Lollipop Bush Fitting Issue

[Falamon]

Hey all. First time attempting lollipo bushes yesterday... To say they're a pain was an understatement.

Got the olds off and the new lemforders into the lollipop, but i'll be damned if they will go back onto the wishbone.

Did I make a silly mistake in going lemforder OEM ?

From reading, it seems powerflex poly will fit a hell of a lot easier into both the lollipop and onto the wishbone, can anyone tell me if they have had success with these?

They were so tight to press into the lollipop there's just no room in the middle rubber to even get them half onto the wishbone.

Any advice greatly recieved.

[maxfield]

I use some lubricant and a dead blow plastic hammer. And that works a treat everytime.

I think more brute force and ignorance is required

[Falamon]

Do you use polys?

[maxfield]

No, I use febi bushes.

[Brianmoooore]

You certainly didn't make a mistake using OEM rather than nasty plastic rubbish, which introduces undesirable characteristics, such as friction, into the suspension.
Use a bit of emery cloth to make sure the control arm pins are clean, mix a little water with some washing up liquid, lubricate the pin and bush with this mix (important: don't under any circumstances use a permanent lubricant, such as grease), and twist/push the bush onto the pin by hand. Wedge a block of wood between the control arm and the underside of the car to stop the pin moving around.

[Falamon]

Thanks Brian. It basically seems impossible to get it on, I know there's tight but this is something else.

I managed to get the lollipop off without popping the ball joint, do I really need to get the ball joint out or can it be done without? Not too much room to work with but it's not too bad.

[Brianmoooore]

Much easier to do the job with the control arm still on the car, IMHO, and don't forget to turn it to the correct position before the lubricant dries, otherwise the rubber will be permanently twisted with the car on its wheels.
No one would mistake me for Mr Universe, and if I can twist them on, then anyone can.

[Falamon]

On the wiki there's an article where someone replaces theirs with M3 Eccentric, they use copper grease, so I followed this, I assume it's not good to use?

I'll clean them up with the soapy water, will fairy liquid work as a better lubricant then?

[Brianmoooore]

Copper grease is likely to ruin the bushes in a short time. The suspension movement occurs by twisting the rubber (zero friction), not by the bush turning on the pin, which is likely to happen with grease.

[Falamon]

Ok looks like I better wash it off later ;) Really didn't think to use something like fairy liquid, so it'll definitely work better to get them on than the copper grease?

[Brianmoooore]

Out of the two, the grease probably makes the job easier, but as I've explained, it's not suitable, since its a permanent lubricant.

Where's the wiki page that you refer to? I can only find someone fitting plastic bushes with copper grease.

[Falamon]

Ok great. I'll give it another go today, maybe I need to emery the ends a bit more, they didn't seem too rough though.

[Falamon]

Yeah I followed the poly bush guide, I thought it couldn't be too far from the OEM method.

[Grrrmachine]

Ok, I'll edit the wiki to highlight that this grease is NOT for rubber bushes.

[Falamon]

Nice one, thanks Brian, you've helped me plenty since joining the zone, I owe you a beer if we meet at a show!

[JokeTown]

I changed my bushings today.

I used washing up liquid took me less than 10 minutes to push on fully just using my weight.

Wasn't sure what would work best so I used a mixture constant pressure and sudden downward jerks.

I put a towel over the lolipop to save me hurting my hands while pushing down to

[Falamon]

I tried again and they wouldn't go on however hard I tried, so I went against better judgement and advice and have temporarily fitted polys I need to get a thread puller tool.

Time was the issue, the car needs to be back on the road for Monday and I was planning a few upgrades within 6 months, (Bilstein shocks, E46 steering rack and I'll replace the anti roll bar and all the wishbones and ball joints), so It'll make do for a short while, though I didn't want to have to do it.

I'll get Febi or Lemforder ones again, and hopefully they'll be easier to press onto the wishbones when I split all the ball joints and can move the wishbone.

The only issue now is I'm struggling to get the anti roll bar linkage bottom nut tight on one side, it just keeps spinning the bottom of the linkage...