Wishbone bush sleeve removal?????? Ahhhh, please help

[VR6Joni 0]

Just on with replacing front wishbone bushes, the sleeve that goes through the rear bush is stuck solid holding in the wishbone.

Any smart idea's how to remove it? bearing in mind the wishbone is stuck on the car due to the sleeve locating it into the subframe. This is really winding me up now, please help.

 

BTW the old bushes are poly bushes, but I have movement in them now so its knocking.

[KIPVW 0]

This on a VR Joni? didn't think the sleeves were used on VR's only 4 pot cars

[VR6Joni 0]

Yep, they are poly bushes though so not standard. I just can't think a way to pull the bloody thing out whilst they are stuck in car.

[Harrier 1]

Just be a bit brutal with a lever bar & hook wishbone out.They are only thin metal & will come out with a bit of effort.

[VR6Joni 0]

Tried brute force mate, the sleeve has to come out, trust me.

Will try a big wedge type chisel between bush and subframe tonight to lift bush a bit.

 

Any other suggestions welcome.

[tonedef 9]

Am I right in remembering that you have to pull the wishbone front bush out first and then slide the whole thing forwards to remove the rear bush? Are you trying to pull the rear bush straight out?

 

I'd crawl under mine and have a look for you but I'm the other end of the country from it at the moment!

[VR6Joni 0]

I read that also, but the problem is most defitately because the sleeve is basically attaching the bush to the subframe.

 

Any more ideas please

[Purple Tom 0]

I presume you've got the wishbone bolt itself out?

 

If so then there really shouldn't be that much holding it in to be honest. You should be able to slide the front wishbone bush out from its mounting point at the front of the subframe and pivot the wishbone itself towards the rear of the car. I don't know how you're doing it but it makes it much easier to remove the bearing carrier complete from the car when doing this. Obviously that means undoing the hub nut, unbolting the caliper, removing the disc, unbolting the bearing carrier from the strut and wishbone and then removing it from the CV joint, but it does give you a LOT more room when manouvering the wishbone out and back into position, especially when you factor in that you'll have fitted new bushes.

 

It also helps to unbolt the ARB from the wishbones on both sides of the car because you can then pivot it up and out of the way of the wishbone itself.

 

Of course, if you've done all of that then I'm not really sure what else is holding it in. It could be that the subframe has somehow deformed and is pinning the sleeve in place but I'd have thought that with a decent lever you'd be able to get it out again. If the bushes have been replaced with poly then that's got to have been done within the last 10 years so I seriously doubt that its corrosion that's taken hold, unless the car has been parked in the sea!!

 

HTH a bit.

 

Tom

[VR6Joni 0]

I think my problem is unique because the sleeve has a head on it, the head is still on the underside of the subframe, effectively pinning the bush to the subframe.

I've had to go out and buy a selection of chisels to wedge out the pin either from the bottom or lifting the bush from the subframe slightly to loosen it. Anyway we'll see how that goes this weekend.