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Sat Nov 03, 2018 10:43 am

Greetings everyone.

2 questions

1. How have you removed the inner bushings from a front beam?

I have a slide hammer with a hook but it’s not going very fast.

Didn’t know if anyone had any tricks to getting them out.

2. Do the replacement bushings from the Thing shop have to be reamed to fit the control arms correctly?

I realize that some of this topic has been covered but I can not seem to find it on the Samba anywhere.

Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:27 pm

So here is what I found with getting them out.

I bought some 5/8” washers and smaller washers down to 3/8”.

The 5/8” washers had an od of 1 3/4”.

That happen to be the same size of the replacement bushings from the Thing shop.

I cut about 1/4” of 2 sides of the washer.

This would allow it to slip by the inner part of the bushing.

I also bought a 3/8” 36” threaded rod.

On the rod I put a nut

Slipped washer down along with some 3/8” washers to support on the rod.

Slipped the cut washer with the rod in the middle of it through the old bushing.

Then put on some larger washers on the outside of the beam and started tightening a nut to pull the cut washer up and hopefully bringing the bushing out with it.

It worked but the washer bent a bit.

So I welded 2 washers together with the sides cut off and did the rsst of the beam.

I am planning on doing the same process to pull the new bushings using an uncut washer and pulling from the other side.

Note- pull out the grease fittings the old bushings will hit them giving a bit of a snag.

Also the original bushing is 2 parts.
Metal sleeve inside a fiberous plastic piece.

If the metal sleeve comes out you can then use a long screwdriver to break up the plastic sleeve and then pull out all the pieces.

The thing shops replacement bushings are one piece and both parts will have to come out.

Sun Nov 04, 2018 4:25 pm

Metal portion separated from the plastic portion and metal and plastic portion still intact.

Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:44 am

I took my front beam in for powder coating, and believe I must have baked this along with my needle bearings when it was in the oven. Considering this is a 16 year old post, is there anything new I need to know in terms of getting the old one out, and a new one in?

I am hoping that I can keep my needle bearings in place and just grease them up. Do I need to take the needle bearings out in order to extract this plastic bushing piece?