Does anyone have a De Dion bush removal tool an Adelaide I could borrow for a weekend?
I'm interested to see what this tool looks like, in just about to do my own and I was just going to hit it out.
Use an appropriate sizes socket or get one of those cheap chinese on ebay bush removal tool sets, Colin.
So, for anyone interested in trying this, here is how I did it:
Firstly, I needed something to receive the old bush. I saw over on alfa bb someone using a hole saw. So $40 later I had a 60mm hole saw, some M8 high tesile threaded rod and some high tesile M8 nuts.
Because I was doing this with the triangle in the car (and because I did not read the manual on this procedure), I did not remove the wire clip thing on the top of the old bush. This causes a few stripped and or rounded nuts and some stretched, warped rods before the bush finally popped out. Once this happened, the rest of the removal was easy.
After I had got the old bush free, I looked at the workshop manual, which says to bend the "Stakes" and remove the metal clip. Before I put the poly bush in, I checked for said stakes, but could not find any. I guess a previous owner removed them to put a bush in.
Putting the new poly bush in was easy in comparison and took only a few minutes.
If anyone needs a big hole saw for this job, feel free to borrow mine and save yourself $30. Just dont try to make any holes with it as it is somewhat deformed.
Hmm images are crappy, and upside down, but you get the idea.
I have never used a poly bush in the de-dion and have changed heaps of them over the years on customer cars
Would like to hear some positives or negatives about them= Poly
Also wondering about the metal ring and the stakes.
How was the old metal ring secured previously.?
And yes,I have the Alfa removal + refitting tool
Perhaps I am misunderstanding the definition of "Stake".
Once the old bush was out I felt around the top rim and inside and I could not feel any lips, edges or anything that I would describe as a stake.
There was however and sharp edge on the top, front of the bush surround. Another thing to mention, is when the old bush did let go, it was with a loud bang, so perhaps I broke the stakes off?
In any case, they needed to be removed to use the poly bush as I understand it.
Putting poly on the Watts link was one of the first things I did after the shocks. Firms up the feel of the back no end - definitely worth it I think.