how hot is necessary to burn out old bushings?

[Enjin]

I am in the process of replacing my old 200k mile bushings with the rsr kit.

I have a propane torch. it is hot enough that it turns green, however, maybe my technique is wrong because I am not having any luck melting out the old bushings per instruction sheet.

anyone have any tips? or would I be better off just biting the financial bullet and spending about $250 taking all of my detached suspension arms over to a shop to have them replace them?

[blueshark123]

hammer it out as well and pry it

[undesiredshoe]

Find the pyro kid down the street and he should have the necessary tools to burn those suckas!


Gasoline.

[UNISA JECS]

Map gas torch and appropriate size sockets and a hammer.

[louisdaboois]

try torching metal surrounding the bushings and the inner metal ring, just get it really hot. and they eventually start to pop out on their own. you can just get the rest of the remains with a flat head screw driver and some more heat. a small wire brush helps as well.

[Enjin]

ok cool. concerning the socket technique... how do I position it so that I can hammer it OUT, rather than INTO THE FLOOR?

maybe put it half on a table and half off? I don't really have a workshop, and no table with vice grip...

[louisdaboois]

you get a socket that fits around the outside edge of the bushing and another socket that'll catch the bushing when it falls. and simply beat the smaller socket until the bushing falls into the bigger socket.

[Enjin]

solid advice, thanks.

[devnull]

I've used things as small as a hand-held propane torch (the kind you use for soldering pipe), but a professional oxyacetylene setup makes things so much easier that it's laughable. I find that heating the bushing up from the outside burns the rubber away from the shell better, which makes cutting out the shell a lot easier.

With the little propane torch I had no choice but to burn the bushing from the middle, which still took way too much time and left me with a big mess while cutting the shells.

[ryguy]

Harbor Freight has some relatively cheap bushing presses, $100 or so for the cheap one and mid $250 for the big mofo. They have some in between too.
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=4711)

Not that that actually answers your original question.

[SexPanda]

When metal gets hot, it expands. You dont want the bearing to expand, so torch the metal around the bearings, and try to keep the bearing cool with oil or something.

Then take a BFH, beat away, say fuck it, and get a 2.2 stroker kit lol.

[180sx Fan]

i have that harbour friehgt cheap press works good did my bushing install and a friends with it now.

sex panda hes talking about bushings not bearings.

[Enjin]

hahahaha I love BFH.

found a local guy to do it for $100 so I say f it, I still have a big propane torch just laying around :-P

[racepar1]

Propane torch is fine, just let em burn!
We dont need no water let the motherfucker burn!
Seriously though lust let em burn untill the rubber starts oozing out of the bushing, then let em burn some more. The inner sleeve will literally just fall out on the ground. Then you just take a flathead screwdriver while it is still burning and scrape the leftover rubber out, a LONG screwdriver for god's sake I don't want you to burn the crap outta yourself! After that cut through the outer sleeve with a hacksaw and then knock the outer sleeve out with a punch and hammer. Don't be too worried about cutting into the arm slightly either, it won't hurt anything unless you cut like halfway through the thing.

[aNskY]

propane or map will take forever for any decent size bushings.
i did my subframe with a cutting torch (acetylene/o2) and i had the whole job done in a couple hours.

[UNISA JECS]

Mapp gass is a better choice than propane for heating up the multi-links, its much quicker, but I do agree with aNskY about the subframe (acetylene/o2) would be alot quicker than Mapp let alone propane.

Mapp gas: ~5301° F (2927° C)
Propane: ~3614° F (1990° C)

[Nikeboy355]

Buy a press or take it to a shop that has one...

I only used a torch when I was burning out the subframe bushings...

[njd07]

I used propane torch...juts gotta keep at it...takes a bit longer then acetaline torch...but owell all I had. just keep at it...try and get it to the point where its on fire burning by itself.

[drew_DST]

Wow I'm super late to the party! But I agree with those of you supporting the burning out option.

It's not neccessary or efficient to burn the rubber. All you have to do is heat the housing to break the chemical bond between the rubber and shell.

I have some detailed pictures of the process in an article I wrote about how to properly burn out suspension bushings:

http://www.aftermarketsuspensionparts.com/blog/how-to-burn-out-suspension-bushings-the-right-way/

There is also a video for anyone who doesn't like to read.

Now that it has been a few (7) years, has anyone had any negative results in this method?