Front suspension bushings

[Dr.Jeff]

I like Dr. Jeff's ingenuity of designing and making a tool. I am doing the same project and I was this close to asking my machine shop buddy to make essentially what Dr. Jeff made for himself, with the uber-essential item being the inner taper guide sleeve that persuades the bushing to squash to the inside diameter of the arm.

However, a trip to Home Depot for the smallest plumbing coupler https://www.lowes.com/pd/Fernco-1-1...ded-Specialty-Coupling-PVC-Fitting/1000075351, discarding the rubber and only using the stainless outer shell, replacing the included worm gear clamps with smaller ones, and a lot of lube on a bench vise, the right sized sockets as pushers and receivers, and Robert is my Mother's Brother.

The inner steel sleeve can be persuaded in likewise if you use the correct size of wire nut preceeding it thru the hole in the rubber bushing.

And Dr. Jeff's observation that the old bushings' outer appearance looks A LOT worse that it really is, is true. I did notice on mine that on the removed original bushings, the center hole was no longer central to the round shape of the bushing--it was eccentrically displaced.

Nice job Dan. Much easier than what I did.

I looked at the possibility of using a thick walled PVC plumbing fitting to make the tapered section from, but none were close enough to use. I did try using a couple different types of hose clamps, with no success. But I did not try the plumbing coupler you used. Frankly I didn't want to make another trip to the hardware store in search of one when I already had scrap pieces on hand to just make my own tool from scratch. The advantage to saving bits and pieces of everything imaginable in storage bins.

I'm assuming you were able to make the plumbing coupler sleeve into a "cone" (tapered) shape? As you stated, that was the key for me. It also prevents any damage to the rubber bushing. While trying the various failed attempts without the new tool, I came very close to damaging the rubber a couple of times. That's when I stopped and made the decision to take the time to make something.

 

[Kevin Reay]

Super Pro offers a choice of "street" or "track"? That's great news. By chance do you have their part numbers handy?

Sorry Jeff, Can't find the correspondence from the distributor i contacted. When I received mine the looked black in the package so i contacted what i thought was Superpro. Turned out when I opened the packet mine are in fact blue so the part nu i have are not for the black bushing. If i can find the the distributor in my history I will post details.
Details. i contacted fulcrumsuspensions.com.au/ and used their chat thing

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Sorry Jeff, Can't find the correspondence from the distributor i contacted. When I received mine the looked black in the package so i contacted what i thought was Superpro. Turned out when I opened the packet mine are in fact blue so the part nu i have are not for the black bushing. If i can find the the distributor in my history I will post details.
Details. i contacted fulcrumsuspensions.com.au/ and used their chat thing

Thanks Kevin. I'll check the web to see what I can find.