Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

In the process of polybushing the complete rear of my focus. I dropped the sub frame off so i can work on it easier. So far i have had a nightmare, 4 bushes completely knackered, the metal inserts ripped out the bush leaving you with a spinning bolt held in by the metal bush inner piece. On one of the bushes i actually managed to strip the thread from the nut that is welded to the rear knuckle. These look like £150 new each and the way things are going i will end up stripping the other. Whats the fix, can i just get a new nut welded on? What nut do i need
Thank

Never ever ever am i going to do this again, the front end was easy the rear a fooking nightmare

daviddunlop83

iTrader: (7)

I have lowered a few focus's and they all seem to rust and bolts are impossible to get out of the rear subframe for some reason. My 20 year old cosworth ones came out easier.

The nut is only really welded on to make it easier to loosen/tighten so you dont need to hold both ends. So i dont see why you cant just get a new one and if you can get access dont even weld it on, if not just tack the new nut on. No idea on the thread size tho.

H3lsing

Sounds like a nightmare alright. I was only examining the rear of mine whilst I had the rear of the car in the air. The bushes looked fairly perished.

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

My focus is a 53 plate with only 55'000 on and the bushes are totally knackered on the back, i think there is going to be a massive improvment once its all back together. Last MOT it was flagged up that i needed to change a bolt on the rear trailing arm as it was rounded which was the start of this nightmare, i thought if i take off the sub i may as well do a propper job and do ALL the bushes. Its a twat of a job. If the nut does not need to be tacked in place then i may leave it i just have a funny feeling that i will never be able to get to the bolt once its on the car so i better get friendly with someone who has a mig welder

phil_focus

i'd just chop the nackered nut off mate and if you really want to weld a replacement on (when you find one) then weld it on with everything bolted in place so its in the right possition but off the car so you have access.

keep this thread updated cos i really wanna know how this goes and how it feels afterwards. what springs and shocks you got?? i hope its not too harsh for daily driver use.

i really wanna do mine too as my w reg with 103k got the trailing arm bushes flagged a few weeks ago on mot and if i'm gonna change them then i'm doin the whole lot as the rest are perished too.

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

Standard shocks but with Eibach springs. Im looking to upgrade to eibach shocks in the near future though. I just been out and bought some new cutting disks for my grinder so the bushes are going to get it at the weekend. I have decided to strip out all the bushes and carriers for them as thats easy but get my local garage to push the bushes back in for me

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

Took a major step forward today and ordered my very own 12TON hydraulic press for the garage!!! There aint no stopping now

phil_focus

fook me i didnt think they all need pressing in!! and i swear i've read someone else doing this just used a vice for the ones that did.

oh well, i cant afford a press so looks like i'll have fun when i do it

do have an old bottle jack though so i might design a rig that can amplify its power if i need it.

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

i have managed to remove two of the bush metal outer casings by heating them up till red hot with the blow torch and then hammering them out, the problem i can see is getting the new ones back in without damaging the metal outer casing. I have a big old bench vice and i gave up after an hour of trying. I like an easy life so the press was only £99 delivered and it means i can do my wheel bearings also now so happy days. Im taking photos as i go along so i will do a guide or something once complete. The longest process is cleaning up and painting the parts so they are like new

phil_focus

clean up is by far the longest process. i'f i've got the money and space when i come to do this i may well buy a press but £99 almost seems too cheap. hmm.

could you do some close up pics of the bushes aswell please and where you've got them from? i heve heard people just burning out the old rubber and retaining the old metal casings and not using the new ones but that may just be the upper trailing arm bushes and i dont know how the new bushes come!

hope it dont take you too long to finish off, i'm looking forward to the write up 8)

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

IM still taking pictures as i go along. All bushes are now removed. Almost cut my finger off with the angle grinder in the process and had to chop the lower bottom arms into little pieces to get the bolts undone which cost me a whole load of money to replace the arms.
Before i had the press i used hammers, blowtorches, hacksaws, jigsaws, a bench vice, drill and chisel to remove the first few bushes. It took me a complete 10hours to remove just one!! With the press i did them all in an hour. The hardest thing i found with the press is finding a suitable socket or what ever to drive out the old bushes, i used a diesel injector socket which was perfect for 90% of them in the end.
Bushes are Prothane bushes from CFM in Florida. You have to push out all the outer casings as the new bushes are sized to their new casing. The only one you DONT remove is the rear trailing arm outer case. You have to reuse the case and the central metal rod. Clean up is in progress. Go to collect a few more new shiny bolts from ford borrow a mig welder to tack on the nuts i destroyed and then i can put it back together again.

These are the Complete set of Rear bushes
I Used Powerflex on the front





Caught my finger on the grinder as i was putting it down, could have been allot worse, i was lucky me thinks. Really throbbing today!!

phil_focus

ah didnt know that about the bushes cheers for the info. i think i will have to invest in a press if/when i do mine.

how do you do the rear bushes on the front arms? i thought they were bolted on but when i had to replace my arms due to the ball joints goin i noticed they aint bolted!!

out that finger looks bad! i did a similar thing with hedge cutters. the got stuck so i grabbed the blade to yank it free and caught the power button on a brach ripping my finger wind open....was a right mess as it ripped the flesh not just cut it! am very lucky i didnt lose the use of the finger and i'll i'm left with is a weird lookin scar!

Sp3no

iTrader: (1)

If your talking about the front wishbones then the rear bush is one of the more difficult to remove, i purchased brand new arms with new balljoints and new bushes and hacked the bushes out lol. The rear one is pressed into the bracket with the two bolts and then this whole lot is then pressed onto a metal pin that runs through the middle, dont worry about it coming off it wont. I dealt with thsi one by drilling through the rubber bush, stuck a jigsaw into the hole and cut round the bush. This left me with the a metal inner pressed over the pin and a bush with outer casing pressed into the bracket. You press the bush and casing out with a press and then i used a dremel with cut off wheel to cut the inner sleeve off the pin. Took fooking ages to come up with a solution to remove lol

phil_focus

ah i see. yeah, i've got new wishbones on front as ball joints were knackered so i'm leavin them till last and will prob do them when i have to do the rack as the clicking on my rack is not getting worse

still its not a hard job, just another £100!!!!