Well, well. Had some failures and successes. And I definitely figured out how NOT to remove leaf spring bushings. So after getting some more drill bits, I still couldn't get the dang center metal sleeve of the bushing out. Stupid me decided to just air hammer the sucker out. Took about an hour of cussin' and mangling air hammer bits, but it finally came out.
That was the WRONG way to remove a bushing. Here's the right way:
That's a 1-1/2" hole saw I picked up at Lowe's last night. Make sure you get the right kind; I had some cheap ones that were too shallow to cut halfway through the bushing.
The goal is to cut out the rubber between the inner and out sleeves, and that, combined with the heating up of the rubber as you drill, make them easy to push out. Make sure you have a big enough drill to run the hole saw, though. I tried four total.
First I tried the little cordless drill. It straight up said "aw, hell no" and didn't work at all. Next, the black Skil brand tried, but after 30 seconds or so got hot and was about to let the smoke out. The red one has an overrun clutch and it sounded like it had Tourette's. So I broke out the big boy - my 1/2" drive 3 in one rotary hammer drill, aka "arm breaker." I put it in "drill only" mode and went to work. You gotta hold on tight to that sucker or it'll turn your elbow inside out. I had all 5 remaining bushing cores drilled out in 10 minutes, and that's with fighting the shackles trying to get them to stay still (I don't have my vise mounted to my new work bench yet. After that, I took the air hammer, put in the pointed bit, and started pounding out the sleeves. I put the point right in the little gap where the leaf spring curls around and touches itself. All three split along the factory weld line and dropped out.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. The first bushing (doing it the wrong way) took over an hour by itself. I went out to work on the other five at about 4:15, and by 5pm I was back in the house, in my underwear in the recliner drinking a cold one.
Definitely the way to go!
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That was the WRONG way to remove a bushing. Here's the right way:
You must be registered for see images attach
That's a 1-1/2" hole saw I picked up at Lowe's last night. Make sure you get the right kind; I had some cheap ones that were too shallow to cut halfway through the bushing.
The goal is to cut out the rubber between the inner and out sleeves, and that, combined with the heating up of the rubber as you drill, make them easy to push out. Make sure you have a big enough drill to run the hole saw, though. I tried four total.
You must be registered for see images attach
First I tried the little cordless drill. It straight up said "aw, hell no" and didn't work at all. Next, the black Skil brand tried, but after 30 seconds or so got hot and was about to let the smoke out. The red one has an overrun clutch and it sounded like it had Tourette's. So I broke out the big boy - my 1/2" drive 3 in one rotary hammer drill, aka "arm breaker." I put it in "drill only" mode and went to work. You gotta hold on tight to that sucker or it'll turn your elbow inside out. I had all 5 remaining bushing cores drilled out in 10 minutes, and that's with fighting the shackles trying to get them to stay still (I don't have my vise mounted to my new work bench yet. After that, I took the air hammer, put in the pointed bit, and started pounding out the sleeves. I put the point right in the little gap where the leaf spring curls around and touches itself. All three split along the factory weld line and dropped out.
You must be registered for see images attach
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. The first bushing (doing it the wrong way) took over an hour by itself. I went out to work on the other five at about 4:15, and by 5pm I was back in the house, in my underwear in the recliner drinking a cold one.
Definitely the way to go!
