Fitted new pin, bush and seals kit and as I expected it was not fun on my back with restricted access. New German made Febi Bilstein kit from B&B Components at great value price. Most will be familiar with the situation where the difficulty in getting down and crawling under is proportional to taking the wrong sized spanners. I didn't remove any ball joints and tie wrapped the relay arm to the gear shift. So some useful numbers if you have to do this: Damper to arm 17mm, arm pinch bolt 19mm and grease nipple 7mm. Outside diameter of bushes 24mm and I found a 17mm socket was a good sliding fit to use when drawing out the bushes with a long M12 bolt. The arm pinch bolt is M12 x 1.5 pitch, I know this because it is very difficult to align the cutout in the pin with the arm pinch bolt hole, whilst compressing the wave washed at the bottom and the o ring seal at the top of the pin and my first try at tightening the pinch bolt damaged the leading thread. As many will know, pressing on with a damaged thread is a recipe for disaster and I decided to clean the arm threads with a tap from the outside and use a fresh bolt. I then made a mandrill 12.5mm OD with a rounded nose and with some grease pushed it through the arm until it aligned the cutout but did not contact the thread. By now I had a G clamp on a shallow spacer with a hole for the top of the pin and at the bottom end on a flat steel lever pushing the pin head up and wedged with a length of timber. I was impossible to get my G clamp to stay directly on the rounded pin head, hence the lever. Finally got it all torqued up, tab washer bent over and pumped with grease. Was it worth all the pain? Well only a short drive so far and I was surprised how the steering wheel slack had gone, even though the original bush and pin were only slightly worn. Definitely worth keeping this pin greased in the long run.
Reviving an old thread, but ….. …drifting the bushes out with an appropriate sized socket on a stubby extension….. the bottom one has gone all the way up to the top bush and refuses to go any further…. tried putting a jack under the socket/extension combo, to see if weight of bus would encourage it to come out. No luck so far, nothing in way of the bushes coming out and the bottom one is well past the grease nipple hole ( nipple removed). Is it just of hitting it harder until the bushes see reason?
Yes, smack it very hard, and it should come out, as a pair. As a side effect you will knacker the end of the extension bar as you hit it. I prefer to use one of my tools- a piece of a children's steel garden swing leg tubing (1.5mm wall) cut down to about 50mm shorter than the idler pin and slit to fit around the pin. I put that over the pin, then insert the pin in the bottom bush . The bush then acts as a guide for for the pin, the tube is sacrificial and you can hit the head of the idler pin as hard as you like.
Right, wasted a Bank Holiday Monday trying to get the idler pin bushes out….moved bottom one up to meet top one and there it ended. Progressively larger hammers haven’t helped. @MorkC68 …. have you a “tool “ I could borrow, or I don’t mind buying one, if you still make them. If I recall correctly, don’t you work at Waverley in Rotherham…. if so, I could pop over and collect/return to you there. Failing that, I think that there’s a communal tool ( not @Barry Haynes ) somewhere. Cheers.
I used the communal tool and tried to keep track of its whereabouts after, I'll see if I can find a pm thread ... Back shortly Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Right ..... Last record i have of the communal tool is from me , posted to @Westiesam about 4 years ago , his latest visit to TLB being mid Feb this year . He may still have it , he may not but worth asking ??
@Betty the Bay it’s on our kitchen table and I’ll pop it in the car tomorrow as I’m back in work after Easter holidays. I’ll send you a pm in a moment.
What size is the tube Mike...I'm on this as well soon so may just get the big hammer out or maybe @Betty the Bay could forward the tool on to me with @MorkC68 's consent?
With @MorkC68 permision, I’m happy to do that. It’ll be a novelty, can’t remember the last time I was in a Post Office.
Well, precision engineering wins over brute force….. old bushes out and new ones in…… gave up on trying to line up the pinch bolt for tonight. As an aside in true “old vehicle “ style, I was greeted this morning with a puddle of petrol, traced it to coming from the left(near side) carb… surprisingly the oil level doesn’t appear to have risen or smell of petrol… haven’t got space to investigate but the outside of the manifold was wet and the undertray was full of fuel. Fuel line disconnected as a temporary fix.
You have to jack the pin up, squashing the big wavy spring washer to enable the hole in the idler arm to be lined up with the slot in the pin.
Top bush sticking out same as thickness of that big washer? Further might be a problem. ...or you just needed a cup of tea.
