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muawuawuaahhhhhh......

pity i had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday.

They'd be in by tonight.


Ohh well.........Dodgy day

Took me about 6 hours just to do the rears - all 14 on the control arms plus the easy 6 on the sways. The blowtorch is my friend.

I need a few weeks' rest before I attack the front.

Nice kilim STM.

Its a bit of a prick of a job, but can be done just takes time.

This document may help.

I haven't got Matty's special adapter...... was thinking of a socket maybe.
I was also locking at some gearset removers with 3 arms.

I've gott The Auto salon mag wher it was done by Kula.....they used a Sisc break seperator & a socket.....not sure which is best.

The blow torch absolutley scares me......

manga_blue wrote:Nice kilim STM.

I have a wife who can fly one of thses things.......when she's angry

to get suspension bushes out & in reasonably quickly there's no substitute for a hydraulic press, and even then they are scary things - I have bent quarter inch plate steel trying to press out stubborn rubber bushes Admitedly they had been on the car for 40 years or more, but still... Unfortunately I don't have a press in the shed (yet ). Not sure I could handle the cussin' STM will be doing during this job...

StanTheMan wrote:I haven't got Matty's special adapter......

The big G clamp thing is part of the Vic Club libray....perhaps an inter-club loan is in order

I did it without the big G clamp, or any clamp at all. I priced clamps like Matty's- $302, eye watering.

First I tried the 6\" vice for the sway bar link bushes, which should have been the easiest. They were so tight it nearly broke me and the vice. Then they came out in pieces, leaving a lot of work in cleaning all the stuck bits of rubber out of the links.

So I started playing around with heat.

Basically if you heat the arm around the bush for about a minute with a small plumbers gas torch you break the seal between the rubber and the steel. Then it's quite easy to push out. It also comes out clean - almost no cleaning up the arm afterwards. Mazda seems to have kindly finished the arms with baked enamel - you can't burn it.

I took a block of 140x140x45 softwood and drilled a 38mm hole straight through it with a hole saw. A 150mm 8mm threaded rod, two big 8mm nuts , a steel plate and a range of big washers meant I could just tighten the nuts to drag the hot bushes out of the control arms into the hole in the wood. Once I got going it took about 3 or 4 minutes to remove each bush, but there's a lot of work in getting the arm ready for it before that.

As I said 6 hours to do the rear, and most of that is just getting arms out and in again. Most of the bushes I did on the bench. Only the rear upper control arm outer bush was done on the car, with everything around it wrapped in wet towel.

$ 300 for a clamp?????!!!!????

how does it differ to a $6 jobbie from supercheap?

Andrew wrote:

StanTheMan wrote:I haven't got Matty's special adapter......

The big G clamp thing is part of the Vic Club libray....perhaps an inter-club loan is in order

I would guard it with my life

StanTheMan wrote::shock:
$ 300 for a clamp?????!!!!????

how does it differ to a $6 jobbie from supercheap?

about $294

I'll give ya a hand, i have said plumber's gas if needed

It will have to be after easter though

I have a $30 clamp that might work and i haven't been able to burn it yet either

Yea i think i'll host a propper Dodgy day with BBQ .....I just don't have any cover. Plenty of cover to enjoy the view......but not for working on the car.

but the torch just absolutley frightens me.

ampz wrote:

StanTheMan wrote::shock:
$ 300 for a clamp?????!!!!????

how does it differ to a $6 jobbie from supercheap?

about $294

OK I deserved that....