Torching out spring bushings with a propane torch is possible

[dremu]

but just about as slow as drilling them out. It's less work, though, doesn't kill drill bits, and is fun, cuz you get to play with FIRE!

<Beavis>
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!
</Beavis>

This does however leave burnt rubber crapp all over my driveway. I hope it rains soon

Anyway, it's good news for those of us without oxy/acetylene torches.

I'm cleaning up my set of 56"s to put into the rear ... still gotta pull the center pin and sandblast them. Thankfully the 52"s I'm gonna use up front are my current rears so they at least have nice new ORD greasable bushings.

-- A

 

[79k20350]

if you use mapp gas its a lil quicker (it burns hotter) but fire is fun aint it?

 

[k20]

yeh fire is fun, my driveway(4 years later) still has a little discoloration. O well, no great loss, the rest of it is trash haha.

 

[zeroz400]

When i was removing the bushings outta my springs the torch didnt do that good of a job, was kinda slow. On one of the springs i would burn out what i could and air hammer the inner sleeve out. The other spring i put a rotozip on the die grinder and it worked like a drill bit but i could move it around and made quick work of the bushings. The i took a flat air hammer bit and pushed/cut into the outer sleeve, air tools make everything easier

 

[diesel4me]

If your lucky..

A few times I got lucky and removed old spring eye bushings with 2 sockets and a piece of 1/2" threaded rod..much the same way you use 2 sockets to remove a u-joint..bigger one on one side,the smaller one pushes it thru when you tighten the nuts..an air impact gun works the best,but wear goggles,I had one socket grenade on me doing this..washers between the nut and sockets are a good idea..

Sometimes only the inner sleeve and rubber guts come out--but its easy to chisel the outer shell and cave it in so it will drop out..

Propane must be awful slow--betcha need 2 bottles!..I tried putting one spring's "eyes" in a roaring wood stove at the junkyard to burn the bushings out--it worked great,but the springs"eye" turned red too!--and we were always leery of it being brittle or weak after that..never broke it though...

 

[dremu]

Propane must be awful slow--betcha need 2 bottles!..I tried putting one spring's "eyes" in a roaring wood stove at the junkyard to burn the bushings out--it worked great,but the springs"eye" turned red too!--and we were always leery of it being brittle or weak after that..never broke it though...

LOL!

Actually, no, only took me part of the one bottle ... I got the technique down to heating the bushing up enough where it caught fire, then sitting and watching it burn itself out. Smells nasty, but what the heck. What the ARB abd BAAQMD don't know won't hurt me =)) [Kalifornia joke for the locals!]

-- A

 

[cybrfire]

Use an oxy acetylene to melt the inner sleeve. By the time that is metaling the rubber bushing is really on fire and melting as well. Let it burn a couple minutes and it will fall out by itself.

 

[mrk5]

I just replaced the rubbers that came in a new set of springs with greasable poly bushings. I tried several methods on the first one, and settled on a hole saw a little bigger than the inner sleeve. After the first one, I was able to get it down to 15min per bushing.

 

[danny7139]

Drilled holes in the rubber part then used a air hammer to knock the inner sleeve out. Took a flat air hammer bit and caved in the outer sleeve till it fell out. About 7 mins, then cleaned the eye up with a flat head screw driver and drill wire brush

 

[dave_90_blazer]

Use an oxy acetylene to melt the inner sleeve. By the time that is metaling the rubber bushing is really on fire and melting as well. Let it burn a couple minutes and it will fall out by itself.

thats how I do it

 

[1-ton]

I remember back when I was a heavy duty-deisel mechanic, I would use oxy acetylen with a cutting head torch, and heat up just the inner sleeve itself. The rubber around it would expand so fast that it would shoot out the inner sleeve out like a rocket . I would piont it out into the storage yard, and that sucker would go flying about 200 Ft. It took all of about 2 minutes per bushing.