Front Wishbone Rear Bush Nut Size
 

Chaps,

Incredibly specific question. I need to change both of my front wishbone rear bushes because the front of the car currently sounds like someone's kicking it every time I brake.

I'm pretty confident I can get the brackets off the car with a socket and breaker bar/rattle gun but, before I crack on, I was wondering if anyone knows the size of the nut holding the rear bush on to the wishbone? I've got a 12v rattle gun with only a small selection of sockets so I want to make sure I've got the right socket if I need to buy one before taking it all apart, swearing profusely, and putting it all back together again.

Cheers

Alex

usually 19mm, but some later ones can be 18mm.
access fiddly, easier if the three 14mm that hold the bracket are slackened first.
The bush sleeve can sometimes corrode onto the wishbone, use a pair of stillsons to budge it
Hope this helps,
Jim

heckflosse, thanks very much for the reply.

I hadn't realised there was access with the bracket on (I don't like poking around the car when it's parked on the road) so I'll get a spanner on and see what fits, thats very much for the guidance though.

Updates on the way!

Alex

There's got to be for when you re-assemble. Bolt everything together but leave the nut loose, lower the jack so that the car is sitting on its suspension, then tighten the nut (and the bolt through the front bush)

A word of warning from bitter experience - don't just apply brute force to the three bolts holding the bracket to the chassis. I ripped the threads in the captive nuts doing that. Squirt penetrating oil inside the box section, then ease the bolts very carefully backwards and forwards until you are sure thay are going to unscrew.

A common finding is that the big bush pressed into the wishbone won't stay firmly, and turns the first time the suspension moves to its full extent.
You may need a new wishbone, or put spot welds between the bush outer sleeve and the wishbone.

Clifford,

Thanks for the sound advice, that's not how I was planning to do it at all but makes a lot of sense!

Just waiting for the bushes to arrive from ClassicSwede then I'll crack on and report back. Fingers crossed the wishbone is sound but judging by the state of the roads on the Isle of Wight I wouldnt be suprised if it's not.

Cheers

Alex

You were going to tighten the nut before re-assembly while you had the wishbone and the bush off the car?
I don't think that's advisable, because as with all suspension components, you need it tightened up in the normal riding position, because otherwise there will be a permanent twist on the bushes and they will fail.

Also I don't think it's possible, because once tightened onto the wishbone shaft I doubt you would be able to twist the bracket into alignment with the holes.
In the past I've managed it on the car using a mixture of sockets, ring spanner and open-ended spanner. It was very slow, half a flat at a time by swapping tools. Perhaps a better socket type would have worked better.

I also vaguely recollect that the offside was especially hard to get at - maybe I ended up removing the exhaust downpipe?

I was going to add that probably you can at least remove the two components still bolted together, if you adjust the suspension height to take the strain off the bolts while you undo them. But I have a feeling I found that the bracket fouled the bodywork as I tried to jiggle the wishbone out.

Thanks for your advice Clifford. Perhaps my set of ratchet spanners will come in handy? I must confess a total and complete ignorance to everything suspension related since I've only ever had to replace the bottom ball joints so I'll approach this job gingerly and see where I end up.

I won't get a chance to do this until Thursday now but I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Alex

So this was an interesting job! Some notes:

- Bolts on the chassis bracket are 14mm, lots of penetrating fluid and they'll come out
- Should have enough access to the nut on the wishbone to have that off but: the nut on the wishbone is 18mm. Which socket don't I have in my pansy socket set? 18mm. If you havent got one, get one, or this just wont happen. I must've tried for an hour with various imperial sockets and spanners and ratchet spanners but no, nope, nada. Reassembly and a trip to toolstation were required but after that it came apart a treat.
- Pressing the old bushing out also wasnt happening. Again, another hour wasted with a vice and various socket combinations trying to press the b*stard thing out but it just had too much flex in it to go so I had to resort to WD40, tissue paper and a lighter. Not my method of choice but it did the trick.
- Poly bush pressed in nicely after a quick clean up on the surface with a wire brush and some grease.
- Reassembly was quick and easy with the help of copper grease on every thread in sight. I definitely didnt get enough torque on the nut on the wishbone since I can hear the bush squeaking but, at this point, it was 10pm and since I'm not driving the car this weekend fully torquing can wait until I've got the car apart on Monday evening to do the passenger side.

And yes, that exhaust down pipe really doesn't help matters at all!

More fun to come,

Alex

Poly bushes and squeaks are often annoying bedfellows. Did some blue(?) grease come with the kit? Use generously when fitting.

No blue grease with the kit Derek, I'm hoping it'll become much less pronounced once I get some proper torque in the nuts.

I'm doing the other side tonight and I should have access to some ramps to get under the car to torque the nuts in their loaded positions so hopefully that'll have it sorted. Wish me luck!

Alex