Installing Urethane Bushings

Hey Group!

Can anyone tell me what to expect when installing Urethane Bushings in my 1969 Front beam? I got a complete bushing kit from Bugpack which includes a single, long bushing for the top trailing arm, and a pair of shorter ones (inner and outer) for the bottom arm. They are different ID's top and bottom, so you can't mix them up. I also started with a new, naked beam and used the torsion bars, trailing arms and so forth from the original 1969 bug. The top bushings went in just fine, but I can't get the bottom inner ones all the way in. There appears to be a bushing stop in there about 5 1/2 inches from the outside end of the tube, which would line up with the back of the bushing once installed, but when I place the bushing on the trailing arm tube and push it in it seems to be stopping about an inch before it gets to the stop.

How are these inner bushings supposed to be installed? Do you just slip them onto the trailing arm and push it in? I tried that, and it won't run home. The torsion bars are installed, so I'm working around them, too. I could try pushing the bushing home with a piece of pipe, but I don't know if it would be such a compression fit that the trailing arm tube won't then fit into it. I've also tried assembling the arm without bushings, and it slides right in, allowing me to align the individual bars in the hole in the arm and then everything seats.

Help, Please!

Thanks, Gordon

Gordon: The bushing is probably hitting the grease nipple, which is screwed into the front of the beam. Unscrew the nipples and the bushings should slide right past. Another possibility is that you haven

Thanks, Bruce - Your info is just what I was looking for, and this is a little more involved than I thought.
It's an OEM bare beam that never had bearings/bushings installed before. I had a set of Urethanes in there, but didn't know about the inner bushing on the lower arm until after I was on the road. I found that the grease nipples were swaged in, not threaded (!) so I pulled them out and the bushing still seems to be catching on the hole - must have a burr edge (you can see the scratches in the bushing where it hits).

Next step is to use a rat-tail file in there to try to get the burr out. I'm also thinking about turning the OD of the bushing slightly to reduce it enough to slide in. The ID's seem to be OK, and I'm afraid that if I hammer it in as-is with a piece of pipe it'll compress the ID enough to be too tight. You're right about reaming them once installed - that's the best way to go, but I'll need to find a reamer.

Might be easier, since it's the OD that's giving me problems, to get the burr out, then, if necessary, to reduce the outside diameter of the bushing enough to press it in nicely. There's a bushing stop in there, peened in place at about 5 1/2 inches from the end of the tube - right where the far inside end of the bushing wants to be.

OK, I'm off to do some filing, some pressing and some cussing.....should have these done in a day or so!!

Thanks.......Gordon

Gordon: Rather than filing down the bur you maybe able to drill and tap a larger hole for a threaded grease nipple. With a sharp bit you shouldn

How about a propane torch with a wide flame to heat the tube while the bushing is in the Freezer or packed in some dry ice? I know the metal will expand, but I don't know if the urethane will contract. I have used this method before with interference fits. Remember, be safe. And no matter what you do, good luck.

Bruce and Dale.......great info and was a great help.

Dale: I remember as a kid helping my father put new cylinder sleeves into his 1945 Ferguson (Ford) farm tractor by training blowtorches on the block for an hour or so, while leaving the cylinder sleeves in the freezer over night. My dad then pulled a sleeve from the freezer, quickly ran to the tractor and slipped the sleeve into the red hot block, working opposite ends to minimize cross heating/cooling. I chose not to try that route on this job, since we're dealing with plastic that would have, at the very least, distorted from the heat.

Instead, I found that the urethanes I removed, even though they only had about three months use, were REALLY loose, as Bruce found with his trial-and-error of a couple of sets. I suspect they were loose to start with, and I can't remember where I got them. My new bushing set came from Bugpack and those were a smooth fit on the bench, and a reasonably tight fit installed. I found that what I thought was a bushing stop within the tube turned out to be (Surprise!) a factory installed bushing (I bet Bruce already suspected this) so I mic'd the ID of the bushing with a small engine cylinder gauge, and it matched up nicely with the OD of the trailing arm tube (almost an interference fit) - Remember, this was a new, bare OEM beam when I started.

So I decided to use the existing, installed, inner metal bushings, and then installed the new, tighter outer urethanes, centered everything up to the specs in my Haynes manual (Haven't got a Bentley yet!) and found that there is no detectable play anywhere (as best you can jiggle things once assembled). I believe that much of this was luck in getting a set of urethanes that seemed to fit, and I firmly believe that the best way to go would be to get a really tight set and then ream them to fit, but no one that I know of has a cheap or easy way to do this AND make sure they're aligned properly - maybe there is a business opportunity there, but how many of these might sell in a year ??

Now that's done, I can move on to stitching up a new 1/4 tonneau and a small host of other "Winter" projects.

Thanks to all, especially Bruce, for the info.

Gordon