Have you looked through this thread by Gary. You might be able to do it yourself! :thumbsup:

 

Some of the venders sale the staking tool to flare your bushings.
Are you using rubber bushings?

 

If using rubber then they have to be compressed and staked as you probably know. How much did the locals want to do the job? By the time you ship them and pay someone you can either buy or make one. I would use the rubber over the poly as well.

 

If using rubber then they have to be compressed and staked as you probably know.

Gary
How far do they have to be compressed? is there a compressed measurment before you stake them?

Steve

 

Hey Gary

Hi from a former New Britain, CT resident.
Great tech and photos on the trailing arms. I have not yet bought the new bushings, but plan on using rubber. I am knee deep in a full restoration and have repalced all the bushings with rubber.
When I look at your thread, the uncompressed dimension for the trailing arms appears to be approx 2-3/8". As one end of the sleeve appears to be already flared, I assume that you assemble into the trailing arm and compress the other side of the sleeve to flare it. As Steve stated, how far do you compress? Once compressed, did you grind smooth the face of the flared end so it left no rough edges?
Also, the tool looks fairly easy to make, but what does the inside portion look like that actually does the flaring of the sleeve. Every on-line tool I have looked at requires a press to make the flare, it looks like you utilze the 2 bolts tightened simotaniously to flare.

Also, the 2 places I got costs from wanted over $80.00 for each arm plus the cost of the bushings.

Thanks again

Mark

 

I compress them to 2.200 - 2.230. There are different bushings on the market, some do not flare well at all and crack. Some have minor cracking the ones I use seldom crack so just be careful installing.
I played around with different designs, the first one didn't require a press, I turned a 45* angle on a large allen bolt and then used a pipe on the allen wrench to flare it . It worked for a lot of arms until it fatigued and cracked the bolt. $80 labor + the part cost is a bit high. If you can't find anyone to do them let me know. If you want the bushings I use also let me know.
Yes I grind the face flat and run a drill through the sleeve to test fit the bolt as well.

 

Gary

I think I am going to give it a try. Done everything else myself, might as well keep the roll going. I can build the setup myself, and i saw by the photos, the allen screw and wrench you mentioned. What and where did you get the bushings you use? Wilcox and Corvette central both have them listed, but better to use what's been tested and works

Thanks

Mark

 

Mark neither, I have them if you need them just PM me.