MGB Need help sway bar end bushings

[Boggsy64]

Help. I have my sway bar out and the rubber internals for the sway bar end bushings just about fell out. The problem is the steel (I'm guessing they are steel) outer seems to be rusted into one piece with the sway bar. I tried to press out, with no luck, and don't want to break the fragile looking sway bar ends.
I am thinking heat? Or grind them out partially to break the ring (with Dremel tool) and then break them out, or finally take to work and mill them out.
Anybody replaced these before? Suggestions?
boggsy64

 

[billspohn]

Either grinding, or just assemble a hacksaw with the blade through the eye and then cut most of the way through and give it a knock with a drift or chisel and it should peel out. Using a press with a proper mandrel will also work if you have access to one. These bushes last a long time, so once you replace them they should be good as long as you own the car.

 

[Boggsy64]

Thanks Bill. Here is how I finally got them out last night. After trying to press them out with no luck, I went to the old standby, 2.5lb mini sledge. I put a short piece of 1" pipe (close nipple used in home made all- thread bushing pusher) on the anvil of my vice, put the end of the sway bar on the pipe aligning it so that the bushing outer would be free to pass, place a matching size socket on top of the bushing outer sleeve, put a heavy washer on top of the socket, and gave it a whack! Pop, out came the bushing sleeve. One thing I found (see picture attached) that may help others with this problem is that MG installed the original bushings from the "outside" in. By outside I mean if you hold the sway bar it forms a "U". The bushings were pressed in toward the center of the "U". I had been trying to push them out from the same direction, with no luck. Fortunately when I put it on the vise to drive the bushing out the sway bar was too tall. Because it was too tall to rest on my vice, I turned the bar up toward the ceiling and was then driving the bushing "out" from the inside of the "U". After getting the bushing out I immediately saw the original problem was a large area of galling caused by the original installation on a large press. I could have never driven the bushing out in the direction I was originally pushing. At least their out now.

 

[drooartz]

Good work!

 

[DrEntropy]

Boggsy, where did you get your replacement bushings? I need to order a couple for a bar here. Just curious as to which source. The I.D. of the holes in the bar here is 15/16". Wondering if they're all the same regardless of bar diameter. This one is a 5/8" DIA bar.

 

[Boggsy64]

DrEntropy, I got mine at Moss Auto Parts (or Moss motors - online and order at1-800-667-7872) They have everything you could want. Learned one additional thing the hard way during installation. One side went in fine and the other cocked slightly after half way in. No way to stop the galling so I kept on pushing and got it in. It would have been prudent to chamfer the inner lip off of the sway bar end as well as chamfer the end of the bushing. I believe this would help the installation and galling. You will have to look at yours closely to see what direction they were installed in and push them the opposite way.

 

[DrEntropy]

A;ready have one cut out, the other is stuffed in from the "inside" of the bar.

 

[DrEntropy]

Mission accomplished. Albeit with much swearing and gnashing of teeth. The car we have has had some "modifications" done to it in the past. Somewhere along the way a piece of 1" angle iron was welded across the front of the frame JUST rearward of where the sway bar mounting brackets should be. The thing never had a bar from the time we got it. When I did the kingpins and front suspension I got the lower a-arms and uprights for a bar, got the GT bar from the Colonel. Finally decided it needed to be on the car.

Had to grind down some hen-poop welding, hog out the "front" holes on the Moss supplied brackets to make 'em line up, run a thread chaser thru the frame holes that hadn't been used for decades. Just used a BFH to whack the bushings in place after a chamfer on one end of each with a Dremel. Three good hits and they were in.

 

[JPSmit]

Had to grind down some hen-poop welding, hog out the "front" holes on the Moss supplied brackets to make 'em line up, run a thread chaser thru the frame holes that hadn't been used for decades. Just used a BFH to whack the bushings in place after a chamfer on one end of each with a Dremel. Three good hits and they were in.

In other words, factory approved! well done.

 

[DrEntropy]

Thought the same thing as I was bangin' 'em in place, JP. :hammer:


We call it "Hand assembled."

 

[Rglosem]

Thanks Bill. Here is how I finally got them out last night. After trying to press them out with no luck, I went to the old standby, 2.5lb mini sledge. I put a short piece of 1" pipe (close nipple used in home made all- thread bushing pusher) on the anvil of my vice, put the end of the sway bar on the pipe aligning it so that the bushing outer would be free to pass, place a matching size socket on top of the bushing outer sleeve, put a heavy washer on top of the socket, and gave it a whack! Pop, out came the bushing sleeve. One thing I found (see picture attached) that may help others with this problem is that MG installed the original bushings from the "outside" in. By outside I mean if you hold the sway bar it forms a "U". The bushings were pressed in toward the center of the "U". I had been trying to push them out from the same direction, with no luck. Fortunately when I put it on the vise to drive the bushing out the sway bar was too tall. Because it was too tall to rest on my vice, I turned the bar up toward the ceiling and was then driving the bushing "out" from the inside of the "U". After getting the bushing out I immediately saw the original problem was a large area of galling caused by the original installation on a large press. I could have never driven the bushing out in the direction I was originally pushing. At least their out now.

Boggsy64 - thanks for the post. I am rebuilding my MGB front suspension. Just used your method to remove front sway bar bushings. Used 15/16 socket as "receiver" and 5/8 as the "pusher". Went from inside the "U" to out. A few good whacks with a hand sledge and they were out!
Btw how did you put the new ones in?

 

[drooartz]

This is a very old post, but when I redid my sway bar bushings I happened to have access to a press. Made the job easy.

Otherwise I would have tried tapping it in with the correct sized socket, much the same way I've tapped in bearings before.

 

[vping]

And if you don't have a press, a bench vice works really well for this of you get creative with different sized sockets.