New bushes ordered. Can't see that panhard coming complete with bushes Orangebean so i've gone for the same polys that i fitted on the front.

Since this thread was originally about my tracking i'll update the state of play. When it went to the garage, the steering wheel was centre and the steering box was centre. After the radius arm bushes had been done (again), steering wheel had moved off centre to between 10 and 11 o'clock. Only thing that was removed was the passenger balljoint for the trackrod which was then swung out of the way to get the arms off. Track rod wasn't adjusted and it went back on no bother. Garage man suggested that the bushes that he took out were that bad that although the box was centered and the steering wheel was centered, the steering still wasn't actually centered as it was bent out of shape or strained in some way. Now with new bushes, it's relieved any tension or whatever and relaxed the wheel to where it actually wants to be. It does drive straight now and the resistance from left to right feels the same. Just need to get a spanner on the draglink and straighten the wheel which i forgot to do today whilst i was doing the panhard rod bushes. And since doing the panhard rod bushes, it's improved once again to the point where i reckon it might be fixed. Only trouble now is that you can really feel the difference between the front and back end which on investigation shows up that the rear bushes are also fubar.

Too late now, but confirmed that the panhard rod I linked to does come complete with Lemforder bushes!

Oh. The sceptic in me fails again. Lol

Thats a good price then if you didnt wanna mess about with removing the old bushes.

Saying that, once i've removed them, im able to relace the polys easier next time should the need arise. Will save me a few quid in garage charges not having to press new ones in the future. At least doing it myself i can be sure its done right. Been burned a few times now. Garage on the corner was good but it was £100 for the front radius bushes to be done.

Cheez- £100??
Did that include the cost of the new bushes?
I suppose that if they had to remove/ replace the radius arms that wasn't too bad though.
Going to be cracking on with the rear end of mine later on this week. Got the new Boges to go on, that new Panhard rod to fit and may as well get the radius arm bushes popped out and Lemforders pressed in.

£100 to take off arms, remove old bushes and press new ones in.

Hence why i'm now going the poly route for anything else. Bit dearer to start with and faffing about on my part, but i get the satisfaction of doing it myself and if there's a cock up, i'll know about it straight away.

Do i follow Rave for removing the trailing arms or is there a streamlined procedure? Rave says about deflating the Suspension

I've only ever heard bad things about polybushes on radius arms, and having driven a friend's father's polybushed P38 before and after fitting genuine LR bushes, I'm inclined to agree.

blueplasticsoulman wrote:

Do i follow Rave for removing the trailing arms or is there a streamlined procedure? Rave says about deflating the Suspension

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I'll let you know when I've done mine :)
I'll do the same as when I did the front I imagine. Pull delay timer. Put my normal height calibration blocks in. Deflate rear suspension so it's sitting on those. Lift up car on axle and support axle on stands (calibration blocks still in place). Put confidence boosting axle stands under chassis (!). Drop the arms off.
If I haven't posted anything else by the end of the week, my method is fatally flawed and I've been crushed, in which case, follow RAVE :)

LOL. Okie dokie.

Was gonna make some calibration blocks using a guide i found. Did you make yours?

I did. 30mm diameter Delrin rod, like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ACETAL-POM-DELRIN-BLACK-ROD-ROUND-BAR-BILLET-8-70MM-DIAMETER-ENGINEERING-PLASTIC/172339946181?
Cut it with a saw, no machining required
Dimensions here:
http://www.mez.co.uk/p38-eas.html

Did the rear panhard rod tonight. Got some bosch fast cut metal blades for the jigsaw. Got the old bushes out in 5 mins. Gonna attempt the trailing arms tomorrow.

Stuck.

Been fighting big time with a bolt. The head was pretty knackered to start with and i cant get any movement. Had heat and penetrating oil on it. Wont shift. gonna have to chop it.

Its the trailing arm to axle bolt. The one at the rear closest to the panhard rod. Not the one behind the shock absorber, i can move that one. Cant seem to find the bolt spec on google.

New bolt ordered. Thanks to Orangebean for supplying the part number. Now obsolete and no longer sold by Landrover according to them. Managed to get one from John Craddock.

Also sniped a set of Terrafirma shocks on fleabay, so the whole suspension will have been done by the time i'm finished.

If I'd known you were after shocks as well, you could have had the Monroe Adventurers off of mine for a very reasonable price. I was looking at them today sitting in no-mans-land half way to the scrap pile thinking they were too good to dump and wondering if I could be bothered with the hassle of putting them on the bay.

in fairness i wasn't as mine are still in working condition if not for looking like they came from the bottom of the sea. But i saw the Terrafirmas for £29 and couldn't not. So i did. Although they were £36 in the end. Still a bargain.

Just done rear shocks. Only issue i had was they came with big metal washers for both sides of the rubbers whereas the ones i took off didn't No where near enough thread to get the nut started so i took them off and just left it with 2 as was fitted beforehand. I assume that's right. No other way of doing it.

I fitted new Terrafirma shocks to the front of my car and it was the same so only used one washer. No problems so far. Just need to do the rear now.
Rob.

Can't help much there BPSM- my new Boges came with the correct washers (assembled upside down to catch the unwary) and dropped straight on.
There's already a "cup" on the chassis that's designed for rubber to metal contact so if you had managed to squeeze the new washer in it would likely have caused problems.
It sounds like you and Robbo1 have done the right thing.

Robbo1 wrote:

I fitted new Terrafirma shocks to the front of my car and it was the same so only used one washer. No problems so far. Just need to do the rear now.
Rob.

Cheers Rob. I did think i was right as the old ones only have 1 washer but i thought best to check.

Doing the fronts tomorrow. Bit tricky getting the shock to lineup with the hole on the drivers side rear as there's no access underneath for your hand to the bolt. I got a thin bar in the end, fed it through the top of the wheel arch liner and levered it down whilst having the bolt ready to thread on an extension bar.

Top tip which no doubt everyone knows. Don't cut the plastic packing band until you've got the top in. Proper hard work trying to re-compress it to get it in the hole. lol

That's interesting BPSM- my rear arch liners have a nicely finished notch cut out in line with the top bolt so it's easy to get a socket with long extension on the bolt and extract it that way, as well as getting a long fat screwdriver in to align the replacement shock with the hole for the bolt.
I was assuming it was factory and how thoughtful it was!

Mine do as well, makes changing the rear shocks dead easy. Be interested to hear what you think of the terrafirmas, some people have said they make the ride quite harsh which is why I stuck with original Boge.