Front Suspension

Firstly we removed the Wheels and gave everything a thorough blast with the pressure washer. There's nothing worse than working under a vehicle with dirt, mud and grease constantly falling on you.

Removing the radius Arms is very straight forward. Most of the bushes were in an OK condition, only being a couple of years old, but they were still showing signs of wear.

It is advisable to remove one Radius Arm at a time, this prevents the axle from moving too far out of position and makes re-fitting a lot easier

	This bush had been 'pinched' when it was originally installed and was rapidly failing.
	Grip the Radius Arm securely in a vice
	We Used a BushWaka tool for removing the old bushes. Professional garages sometimes use bench presses, this is the nearest equivalent for the DIY mechanic. Many publications will advocate burning out the old bushes with a blow torch and then sawing the metal shrouds to remove them. We would not recommend this.
	With the Bushwaka the old bushes are soon removed
	We then cleaned off the surface rust

the Radius Arm with the new PolyBushes in place ready for re-fitting to the vehicle.

	Next we needed to remove the old shocks and coil springs. The front shocks are held in place by a metal turret.
	You will need to move the cooling system header tank to access the Turret Cover so you can undo the bolts
	Moving the header tank gives you easy access to the turret cover
	With the cover removed you can access the bolts
	You will need two spanners; one to hold the shock and the other to undo the nut
	With the shocks removed we lowered the axle as far as possible, this will enable you to just pull the old springs out.
	The new springs were much stiffer and had to be compressed slightly to get fit them in place. If you are buying Spring Compressors make sure they are good ones and they must have as wide a claw as posible, this will spread the load better and hold the compressed spring much more securely.
	With the new spring in place, remember to locate the plate that holds the turret in place before decompressing the spring. (we forgot the first time and had to remove the spring again!)
	New spring and shock fitted and radius arm and turret cover replaced
	The old front springs werre getting pretty tatty. The lower of the two was taken from the drivers side, which probably accounted for the 2" (50mm) difference in height to the top of the wheel arches. With the new springs in place this lean was rectified. Both being 35" (89cm) from floor to the wheel arch

2. REAR SUSPENSION

3. USING A BUSHWAKA

Other Jobs: PROJECT 110 INDEX