Bloody front radius arm bushes!!

[BigMav]

Ok well after a lot of swearing I finally have one of the radius arms out to replace the offset castor bushes with some genuine items. The bolts in the diff housing didn't want to come out, I tried everything to get them to move. I found the sweet spot where the arm itself felt loose in the rear housing buy using jacks to move it around with the front driveshaft disconnected so I could move the housing back and forth aswell as up and down. It felt like I had it in a position where there was no binding or weight on the arm at all, but still no good. In the end I had no choice but to get the angle grinder out. So I have now chopped both ends of the bolt off and it seems like the bolt has actually fused itself to the inner part of the bushes! So anyway a couple of questions, can I just go down the local bolt shop and get some high tensile zinc plated bolts and go with that or is it necessary to get Nissan items. Also when pressing in new bushes should I smear some rubber grease on the bushes to help them slide in or should they stay dry? Cheers.

[MudRunnerTD]

Bugger, they can be a bit of a bugger mate especially if they have been in there since new. Also finding that sweet spot can be very very difficult, a high lift to pull the diff back and a jack under the pinion should have got it though.

I am not sure if you will get the right bolt with the right shaft length from a bolt bloke? Try your luck. Price them at Nissan and at a wrecker though bud.

You should not need any grease to reset the bushes though. What are you doing for caster correction? Drop Boxes?

[BigMav]

Yeah mate I've done them before without that many issues, I think it was the fact that these were castor bushes that made the difference. I definitely found the sweet spot by doing all the tricks with a couple of different jacks but yeah it just wasn't to be, lol. I really hope they are a standard length bolt as I cringe every time I visit Nissan spare parts. As for castor correction I'm going to stock height for a little while until I can afford a 3" kit then I will throw some drop boxes underneath. Just want to get some working suspension under it so I can concentrate on some other aspects of my build.

[BigMav]

Ok next question, I'm not keen on paying pedders $25 per bush to press out the old and press in the new. Supercrap Auto have a 6T press at the moment on sale will that be sufficient to press the bushes out?

[nissannewby]

Should be have pushed these out/in with little 20T press. Leave them dry but coat your bolt with some anti sieze. It should be fine to use a High tensile bolt and it shouldnt be to hard with the length as they do these generally in 5mm increments or 1/4". I had same issue when changing my arms and used a grade 8 bolt and locknut.

[BigMav]

Yeah thanks mate just chasing down some bolts now. Will definitely reassemble with antiseize as after a closer inspection of the bushes the old bolts were completely rusted inside the cam of the offset bush, hence why I had to cut them.

[BigMav]

That was a mission, went to 4 different bolt shops and no luck at all, coventry fasteners are now ordering some in for me in the exact same size as the originals. For the record they are an M16 x 1.5 x 80 LG Zinc plated and high tensile. Now to get the other arm out.

[growler2058]

Enjoy that mate ;-)


Tapp tillya Crap

[BigMav]

Yeah that one was just as bad, this time I took the arm out of the chassis mount at the rear then cut the front mounting bolt off so the arm was swinging freely off the rear diff housing mount, so definitely no weight at all left on it. A big sledge hammer and a pin punch still wouldn't budge it! Out with the grinder again. Such an epic job, it just gave me grief till the very end. I will be putting a thick coating of antisieze on the new bolts on assembly. Oh well these things are sent to test us I guess.

[growler2058]

Not a fun time then mate. mine i remember were a bit of a bitch but did come out with a lumpy and a punch. at least ya know ya wont be doing that again in a hurry

[MudRunnerTD]

Damn it would have been tight up the front mate. Zero Flex from that lot i reckon! You wont know it when they are done!