Suspension bush fitting

This all sounded so simple in the manual! It took me all weekend to fit the suspension bushes into their mountings on the suspension arms.

The first job was to remove the powder coating from inside the mountings. I looked to see if I could find a wire brush attachment or flap wheel for the electric drill but none were small enough to fit. In the end I got a bolt, removed the head and cut a slot down the shaft. I threaded some emery paper through the slot and wrapped around some foam to form a tube that was slightly larger than the mounting diameter. By squashing the foam I was able to push into the holes and attach to the electric drill.

The centre tube of the bushes is slightly longer than the outer tube. So, to push through you need something that goes around the centre tube to push the outer tube not the inner. I formed a couple of plates out of scrap metal. In effect they acted like large washers.

Now I was finally ready to fit the bushes. The vice I had wasn't really up to the job. As I tightened up the vice, the jaws were slightly at an angle so the bushes didn't press in straight.
Instead I used a long bolt through the centre with washers at each end.


By tightening up the nut on the bolt it slowly/smoothly pressed the bush into place.

Brake Pipe Clips - Again!

I found out from the forum that all you have to do is tap the clips sharply with a rubber mallet (or a piece of wood/hammer) vertically down and the top half will "implode" and slide down into the bottom half. A lot easier than trying to break them.

Diff bushes modification

The diff mounting bushes are taken from the MX-5 but there are tabs that needed removal. I was able to use a jigsaw with a fine cutting blade to remove the main part of the tab and then finish off with a file to get a smooth finish.

The one on the left has the tab still in place, the one on the right has had the tab removed:

Brake Pipe Clips

*** CORRECTION - PLEASE SEE POST "BRAKE PIPE CLIPS - AGAIN!" DATED 17TH OCT ***

I realised that how I was using/fitting the brake clips was wrong!
The clips I'd got looked like this:



They fitted okay into the 1/4" holes but weren’t very firm, held the brake pipes a long way away from the chassis and I broke several of them whilst trying to push the brake pipes onto the clip. Here is how the front pipes looked fitted (originally):



After searching for brake clips on the internet, I found a picture of some similar ones but as 2 parts! I realised that they were meant to be snapped apart and the upper part with the clip slotted into the lower part. It all made sense. The pipes only needed a bit of minor adjustments to the bends to fit closer.


The only shame was that I'd routed the rear pipes along the inside of the chassis which was no longer necessary. Having already bend the pipes and drilled the holes for the clips I decided not to change to run along the top of the chassis member.