Poly bushes, what can possibly go wrong!

[spannermedonky]

OK chaps, bit of a job gone pear shaped here.

The offending vehicle is a 2005 XC70 2.5T.

Had an MOT advise last year that the wishbone bushes were starting to show signs of movement, excellent I think, an excuse to fit those poly bushes that I bought some time ago in anticipation, I even obtained a couple of pins so were ready to slide in. I poly bushed the whole suspension of my yank truck some 15 years ago and apart from the odd squeak they have been trouble free.

Had a look on the interweb and I see someone showing how to just unbolt the leg of the wishbone containing the offending bush, extracting the old bush with a bit of drilling and twisting and using a g-clamp to press the new one in….looks simple enough, what could possibly go wrong, should be done and dusted by lunch time……

Things started looking less than encouraging when I managed to extract the pin from the bush and it became obvious that this was a bonded in bush…gulp. OK, I’ve got to burn the remains of the old bush out, should I do it in situ or take the wishbone out, probably best to set fire to it well away from the car so wrestled the wishbone out and spent an hour or so burning and scraping.

The new bush refused to be pushed into the bore, I tried a jubilee clip, nah…tried screwdrivers to encourage it…no chance, took the pin out and pushed the bush in and then the pin, the bush was clearly a couple of mm too big a diameter but it was in, there would be no play, the pin rotated nicely and would not be dangerous so as time was now getting on would have to just get it on the car.

After an hour of wrestling the offending bone back into the car, I finally had it bolted back in…..then realised as I had not intended to do so much dismantling I had not removed the drive shaft bolt, nagging doubts started to appear as to the state of the drive shaft, I have heard so many stories of these shafts disintegrating after they have been stretched. Nothing for it I will have to take it out and check.

The drive shaft did not want to part company with the gearbox, I broke my best levering screwdriver but eventually it gave in and popped out. It felt fine, do I chance it….no better take it apart. Managing to unclip the bands I checked the tripot end…fine, I figured it would be worth checking the CV end as at one point the steering was at a very hard angle, through the grease I felt and made sure every ball bearing was in its rightful place then reattached the bands, next time the shaft is out I will replace these with new ones.

Hope I’m not losing you yet…I think war and peace was shorter than this….

Last bit was to lever the wishbone down to engage the ballpoint, at which point BANG, the several wraps of wire I used to lash the angle iron bat to the wishbone snapped, the wishbone sprang back up and I fell head first into the wheel arch banging my head. I can’t remember the exact turn of phrase I used but the dog ran off and hid indoors and through my dazed state I could see the twitching of various curtains.

So its all back together but I’m now sporting a torn ball joint boot, a lump on the head and a bush with a less than perfect fit. I think either there is a second metal sheath still in the bore of the wishbone or there is still remnants of the old rubber left or the bushes just won’t work with an XC70.

I think the bushes were for an S60 witch I thought were the same as an V70 witch again I THOUGHT were the same as an XC……They were the expensive purple ones.

The ball joints were both new, I paid the main dealer a fortune to change them due to my paranoia of the local garage damaging the drive shafts by not undoing the driveshaft bolts, they are only a few thousand miles old. I don’t suppose the boots are available separately are they??

I feel a phone call to Rufe coming up for a pair of OEM wishbones, then a sheepish call to the local garage who have the benefit of a ramp and several pairs of hands and a bit more sense.

I love this car but by eck does she put up a fight if she sees me approaching with a spanner in my hand!

[Baxlin]

Every sympathy, I had an MOT advisory on the 3wheeler that a steering rack gaiter was split. It was as cheap to buy the pair, so I bought both.

Replacing the split one was went as straightforwardly as you could get, so I decided to do the other side, even though there was no sign of the gaiter deteriorating. Wrong decision.

Of course I damaged it undoing it, which meant I had to replace it. Could I split the taper joint? In a word, no. If I was Edd China, I'd just hit both sides simultaneously with two hammers, and it would split, but not even with the splitter I had, nor with the wedge style one I had to buy would it budge.

Copious soakings with penetrating oil left overnight, and it finally moved, but a totally unnecessary job that should have taken a half hour max took several hours over two sessions, and the expense of an extra tool.

Moral, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Georgeandkira]

I have never seen dimensions of bushes listed anywhere. Having them would help.
I also think axles are more robust than horror scenarios would lead us to believe, though it is smart to handle anything carefully.

[RichT4]

I share your pain, my original wishbone bushes needed changing, so I bought some replacements.
No matter what I tried, these bushes would not shift out of the wishbone. After much hammering and burning, I gave up and took them down to the garage to get pressed out; something they did with ease!

The moment they pressed into the wishbone, they snapped!

[spannermedonky]

OK bit of an update, had a trawl through VIDA last night and found the OEM bushes for the S60 have the same part number as those for a 2005 XC70, so it kind of stands to reason the dimensions are the same so they ought to fit.

I think there must still be a steel shell in the bore of the wishbone making the new bush a tight fit even though at the time I couldn’t see it.

As I need to now change the ball joint it might make sense to take the steering knuckle off and fit the new one on the bench, I’ve changed one of these before when the car was on jacks and struggled to get room to swing the hammer. I might fab up an installing tool as well, to make things run smoother or buy the Skandix one and sell it on after. Once the knuckle is out of the way it should be much easier to remove / replace the wishbone.

I really don’t want to pay the main dealer £150 to change the ball joint.

So wish I did all this in the summer when the weather was better and not a few weeks before the MOT!

[spannermedonky]

Morning all.

Not sure if anyone has been following this but here is the final update of the great poly bush saga.

I bit the bullet and took the car to my local garage who had the benefit of a lift, extra hands and a roof overhead. They put the car up on the ramp so I could show them the offending bush. They seemed quite interested in the job and suggested as they had to change the ball joint they may as well change both at the same time to some heavy duty items so I left the car with them and toddled off home.

Many hours past then late in the afternoon they rang to say the car was ready, apparently it was a bit of a pig of a job.

I arrived at the garage and in the distance saw the mechanic pushing his tool chest across the yard, he looked like a broken man! I didn’t get to talk to him but according to his mates he spent many hours in the corner with a die grinder removing the remains of the old bush. I’m not sure if there was still a sleeve in there or just rubber but the bushes now fit perfectly and the new ball joints have a 3 year warrantee, just the job for driving around the broken roads of Sheffield.

The handing over broken roads is far better, the car goes in a straight line with no twitching or kicking, I can’t say that I have noticed any increase in noise or harshness, although I have a stainless exhaust and poly engine top mount which probably mask any increase in noise, very pleased with the result though even though it cost over 200 quid. If they need changing in the future this should be a straight forward job now. Together with the Ipd roll bars the car handles very well indeed.

A little snippet of information I picked up was regarding the inner CV boot that had deformed inwards and refused to take its proper shape, apparently it was down to vacuum inside the boot, a simple prick pushed under the rubber let some air inside and the boot popped back into shape!

I do have a pair of scrap yard wishbones up for grabs now that I bought in case the bushes didn’t fit, they aren’t genuine Volvo units but seem to be in reasonable condition.

[Minormatt]

I snapped a wishbone pressing a new polybush in at the weekend... it would just not go

[JGTTDI]

Glad you got it sorted. Nothing worse than starting a job that should be easy and it turning into a nightmare.

[wise old monkey]

Originally Posted by spannermedonky

Morning all.

Not sure if anyone has been following this but here is the final update of the great poly bush saga.

I bit the bullet and took the car to my local garage who had the benefit of a lift, extra hands and a roof overhead. They put the car up on the ramp so I could show them the offending bush. They seemed quite interested in the job and suggested as they had to change the ball joint they may as well change both at the same time to some heavy duty items so I left the car with them and toddled off home.

Many hours past then late in the afternoon they rang to say the car was ready, apparently it was a bit of a pig of a job.

I arrived at the garage and in the distance saw the mechanic pushing his tool chest across the yard, he looked like a broken man! I didn’t get to talk to him but according to his mates he spent many hours in the corner with a die grinder removing the remains of the old bush. I’m not sure if there was still a sleeve in there or just rubber but the bushes now fit perfectly and the new ball joints have a 3 year warrantee, just the job for driving around the broken roads of Sheffield.

The handing over broken roads is far better, the car goes in a straight line with no twitching or kicking, I can’t say that I have noticed any increase in noise or harshness, although I have a stainless exhaust and poly engine top mount which probably mask any increase in noise, very pleased with the result though even though it cost over 200 quid. If they need changing in the future this should be a straight forward job now. Together with the Ipd roll bars the car handles very well indeed.

A little snippet of information I picked up was regarding the inner CV boot that had deformed inwards and refused to take its proper shape, apparently it was down to vacuum inside the boot, a simple prick pushed under the rubber let some air inside and the boot popped back into shape!

I do have a pair of scrap yard wishbones up for grabs now that I bought in case the bushes didn’t fit, they aren’t genuine Volvo units but seem to be in reasonable condition.

form the picture of the purple polybush theres no metal sleeve, what have they done with it, did you give them one

[wise old monkey]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Powerflex-...QAAOSwnHZYUciC

as you can see on these there is a sleeve, which yours does not appear to have