Installed Urethane Leaf Spring Bushings
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Junior User
Joined: May 2004
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From: Tucson
Installed Urethane Leaf Spring Bushings
I just did the bushings on the leaf springs/shackles of my 91' F-150.
Even after reading posts about how hard it is to remove old bushings, I had no clue it would be so much work.
I had an idea I haven't yet seen anywhere else that seemed to work pretty well... I used a $3.00 key hole saw kit from Harbor Freight. Thing that sucks is I broke two craftsman drill bits doing this and didn't put any wear on the 3.00 Harbor Freight keyhole saw. Guess its the same reason why a $300 pair of carefully handled prescription glasses break so easy and a $5.00 pair of cheap sunglasses that gets abused will last forever.
I know there are lots of ways to get the old ones out. If I were Thomas Edison I'd tell you I invented atleast 5 new ways not to get them out before I though of the keyhole saw.
What I ended up doing:
1. I took a 3/4" diameter or so drill saw to the molded rubber between the outer / inner sleeve. My truck is a 91 so the bushings pretty much turned to power as the keyhole teeth touched it. The saw/bit I used only went like 1" deep on each side. This left somewhere aorund 3/4 still stuck on the center of the leaf eye holes. I made sure to change the angle of the drill in a circular motion to ream out as much rubber as I could. I would only try this with a large drill. It bogged down my 1/2" Craftsman pretty good.
2. I took a 1/8" drill bit and in the remaining rubber deep in the eye of the leaf, I drilled about 5 holes (from each side). After I drilled the holes I let the drill guide itsself around between the sleeves until rubber powder stopped coming out.
3. I sprayed penetrating oil from each side into the holes I'd drilled
4. I took a vice grip to the center sleeve and twisted it out. When I first started moving it back and forth I could hear rubber fiber inside breaking loose and ripping.
I'll definately use this method again.
Even after reading posts about how hard it is to remove old bushings, I had no clue it would be so much work.
I had an idea I haven't yet seen anywhere else that seemed to work pretty well... I used a $3.00 key hole saw kit from Harbor Freight. Thing that sucks is I broke two craftsman drill bits doing this and didn't put any wear on the 3.00 Harbor Freight keyhole saw. Guess its the same reason why a $300 pair of carefully handled prescription glasses break so easy and a $5.00 pair of cheap sunglasses that gets abused will last forever.
I know there are lots of ways to get the old ones out. If I were Thomas Edison I'd tell you I invented atleast 5 new ways not to get them out before I though of the keyhole saw.
What I ended up doing:
1. I took a 3/4" diameter or so drill saw to the molded rubber between the outer / inner sleeve. My truck is a 91 so the bushings pretty much turned to power as the keyhole teeth touched it. The saw/bit I used only went like 1" deep on each side. This left somewhere aorund 3/4 still stuck on the center of the leaf eye holes. I made sure to change the angle of the drill in a circular motion to ream out as much rubber as I could. I would only try this with a large drill. It bogged down my 1/2" Craftsman pretty good.
2. I took a 1/8" drill bit and in the remaining rubber deep in the eye of the leaf, I drilled about 5 holes (from each side). After I drilled the holes I let the drill guide itsself around between the sleeves until rubber powder stopped coming out.
3. I sprayed penetrating oil from each side into the holes I'd drilled
4. I took a vice grip to the center sleeve and twisted it out. When I first started moving it back and forth I could hear rubber fiber inside breaking loose and ripping.
I'll definately use this method again.
