How To: Rear Beam Bush Replacement

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748

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Joined
Apr 17, 2013
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761
Location
West Yorkshire
Took advantage of the fine weather today, thought I'd get round to replacing the worn out rear beam bushes on my son's Puma. Here's a few pics of the procedure, thought it might help someone who's never done it but maybe thinking about it. Firstly, this is not an impossible job to do on your driveway, but still not one to be taken lightlly as it does take some time and effort.

The first job is to get the car up at the back end on axle stands and the rear wheels off. A jack under the centre of the rear beam is required to lower it after the bush bolts have been removed.



Notice I've removed the spare wheel and tray for better access.

After making sure the car is perfectly safe to crawl under ( I usually give it a good shake to make sure it’s safe, better that it falls over now than when you’re under it) you need to remove the handbrake cables from their fixings and clips. Unless this has recently been replaced expect a bit of grief here, the fastening onto the inside of the sill (10mm head screw) will be quite corroded.
Then you will need a good quality 19mm open ended spanner and 15mm ring spanner or socket to undo the bush mounting bolts. I consider myself very fortunate here as when I had cracked the nuts the bolts actually started spinning in the inner sleeve so it was a simple task to remove the bolt. The offside is bit more difficult as you need to unhook the exhaust from it’s rubber mountings and shift it out of the way to get the bolt out. At this stage you can lower the rear beam on the jack so that the bushes are clear of the mounting brackets. I used some old ramps to support the beam as well just to be sure.





After lowering the axle this is what I was greeted with , drivers side



And passenger side



Ok, now the hard work starts…don’t believe what anyone says, you can’t use a ‘ bush removal tool’ to get these buggers out. You probably could if you had just put them in, but after 14 years….no chance. First you need to make a note of how the bush is installed, it is possible to put them in wrong, and then begin removal of the old one. This was my approach...use a power drill with a 10mm bit ( don’t bother with a battery drill, I just don’t think it would be up to it unless it cost a fortune) and just ‘ go for it ‘. I found this quite satisfying as all the old rubber and plastic and alloy came flying out.



After a few aggressive passes with the drill and a bit of persuasion with a hammer, out came the centre sleeve, leaving the outer sleeve with some bits of rubber left.
This is how I set about removing the outer sleeve, which you have to accept will be sort of corroded onto the bush housing so will not want to come out easily.
I used a hacksaw, feed the blade through the bush then fix back onto the hacksaw frame, and make two cuts through the outer sleeve about 20mm apart (just wider than a cold chisel). Be careful not to go too far and cut into the bush housing. Then this is where your hammer and chisel skills come into play, start cutting out the segment.



Be careful not to damage the bush housing! After removing the ‘segment’ it is then not too difficult to use the chisel to force the sleeve in to the centre, keep going it will eventually come out and when it does you will see why you could not ‘push’ it out. This is the remains of the removed bush.



Ok now the ‘easy’ bit. I cleaned up the inside of the bush housing and repaired any accidental damage with a half round file. A good splash of copper grease and the new bush was ready to be installed using a tool purchased from gleebay for about 28 quid ( a bargain in my opinion). Here’s a pic of it ready to go in ( note the alignment mark, referenced from how the original was installed). These were genuine Ford replacements, you can get cheaper ones but in my opinion the difference in price is worth paying when you consider the work involved to change them, you don't want to be doing this again in another couple of years!




And a close up..



Nearly there..



New bush installed ready for beam to be lifted back into position…



This is of course the same procedure for both sides, after the new bushes are in it is a straightforward job to jack up the beam into position and fit the bush mounting bolts. DO NOT TIGHTEN THESE UP FULLY UNTIL THE CAR IS BACK ON THE WHEELS. Refit the handbrake cables into the clips ( if you have not broken them). Replace the wheels and remove the axle stands. Give the car a bit of a shake at the back end and bounce it up and down a few times to settle everything, then get under and tighten the bush bolts (torque 120 nm..’FT’)
Here’s a pic of the results of a day’s work…



And a pic of my general working area..



In summary, if you’re going to do this job give yourself a day and be prepared for a bit of ‘hammer rash’ ( unless you’re a really good hammer driver) and get your swearing vocabulary practiced ‘cos you will need it. If you took this job to a garage, you would be looking at 3 hours labour at least plus parts so it’s worth having a go at. Plus you get a great feeling of self satisfaction knowing that you did it!
 
Fair comment, sometimes you have to make do with the tools you have though. Plus there's quite a lot of metal in there which would take a lot of time to get through with a hole cutter. I found I could aim the drill bit at what was left of the rubber and plastic, then attack it with the hammer :thumbs:
 
Well done Sir, hard isn't it, I did this last Friday, what a ***** of a job.. Didn't have the special tool but gathered up a collection of parts and created uber puller MK2 (MK1 failed... see below) comprising 32mm socket, Cagiva W12 starter wheel, Mini front brake disk and Beta Alp gearbox sprocket :lol:

MK1 mahogony... FAIL

Puller1.jpg


Heath Robinson MK2 - a breeze :lol:

Puller2.jpg
 
Thanks for the How to. It came in very handy. I spent about 6hrs trying to remove the driver side bush, removed the innards but the case wouldn't budge so I had to give in and buy the puller tool. Had it removed in about 10mins. Moved onto the passenger side, removed the white plastic insert the tried the tool and it removed the bush complete.

I fitted poly bushes for ease, and they went in easy enough. Getting the beam back in place was a pain as the holes just didn't want to line up, but with liberal use of a hammer it went back in. Hopefully enough to pass the MOT now!

WP_20140408_007_zpsae49c5bf.jpg
 
3dcandy said:
Nice rare Mini Classic SE there!

Yeah, it's gone now :-( . Had to make room for the FRP :lol:

Thanks for the How to. It came in very handy. I spent about 6hrs trying to remove the driver side bush, removed the innards but the case wouldn't budge so I had to give in and buy the puller tool. Had it removed in about 10mins. Moved onto the passenger side, removed the white plastic insert the tried the tool and it removed the bush complete.

I fitted poly bushes for ease, and they went in easy enough. Getting the beam back in place was a pain as the holes just didn't want to line up, but with liberal use of a hammer it went back in. Hopefully enough to pass the MOT now!

Well done :wink:
 
Good guide!! I'd just like to add another angle/option for getting the bush out. A slightly quicker way is to use a 4/5mm drill bit, carefully placed between the bush and bush housing. As the drill bit eats it's way through it will give you a small cut in outer sleeve of the bush the downside of this method is you're left with a small groove in the bush housing on the beam. To negate this, place the drill inline with where the trailing arm section of the beam is welding to the bush housing. With the small slot in the outer bushing sleeve, it's possible to break the 'seal' made with some liberal use of a hammer and the bush with either press or hammer out reasonably easily. This can save ALOT of time and effort in my experience!

When I did it I was left with a slight groove in the bush housing which as suggested above, I smoothed with a round file.

Just another option, and worth keeping in mid if for whatever reason you can't do it the way 748 suggested!
 
Good guide!

I fitted poly bushes again as I had them on my last puma.To help line up the holes, once they're roughly in place lots of WD40 sprayed down the side helps!
 
Thanks for this guide it helped me a lot. I replaced my bushes with poly ones from Problem Solving Bushing (PSB), at a cost of £27.90 + free postage. They went in very easily and have tightened up the backend and the ride isn't harsh. :)
 
Do you know where I could get some nuts from? The spinning washer nyloc ones. I've burnt the nyloc out while trying to get them off :cry:
 
Good guide as this is my next task (new poly bushes arrived today) but having had another look under mine it does look as though the bolts in the bush go the wrong way.....as in they need to be knocked outwards towards the sills to remove and of course said sill is in the way so looks as though the mounting might have to come down first which of course means 8 corroded bolts to deal with first :evil:
On the bright side, new front brake pipes are now in place :grin:
 
Quick question guys about bush removal I've got polyflex purple bushes in at the moment and I would to to remove them and replace them with the black series bushes! But the purple ones are being right buggers to get out and the removal tool I've bought is no use as it's just squashing the bush and not doing anything to budge them. I was thinking about heating up the beam around the bush to see if it could make a gap to budge them out! Hammer is no good as it bounces off it lol!
 
@SLEEMAN...

Were the purple bushes not put in with copper grease...?

Heating the beam may work but if the bushes don't come out first time could they possibly heat up and stick to the beam, thus increasing your desperation to get the buggers out...?! :-D

Maybe try and knock them out with something almost the same size as the bush... a lump of tree log or something with a nice juicy mallet... this may 'spread' the impact across the whole bush thus reducing the 'bounce'.

Failing that I think at that point a drill and sharp drill bit would be looking rather attractive - dill loads of hols in them to try and release the pressure.
 
I don't think they were or any grease of that matter as I can see rust around some of the bushes as I bent them back a little! so i'll try with some wd40 and buy a bigger mallet!
 
UPDATE:

for anyone wanting to know how to get stuck poly bushes out, the rear beam will have to come off, you will need a big hammer and muscles, and another body to help hold down the beam!

just need the momentum and force to wack them out and they can come out! just managed to get mine out today at work with help from a panel beater lol!
 

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