Installing Bushes

[Smokey228]

okay, well i figured, i cant ruin my own thread on the difference between polyurethane and rubber bushes, so im starting another...

**note, this is all into an ra23. i dont know how it will vary on any other car**

so ive got the sway bar link bushes in, very simple, they sit behind the front bar. hold down by 2 bolt. unscrew each and lever the link support off with a screw driver. the bush has a cut down the back so that u can slip it over the sway bar. wipe the bar clean, and the support clean then generously grease the sway bar, and slip the new bush over the top. replace the support and screw firmly.
once the car has full load on the bushes, then u screw tightly. and again a week after, u shud prolly double check to make sure they are firm...

now, ive gotten stuck with the front sway bar mounts, because i think im going to need a press to get these done.
wen it comes to the radius arms im stuck cause im not 100% which bushes they are, and i dont want to start unscrewing things untill i find the right one.
and again with the rear upper/lower control arms, two packets, each with 8 bushes assembled. i can only find 12 places to put new bushes on the rear.

can anyone clear up the last bits, or if u could give me a link to a site that explains would also be very useful as im having no luck...

remember, pictures paint a thousand words. so if anyone has pics of there own work, would be greatly appreciated...

cheers,
jason

[Smokey228]

okay. i worked out the upper/lower control arms. but im yet to do them.

im trying to do the front sway bar mount bushes still...
but im having a hell of a time trying to get them all on, and get the screw on. we are strugling to squeeze the bushes down enough so that we can get the washer and bolt on ever the top. anyone know how to solve this?
*also, do i use grease on these mounts? or not. its a bit missleading cause every packet of bushes came with a sachet of grease except the bag with the sway bar mount bushes...

any help here?

[Smokey228]

well i ended up getting the front ones on. it was pretty tuff, but it worked out in the end.

i used one of those sorta plier things, that u can adjust at the X member to determine how wide the jaws will open. but this one was bigger than ur average, so its prolly not the best solution...

with that i pinched down on the sway bar and the point where the bolt passes through. i finished assembling the top half of the set up and screwed the nut on, only about 2-3 spins. jus did it as much as i could whilst my mate held down hard on the grip thingies

anyone planning on doing this themselves, save urself alot of time and make note of the order the bushes and washers go on if i had actually thought for more then .5 of a second i prolly woulda saved about 20mins ahahaha

for the front raduis rod bushes, u gotta snap the tension of the back nut by bout half a twist, then remove the front bolt.
u also have to remove the two small bolts that connect u to the ?hub?... remove the entire arm and grease and re assemble the bushes in the correct order!
try to put the rear bolt back to exactly where u unscrewed it from so not to throw ur allignment out by to much..

for the rears, as far as i can tell, i need to have them all pressed out, and then i can simply slip the new parts in...

im yet to do the rear but will get that undone tomorrow and redone monday...

i will get pics up for ppl to check out later on..

jason

[CrUZida]

Yeah, just FYI you are going to have to get pics for those of us who haven't had the pleasure of working on A2's.

On my car (xA6x) the only ones that need pressing are the LCA's and swingarm bushes.

All the swaybar ones can be done with normal tools.

[Smokey228]

yes. i can put the rear sway bar bushes in with out pressing them. but the axle mounts. or upper trailing arms, and lower trailing arms? not sure of names, heard way to many jus today alone

but they needed to be pressed.
tomorrow ill take pics of them all for you anyway, on the car and off it.

[CrUZida]

Hehe, I'm also not good with solid axel names.

Some bushes need to be heated to get out (as opposed to being pressed), but don't need to be pressed back in, depending on what brand you get.

SuperPro bushes also tend to come with instructions.

[Smokey228]

i bought noltec, they dont look like they need to be pressed. but wen i take all the trailing arms out ill know which ones need to b e pressed and not.

atm though, i have 8 metal sleeves. but only 4 spots for trailing arms i geuss once again ill have to geuss and check. ill get some pics up tonight hopefully.

jason

[Rodger]

Jason,

You will find that a hydraulic press to press out the original Toyota bushes is required.

But also a little enginuity to make up a spacer to press on the outside bush tube otherwise the centers will tear out.

Heating up the outer arm surrounding the bush will help.

I have successfully pushed new poly bushes in using a big bench vice, but since you will be at a press, use this to press them in.

There are two bushes per trailing arm making for the eight metal sleeves. The grease should go on these so they rotate freely inside the poly.

At the front.

Make up alloy spacers using flat bar stock to space the bracket out and use new high tensile longer bolts to help with mounting the front sway bar to the chassis with the original bracket.

The bush only needs to be tight enough to be held in place.

The sway bar needs to be able to rotate in this bush so the lubricant is added to the bar where it fits through the bush. If the bar binds up, it can cause the bar to behave more like a spring and does not then transfer the load across to the other side as it was designed to do, effectivly increasing the front spring rate.

If these bushes are not lubricated or are over "crushed" they can also put too much load on the chassis mounting points. These have been known to crack and break away from the chassis rails.

Regards

Rodger