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Steering Bushings Removal


dvdriz

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What is your tool of choice to remove the steering bushings on a Legacy? Mine are tight and will not come out with a punch.  It’s number 30 on this diagram  

 

 

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Edited by dvdriz
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For the Sovereign, which is similar, I use a piece of heavy wall steel tubing that fits through the bushing and cock it so the edge of the tubing contacts the bushing and pound away.  For the lower bushing, I pound on the tubing end while the axle is supported from below.  For the upper bushing, I chock up from the floor to the bottom of the steel tubing and pound on the axle (axle free to rotate down). 

I've found the rounded tubing contacts more of the bushing and persuades  the bushing to come out.  

PS - to inset them, I use a long heavy bolt/nut (1/2" dia if memory serves) with heavy washers and "press" them.

 

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I've never replaced these, but if all else fails, in a situation like this, I would cut them out with a hacksaw blade or rotary tool. Get them closet to cut, then work them with a very small chisel. I've done this enough that I have a small center punch ground just so. I'm usually working on a female pipe thread that had something broken off in it.

Edited by kwt
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On the large frames I have done I did not remove the old bushings.  Just pressed the new ones in from top and bottom.

As long as the grease fitting was not covered figured it would be Ok.

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While you are wrestling the old bushings out, throw the new ones in the freezer (overnight is even better). They will contract and go back in easier. In replacing LARGE bushings in cranes, we soaked them in liquid nitrogen. A bit of overkill for your job, though. If the project gets that difficult, put a metal cutting blade in a jigsaw and cut slots in the old bushings 180 degrees from each other and punch them out. You should be able to get them out with the heavy walled tubing, though.

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The colder the better.  If you have a deep freeze, us it.  Usually set at our about zero degrees.  If you can heat up the axle, more's the better.  Maybe a heat lamp.  A torch would work, but then you may weaken the axle.  We did this in a manufacturing situation.  The inner part went into a FORTY BELOW freezer, the outer part into an oven at about 700 degrees.   At room temperature, the hole was a few thousandths smaller than the shaft which went on the into it, i.e. No-Go.  But at assembly, properly temperatured, the parts were a slip fit.  You have to do this fast, as the parts equalize in temperature quickly.  Once assembled, the parts wouldn't come apart for love nor money.  Unless your freezer is in the shop, consider placing the frozen bushings in a cooler or insulated lunch bag, also left over night in the freezer so as to be cold on the inside, to transport the bushings to your work area immediately before assembly. Handle the bushings with gloves to prevent your body temperature transferring to the bushings.

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If you have a friend with a metal lathe, he can turn a bushing driver which has a pilot ID slightly smaller than the bushing ID and an OD slightly smaller than the bushing OD.  Lacking this a socket can often be found that is slightly smaller than the bushing OD.  

Tom

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