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View Full Version : v40 front roll bar d-bushes



nobananas
Thursday 6th April 2006, 21:46
Not my motor but replaced them at work for a customer so I thought I would spread the word. The d-bushes when fitted from new are a two piece arrangement, a lower half moon type section and and upper section contained in horseshoe shaped bracket. They clip and lock together then the front of the assembly has a tag that fits into a slot in the subframe and the rear has a bolt that holds it down. Trouble is they wear and then the bottom part slips out resulting in very loud knocking noises. They are not a nice job to to do !.. First support the rear of the subframe with a jack and then remove one of the bolts that holds down the rear of the track control arms. Remove the middle subframe bolts (accessible with a long extension bar and a socket passed through the hole in the track control arm) I then took this bolt which is very long and screwed it partly into the hole that was left when you removed the rear bolt from the track control arm. The reason for this is that I found that if you remove them all the subframe shifts over to one side but moving these long bolts back prevents this but allows the subframe to come down. Remove the other remaining track control arm bolts and the rear of the subframe should now be loose and able to be lowered slightly using the jack. You may need to lever it down to be able to get a 12mm socket and drive in (space is very tight !)to be able to undo the bolt securing the d-bush bracket to the subframe. Now the important bit. The new bushes have to be squeezed together and then the two parts lock. I found that trying to do this with the bushes in the correct position was impossible but if you spray the anti-roll bar (the ends nearest the link bars) with wd-40 or white aerisol grease you can snap the bushes together using large water-pump pliers or a g-clamp onto the anti-roll bar thats exposed under the wheel-arch then slid them up the bar and into position. Then a small square plate which comes as part of the d-bush kit is fitted between the bush assembly and the subframe. You must then position the tag of the d-bush upper bracket into the slot in the subframe then lever the rear of the bush assembly down close enough to pass the bolt through it, the square plate and finally into the threaded hole in the subframe. Getting the holes to line up is tricky but I found it easier to do if you unbolt the link arms from the struts and use a screwdriver through the d-bush mounting hole from underneath to initially line everything up. After tightening the bolts then replace the subframe bolts to their correct positions and tighten.
On the whole I found it quite a tricky job at first but not too bad once you realise you can slide the bushes along the anti-roll bar. Also do both sides at the same time and mirror everything from one side to the other. Don't try to do one side first then the other or it will be nearly impossible to do. Also buy all the parts for each bush (lower bracket, upper bracket, square plate, bolt) as they're sold individually and the square plate is a modification to prevent the lower bracket dropping out and the bolt is longer to aid getting back together. The parts ad up to around £27 +vat for each side. I hope this is of help to somebody.