Fahrwerk: Tonnenlagerwechsel ohne Spezialwerkzeug

[Erich]

Der spezielle Abzieher/Druecker ist ja sehr teuer um die sogenannten 'beer cans' zu tauschen. Hier eine clevere Idee aus den USA, man nutzt die Ausdehnungsunterschiede von kalt-warm durch vorheriges 'Einfrieren' der neuen Tonnenlager in einem Gefrierfach und Erhitzen der Buchse wie ueblich. Hat pro Seite 30-60 Minuten gedauert.
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A disclaimer first that I would not recommend this to the faint at heart, but, it did work for me....

First before you do anything, put the new bushings in the freezer. Pick a side and un-bolt the two 13mm bolts and 22mm nut from the sub-frame bushing plate/housing. I chose the side where the loudest clunking was coming from. (turns out the one piece bushing had worn away into two pieces causing the loud clunk every time I put the car into gear.)

Remove the back seat and locate the recessed hole where the sub-frame stud is pressed into. Then with a 3lb sledge I knocked the bolt out through the hole and pulled it out. (fyi: When you're whacking the bolt, put the nut on so you don't mar the threads.) I then put the car in the air and rough measured the distance the sub-frame was from the body. (unbolted it drops away from the car as it is jacked from the jacking point. The higher you jack the car up, the further away it is from the body) I cut a piece of wood a little smaller than the diameter of the busing and about 4 in long. I placed that in between the body/floorboard and the busing. I took my torch and heated the sub-frame bushing housing to soften the rubber. Place a jack-stand under the sub-frame close to the weld/housing and then slowly lower the car. The weight of the car bushing on the bushing via the wood dowel pressed that thing about half way out. I jacked the car up again and then used a longer dowel, repeated the same thing to get the bushing out the rest of the way. I was blown away it actually worked....

To replace the bushing, I used the dowel again but wedged it between the sub-frame arm and the body so that when the bushing was pressed in it would not stop short from hitting the body of the car. I took the bushing out of the freezer and put in an dilute soap/ice-water bath. I set up a jack-stand with another piece of wood directly underneath the sub-frame busing housing. The wood is larger than the diameter of the bushing. Using the torch again I heated up the sub-frame bushing housing and then took the new (cold) bushing, lined it up with the notches in the housing, set it in a bit and then lowered the car down onto the wood/jack-stand combo and that thing pressed right in. It stopped a little short of home but I just raised the car back up and put a taller piece of wood in and dropped the car back down and the bushing pressed in all the way to it's stop..... Plan and work quickly as I noticed the rubber of the bushing getting a little soft and beginning to bind a bit as the warmth of the housing thawed it out.... I was ok but I can see it being a problem if one were to wait too long.

And that's about it. Button the whole thing up and you're done with that side.

I drove the car and wow... no clunking starting and stopping, going into gear or even over bumps....

As John "Hannibal" Smith from the A-team used to say.... " I love it when a plan comes together".....

-Jason