Club 80-90 Forums

MOT coming up soon and ive noticed these are split, are they easy to replace?

When replaced will this improve the handling?

Easy, but watch the drop-links dont break undoing the nut at the base... there are of course several sets of rubber bushes in the arb system. The ones on the bottom of the drop link attachments to the lower wishbones are the usual ones that are changed, called damping rings by VW, GSF do them

handling change? I doubt it wll change anything much unless the whole arb system is shot

Worth changing all the bushes.. handling WILL be different then... it all adds up.. even std rubber ones make a hell of a difference, or consider the uprated ones from Brickwerks.

Are you writing about the bushes that hold the anti roll bar to the chassis? If you are, then there is one split in each of them because that is the way you get them on the roll bar.

You may not need to worry. As long as there is no loose movement between the bar and the chassis you should be okay.

no they are the bushes that hold the anti-roll bar connecting link to raduius rod mounting (text from haynes manual)

Get some Powerflex ones from Baxter worth the extra dosh

Hi

I've hijacked/resurrected this thread as it's the nearest I've found to the problem I have - at least it has the same heading I would have used if I were starting a new one!

My Anti roll bar bushes have been an advisary on the mot for the last couple of years. So, boxing clever I decided that I'd get the job done before this year's, and boy am I regretting it now!

So, can anyone tell me how you get the upper round bushes into the round hole at the top of the drop link things and then onto the anti roll bar?
It's easy enough to get the bushes into the hole on the drop link thing or onto the bar, but whichever way I start I can't then get the next bit on/in i.e. if the bush is in the drop link thing it won't go over the end of the anti roll bar, and if it's on the bar firstI can't get the drop link bit over the ridge around the bush!

Please tell me there's a 'knack' to this and I'm not going to have to go ask my local garage to fix my mess!

Aside from the embarrassment factor I was trying to save myself a bit of money by doing what appeared to be an 'easy' job myself

I hope this makes sense

Cheers

Melvin

Rubber grease or brake fluid or plain soapy water... put bush n the drop link first and then work it over the arb. starting at an angle. Maybe get a friend to help with a bit of pushing and shoving, or levering whilst you push.

Or take the arb right off the van, and put in vise - sometimes you can also put the pair in a vise and pull then together. Change the bar mounting one s as well then

Clean any flaky rust of both drop link and bar nose.

So it can be done! cool, I really thought I'd made a big mistake!

it's all off - was quite pleased with myself for not shearing off any of the nuts etc - so will give it another go tomorrow, using vices and as much force as can be mustered

Got the mounting bushes, and already cleaned up arb and drop links, hopefully have it ready for mot soon

Cheers, will let you know when I've succeeded

Melvin

t's all off - was quite pleased with myself for not shearing off

Yes, i was going to warn you about them...

i read on the wiki to put them in hot water so thats what i did to get them on worked ok

How I found it easiest to do was to get the ARB off like you have already, put the ring in the drop link, lube it all and then put the drop link on the floor so you can hang your weight on the bar while pushing it into the rubber bush ring thing. It worked for me - after much frustration trying other ways!

I spent about an hour wrestling with mine, gave up, did a search on here, boiled kettle poured into jug, bush in jug of hot water for five minutes, then tried again, bush went on instantly!

Bushes on and everything back together

Thanks for the tips and info - such simple remedies for what seemed like an impossible task!

Thanks again everyone, I'm off now to read and possibly hijack some Aircooled threads, that being where my heart is

Cheers

Melvin