Rear roll bar drop links

[MikeB]

Discovered, via some cluncking when turning corners, that the lower bushes on the drop links from the rear antiroll bar to the axle, have worn and that they are loose on the bolt that connects them to the axle.

Are there any tricks to getting the bushes out of the drop links, that you may have come across ?

[ncundy]

The bottom ones are a push in bush. Getting them out is pretty easy, I cut the rubber with a sharp knife and pushed the center out, then cut through the outer metal with a junior hacksaw and it just falls out, much easier than making a size for size dowel to push it out. Putting new ones in will require a flat piece of metal (say 10mm thick) with a hole in the middle to clear the center part of the bush - then you can push them back in in a vice against the metal plate. Without the clearence hole you run the risk of tearing the bush as the center metal protudes further than the outer metal.

The top hat bushes at the other end of the droplink are more difficult to replace. I made up a tool rather like a small funnel so that I could extrude them back in.

Replace the bolts if they are worn, and try them in the bush before you refit. I had to fettle the inner bush with a Dremmel and a grind stone to get a nice fit. If they are tight you will tear the bush pretty quickly.

[MikeB]

Cheers Neil

I knew someone would have done it before

[SteveGales]

Hi Mike

I changed the anti-roll bar bushes on my Fulvia coupe two weeks ago!

I found removing the old and pressing in the new bushes quite straightforward, either use Neil's method or you could try different size sockets.  Use a socket the same diameter as the bush and one the same diameter as the droplink, place the two sockets (one either side of the droplink) in the vice to press out the old bush.  Use the same principle to press the new one back in. 

As Neil mentioned the top hat bushes are more difficult. I used a flat plate, a little brake fluid and plenty of patience(!) to press them in the vice.  A blunt flat blade screwdriver helps.

I actually found removing the anti-roll bar itself more of a problem.  Removing the exhaust silencer heatshield was easy, as were the brackets for the 'D' bushes but removing the droplink bolts a struggle.  The bolt has a pan head with two flats and is almost impossible to hold against whilst undoing the nut.  I ended up cutting the nuts off.

Another problem was removing the split pins, holding the top hat washers in place.  A combination of drilling (very hard metal), WD40 and finally the remains of the pin can be drifted out, Lancia engineering strikes again!

Incidentally, when I removed the bushes from the A/R bar I found it had worn thinner at the 'D' and top hat bush pivot points, so it remains to be seen how much benefit the new bushes will actually make (I haven't had chance to use the car yet).

Does anybody know if new A/R bars are available?

Best of luck Mike, let us know how you get on.

Steve Gales

[ncundy]

The split pins are more accurately spring pins and are made out of spring steel, hence the difficulty drilling ! Omicron supply them. But you are right - they are alot easier to put in then take out.
The link bolts on mine were siezed in the trunions which made life a lot easier - nuts came off then I drifted them out.

[MikeB]

No need to remove the ARB itself, and as far as I can tell the top bushes on the drop link are OK, so it's just the bottom bushes that are the problem. So, a little bit of "light" engineering as described above, seems to be the answer.

But if Hardy comes to Hardy, I'll just replace the lot with rose joints and threaded bars etc, as Crossle Racing Cars are near neighbours