bush and a seperate crush tube. In our case the front bush was actually slightly too wide for the hole it had to go into, and so we had to machine it down slightly with a chisel and my woodworking lathe. Worked pretty well, and it was still an extremely tight fit.
My favoured way of getting the entire setup together is to fit the rear half of the bush and crush tube to the castor rod and then loosely slot it into place in the bracket. Then bolt up the other end of the rod to the lower control arm, but leave it somewhat loose. With the help of a friend pushing forward on the hub/strut/LCA/anything else get the front half in and get the nut (without washer) done up a couple of threads. Now with the assembly as it is, tighten the nut on one side to compress the bush, and do the same on the other side. Once the bush has been sitting for a while compressed (about as long as it will take to do the other side to this point is fine) come back to the original bush and while your friend is pushing forward again quickly take off the nut and slip the washer on there and put the nut back on. Its a bit of a race against the clock, as you need to get the washer on before the bush expands back to cover 99% of the thread again. Repeat on other side.
Here is what the bush looks like in the bracket:


I forgot to take pics of the bush completely installed, but i will try and crawl under the car tonight and take a couple.

5. Reinstall everything
From here on out its extremely simple case of just bolting everything back up. I did mine at the same time as the struts, springs and LCA bushes, so you can attack this however you want to.

6. Get wheel alignment

Ok, so there you go, the biggest pain in this one is just getting the bush in the hole. My reccomendation would be to get other things done at the same time, because for the effort its really not worth pulling the entire front end apart to do just this.
As for the lack of other bushes for the MX83 i have sent my old good bush up to Fulcrum in QLD for them to start working on a Poly-urethane replacement for it.

This guide brought to you by Garage Takai the home of semi-useless things which very few people have enough money to fund.
DISCLAIMER: Usual stuff, you break it, you bought it. Its not my fault if you cant wield a spanner or do simple ddition. Blah blah blah

[TTMX83]

Great write up there. I did mine a couple of years ago but just used the Toyota parts. It is a pain in the ass.

[PlacentaJuan]

hey chris,

i am doing these now and have forgotten the order of washers etc.

looked at your pics to work out which was around the new bushes go, and you write that the big washer thingy with rubber in it goes at the front? (have burnt this out and both washes have crush tube marks on them so i assume they are re-used)

the small washer has chamfers on it, does it go underneath the nut or against the rod?

[takai]

I cant remember at all, its been over two years now since i did it...

[PlacentaJuan]

thats cool i think i got it worked out.

that fron bush is a real biatch isnt it. i dont have a lathe but i got a linisher at work....

[takai]

Yeah, linishing it would work just as well. Ive heard of people wire wheeling it down to size.

[IN 05 NT]

how long did it take you to do the bushes?

i bought all the front end bushes for the cressy 6months ago, and still not looking forward to doing them!

[takai]

Took me a day to do the entire front end, replace all four shocks, and front springs plus replace the brake lines because they were perishing.

That was in a workshop on a hoist with everything needed, industrial spring compressors, press etc.

[PlacentaJuan]

iill take some pics of my bushes if they work, i just bevelled the corners and am hoping they will pop in.

i have been working on my car the last month now but that is a lot of stuff.

the brackets for the caster bushes i have cleaned up real good and repainted, but you could prolly do it in a day if you had everything.

[Trev084]

I know it's 8 years old but only topic I could come up with with searching.

I am currently going to be doing this and the instructions say nothing about having to burn the bushes out, it only says to burn the rubber and clean the washers on the front.

Now looking at the brackets I assumed that I had to remove the old bush sleeve and all but struggled to push the sleeve out with the tools I have at home (hammer and punch) which is why I did a search.

Can anyone else confirm? Here is a link with the instructions:

http://www.superpro.com.au/find/supe...999500690/vid-