Renewing Radius Arm Bushes

[GQ Beast]

Hi, Well seeing ive just done mine and it all went well id'e post up how i did it.

Firstly i parked on a reasonably level driveway,Chocked rear wheels and in gear with handbrake on.

I got under and set up jack stands roughly to the height it was sitting at, One under the diff housing,between radius arm and swivel housing, ( Oh one side at a time)

Then another stand under the chassis behind where back off radius arm meets chassis.

Jacked the whole front up, took off wheel and placed stands and lowered onto them.

Next i undone the rear nut of the radius arm where it meets the chassis. removed the rear mushroom bush.

Then with rattle gun loosened the bolts holding radius arm to diff. ( these are Tight,Had to grind one off)

Next you have to remove Tie Rod joint on the side your working on and swing out of the way.

Punch out bolts with brass punch while supporting radius arm, slide out towards the front of the car.

Pressed out old bushes and replaced with new rubber ones.

To install , put new mushroom bush on the back off arm and slide in, put rear mushroom bush on, washer and tighten,you have to tighten the rear nut to squash the new bushes so the front bushes line up, Put new bolts and nuts through front bushes ( $30 set from nissan ) had to jack up a little to line them up,

Done them up (not tight) Put wheel back on removed stands and jumped up and down on the front end.

Undone all the nuts enough to put locktite on thread and torqued them all up with car sitting on wheels (important) if you torque them up while jacked up you will tear the bushes when the cars sitting where it should. This apply's to any suspension bush!!!

Hope this helps, found it an easy job.

[cairnsGU]

Hey thanks for the write-up mate........

[twisty]

Thanks mate. Any pics?

[GQ Beast]

Sorry no pics, something i didnt think about, My mates will be getting done soon will take pics of that one. :ph34r:

[Whitey]

Hi, Well seeing ive just done mine and it all went well id'e post up how i did it.

Firstly i parked on a reasonably level driveway,Chocked rear wheels and in gear with handbrake on.

I got under and set up jack stands roughly to the height it was sitting at, One under the diff housing,between radius arm and swivel housing, ( Oh one side at a time)

Then another stand under the chassis behind where back off radius arm meets chassis.

Jacked the whole front up, took off wheel and placed stands and lowered onto them.

Next i undone the rear nut of the radius arm where it meets the chassis. removed the rear mushroom bush.

Then with rattle gun loosened the bolts holding radius arm to diff. ( these are Tight,Had to grind one off)

Next you have to remove Tie Rod joint on the side your working on and swing out of the way.

Punch out bolts with brass punch while supporting radius arm, slide out towards the front of the car.

Pressed out old bushes and replaced with new rubber ones.

To install , put new mushroom bush on the back off arm and slide in, put rear mushroom bush on, washer and tighten,you have to tighten the rear nut to squash the new bushes so the front bushes line up, Put new bolts and nuts through front bushes ( $30 set from nissan ) had to jack up a little to line them up,

Done them up (not tight) Put wheel back on removed stands and jumped up and down on the front end.

Undone all the nuts enough to put locktite on thread and torqued them all up with car sitting on wheels (important) if you torque them up while jacked up you will tear the bushes when the cars sitting where it should. This apply's to any suspension bush!!!

Hope this helps, found it an easy job.

Nice write up. Just did mine two weeks ago and had every intention of taking pics but it just got too hard. I replaced the radius arm bushes along with the panhard bushes front and back. Has made a huge difference, no more wobbles or shudder.

You've got me thinking about the bolts though, I didn't replace mine, just cleaned them up with a wire wheel and applied lock tite. Did you replace the bolts because you had to replace one anyhow or you are cautious?

Anyone else reading this, make sure you have at least a 12 ton shop press, pretty cheap at around $200 bucks and easily cheaper than paying someone and you get a cool tool to keep. You will also definately need a rattle gun, as GQ beast said, the bolts are bloody tight.

[GQ Beast]

Bolts, I had to grind one off on the radius arm but was going to replace anyway, For the price and piece of mind there new!! And yeh heres my press!! Ya need a strong one, mines 10 Ton home made but done the job. radius arm bushes are twice as hard to get out than panhard.

[GPSTI]

I've done mine 3 times ..... but I started with a new vehicle so the nuts weren't too hard to get off, I just used a ring spanner.

Why 3 times - first time to install caster bushes, which chewed out in no time, partly because I bought cheapies and partly due to the extra flex from the 2" flexycoils and 4" shockers. Second time to replace them with caster bushes, could only get Repco nolethanes at Charleville, which had already started chewing out by the time I got back to Melbourne.

Third time to put the originals back in. All this in about 10000k.

Theyre starting to slide in more easily

[Ray!]

I had to replace the bushes once on my GQ and the bushes that are on the diff side were the most painful to replace. Getting them out wasn't such a chore, as I didn't care if they got mangled, but putting them back in was like brain surgery. The original Nissan bushes had only a very thin steel casing on the outer side (not sure if it's the same now) and if you got anything out of alignment, kiss the bush goodbye. Fortunately, I had a friend in an engineering firm and they had a press that could move in about 1/10mm movements, which enabled me to ease the bushes into place.

Cheers

Ray

[GPSTI]

I made an aluminium drift to get the factory ones out the first time - it increased in diameter under the pressure and caused shavings off the outside, so I guess that helped to get the bushes out without damage.

They went back in easily enough, probably because they were already a bit compressed from the first installation - still well and truly tight enough to stay in place. A good squirt of lubricant doesn't hurt either. The steel cases are still very thin, mine are Dec 2010 build. The caster bushes had much thicker steel outer walls.

Edit. Forgot to mention - they are also tapered, and are directionally inserted into the arms. Easy to spot the direction from the slight chamfers.

Edited May 15, 2012 by GPSTI

[GQ Beast]

I turned up a bronze bush my dad had from the ol'e days and stepped it 10mm in so put the new ones in easy, The step in held against the thin wall of the new bush, plenty of soapy water and there in.