So, these front radius arm bushes then...
Is it possible to replace them without the special tool?
The wobble is creeping back and over the weekend it pulled quite sharply to the left with no warning. It felt almost like hitting deep standing water but without the loss of speed and needed a strong corrective tug on the steering wheel to avoid the kerb.
Not much fun at 60!
It's the first time I've felt it and it only did it once on a 200 mile round trip journey.
In a word.. no...
I've heard of people filing a taper on one end of the new bushes and pressing them in without the tool - and apparently polybushes fit in without the tool too (but I've also heard they don't last as long and the ride isn't as good!)
If you get a spare set of radius arms from a breaker or something and new bushes, then I'll happily press them in for you. I've got a press and the tool at my workshop... Or if you come to 'Winter Camp' when we organise when it is, then I'll do them then for you...
When replacing the arms, I would also recommend doing the rear bushes (which don't need to be pressed on) and also get new nuts/bolts all round as normally at least one will need the attention of an angle grinder to get off!
Thanks Marty!
So, a set of 4 of these to go through the front arms: FRONT
A set of 4 of these for the ends of the front arms: FRONT END
And a set of...2? of these to go through the rear arms: REAR
Do the rear arms have end bushes like the fronts?
Is Britpart OK for bushes? I looked for "OEM quality" ones as I've been pointed to before but they don't seem to have anything other than Britpart for these, besides a couple of LR front ones at double the cost.
Is it worth getting LR bushes all round instead of Britpart?
Nuts and bolts I'll get from the local dealer. Things like that tend to be pretty reasonably priced.
Once you've got the part number, stick it into LR Direct, like this, for example:
https://www.lrdirect.com/ANR3332-Bush-Frt-Arm-To-Axle-P38-See-Not/?keep_https=yes
You'll see many options. Hover over the "i" button to see the provenance and make sure there's not a hidden $hitpart connection.
In this example, I'd go for these:
https://www.lrdirect.com/ANR3332-supplied-by-bearmach-branded-bm.html
LRD are my preferred supplier, They'll dispatch same day if ordered before 1430 and their prices tend to be lower than !sland- except for genuine Dunlop air-bags. You do have to know the part number though, which you can get from other suppliers sites (R!mmers etc)
I put Poly bushes on the front of the radius arms (the big bushes) more than 6 or 7 years ago as I coudln't find anyone local to press the OEM ones i got in... The old bushes were totally shot and he was wandering all over the place. The polys (orange if that makes any difference as I think they were 'comfort' ones) have been perfect ever since, and literally just pushed in from either side as they were in two halves.
As long as you use decent poly bushes you shouldn't have a problem, mine had the cheap yellow ones fitted, which promptly got changed, they were less than 6 months old, but some were shot already, I used the blues/purple ones to replace them, no issues since
Interesting to know about the blue/purple poly bushes...
The 'genuine' rubber ones... I went with 'blue box' ones on mine... not the actual Britpart branded ones, but the 'OEM' ones - which happened to be supplied by Britpart.
The skeptic in me says that if they're blue box then how can I tell they aren't the cheap ones, but with an 'OEM' sticker on the box - but the trusting part in me says that if they are OEM, then it would be very bad practice to sell something listed as being from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (the people who made it originally and put it in a green box for Land Rover). but have it being an inferior part.
So far they have been OK though, and will see how they last - at least I have the tool to push them out/in again if I need to! I couldn't justify the difference in price between green box and blue box OEM - which in theory should be exactly the same thing!
I haven't done the rear arm bushes on mine yet - mostly as I the tool to press them in is different to the one to do the front bushes, and also my issues felt very much 'front end' rather than at the back, so just went with all the front arm bushes.
I am going to look into the tool to do the rear bushes - as it would be useful to have aswell... I think there are only the 2 bushes at the front of those arms though, it's all that's shown in RAVE anyway that I could see.
I also use LR Direct for as much as I can now..
Given the dimensions I can easily make up bush removal and insertion tools for £ very reasonable. Only simple turning jobs after all. Laser components appear to be taking the P with their version:- http://www.lasertools.co.uk/product/6505 at £200 (almost). OK its got a (tiddly little) thrust bearing in one nut so its um "sophisticated" but not an extra £170 worth over a simple bush and allthread kit used with smooth finished well greased washers.
How much pressure does it take to shift the front ones? My press is only 12 tons. Still a decently scary bang when well tight stuff lets go.
Clive
Clive
That's pretty expensive for the Laser tool, considering i only paid about £80 for the actual P38 bush tool from LR direct...
I would be interested in a tool for the rear ones if anyone was able to make one up...
12T press should shift them I would think... I only went 20T as is wasn't that much more expensive than the 10/12T version, and I'll probably have a go at pressing out wheel bearings on an old set of front hubs at some point...
Jeez, I've heated them up before and used 2 sockets ( 1 bigger, 1 correct size to push) and a mother fecker g-clamp, also done same method using a big bench mounted vice. Improvisation does work 😁Don't need to spend big dollars
I admire folks who have the determination to make improvised methods work but I bailed out on the Haynes Book of Errors style tooling years back after one set of scars too many. Easy to say tho' when you have enough machine shop equipment in the man cave out back to make producing a functional equivalent to proper gear almost as fast as finding stuff to improvise with.
I figure something around £10 to £15 plus materials would cover pullers for both front and rear bushes if I could do a batch of 5 or 6 so as to use up a length of bought in steel stock. Maybe £5 more if you wanted sophisticated with roller thrust bearings under the nuts. For one or two I might well have enough offcuts about the place. I do wonder about those cheap E-Bay £30 - £40 (ish) 28 piece bearing and bush puller sets. Dead useful or every size except the one you want? I really should get one to see.
What annoys me about the bush removal tool pricing is the make surcharge. Same thing but different size is under £30 in pretty box for Vauxhall Vectra et GM al put pushing £100 naked for our P38s and even more for Bimmer/Merc boys. Looks like Laser charge more for the combined front & rear set than they do for the two separate ones which is seriously annoying. Not that I'd ever buy one of course.
Clive
The problem with the "28 piece set" type kits is that they don't have a die that would shrink the bush down. You definitely need something that will squash it down by the three or four mm so it fits into the arm. I'm not sure you're going to do that with a bit of threaded rod, either.
True. You are stuck with making the installation shrinker even if the set provides everything else. There are ways of doing rather better than the bit of threaded rod for folk without a press. Once made an adapter to take the screwed body of the common import hydraulic puller which reportedly worked a treat. Even a simple screwed pusher with similar large diameter fine thread would put a lot more force on than the bit of chinee threaded rod.
Clive
Had it over a pit at work this morning and check the radius arm bushes:
N/S/F arm:
O/S/F arm:
Found no discernible play in the arms or panhard rod. ARB bushes are looking like they're starting to wear out though. Also noted that the air bags are starting to show cracks at the base.
These all look OK to me, unless you more experienced chaps think otherwise. I think I'm now entering a game of replacing all the rubber until it goes away!
Try and lever the front ones from side to side. The main failure seems to be that the metal insert breaks away from the surrounding rubber.
On the Panhard rod bushes on mine (after it had pulled sharply to the left, no warning!) underneath I could find no play, stuck it in the air and found no play. Eventually set up a torch and phone to video what was going on down there when the steering was turned. Then I found the play!
Only just read the rest of this thread, I'm with some of the others on this one, panhard bushes, don't go with polys, stick some of the original type in, even the Brit part ones seem ok, I've fitted a few sets with no come backs, same symptoms, feels like you've hit a rut in road, or a large puddle, starts pulling either direction till a sharp jult is given, then steering ok again, it will get worse as you go, might even give you creaks and clunks when turning the steering from standstill,