Fitting Poly Wishbone Bushes

[AndyJ 1]

I had to replace my wishbone bushes the other day, oil had leaked on one of the bushes and caused the rubber to turn to goo... So I swapped on a set of poly bushes, mainly because I hope they will be more oil-resistant. I took some pictures for posterity, and thought they might be useful to someone who's not done it before:

 

Wishbone pulled off the car:

 

I first tried just levering one of the bushes out using a hammer and chisel in behind the lip, but as you can see in the picture, it just bent the lip. I cut out the rubber centres with a hole saw so I could get a hacksaw in to cut the outer casings out:

 

 

 

I got the hacksaw in and cut a slit out of the casing, being careful not to cut into the metal of the wishbone. In the picture, I cut 2 slits so I could take a wedge out, and the outer casing came out rediculously easily... but one slit works fine, and I used that for the rest of them.

 

 

 

Bushes are different sizes front and rear (the rear is larger). Here they are prior to fitting:

 

 

The outer half pushes in easily, then the metal ferrule. I found a couple of them needed a tap from a mallet to go all the way in.

 

 

 

[AndyJ 1]

When I offered up the wishbone to refit it, it turned out the rubber of the bushes needed trimming down slightly, so I had to take a couple of mm off each bush with a stanley knife until the rubber was flush with the sleeve.

 

A generous helping of copper grease, and some persuasion with a bar and lump hammer (the sleeves were a tight fit in the moutings), the wishbones are back on:

 

 

...And now I can drive off without swerving all over like I'm drunk!

[miamichris 9]

Are these the poly bushes from matt lewis racing? If so, I have these fitted in my wishbones and also found they needed trimmed, you'd think they would be made the right size!

 

Good guide though, I also use a hole saw to drill the bush out but then I just smack the metal casings out with a hammer and chisel