Spindle bush replacement ends in tears

[Mark]

Should have gone to Specsavers. Thats my exscuse. Just tried to remove the spindle bushes for the rebuild of my carbs and its ended in tears. I did get my eyes tested a few weeks ago and they said i needed them for close up work and reading, early forties etc. apparently the muscles get weak due to the aging process just haven't got around to buying any glasses yet. Initially tried GT6steve Method which is a great idea so i tapped a thread into the bush put a steel rod in the opposite side and started to tap. It felt solid. I heated up the carb body hoping to expand it and loosen it's grip on the bush. Still no joy, so hit a bit harder. These bushes are SOLID. I presume they are brass, but I think it maybe a harder material coated with brass. Tried pressing it out in a vice then reverted to increasingly heavy blows. Thought it was starting to move but it was just the the tap stripping the tread finally falling out. So I reverted to what I was originally going to do and what davesideways suggested, to cut a groove in the bush with a cut down hacksaw blade and then attempt to crush it in on itself with a small punch. This is where the glasses would have come in handy. This bush is a really hard material so put a drill through it to thin the sides down. I cut a groove and then tried to split the bush, but it is really brittle and bits kept chipping off. Anyway as I tried to deform the bush It felt like i was crushing it in but in fact i was just distorting the hole in the carb body. This became apparent when taking it outside with a bit of natural daylight and a re-focus at arms length, oops  :'( No good grizzling about it.The carbs were for my MK3, which is on the road, so I'll have to give up on that for now until I can get a new body and get them turned out on a lath. Iam still trying to focus on the vitesse and dismantling the hubs off the rotoflex shafts to fit onto the newly acquired TLD shafts from 2.5 Chris, Very Nice.

[Mark]

Here's a pic.

[GT6Steve]

Looks like it was corroded in place.  Heating the body was an excellent idea.  In hindsight a long soak in a penetrant may have helped as well.  If there is any of the original bore to reference from a machinist (engineer?) can save it with an oversize bush.  That said, they are so common as to be not worth the effort.  How many ya want? ;D

[sparky_spit]

That looks like beyond saving, look closely (yes, I've got my glasses on) and there's a crack gone all the way through (top part, just to the left of centre.

 

Talking of glasses, when you finally get yours, assuming they are for age-related shortsightedness, they will focus at about "newspaper reading/laptop" distance. After a few months you will then become totally blind at anything close-up, as your eyes give up trying. When that happens, buy some £1.99 +2.0 dioptre cheapo glasses from your local petrol station or Tescos. Then, put them on as well as your reading glasses and you will see in glorious technicolour everthing pin-sharp at about 6" distance. Brilliant for close-up work. You will look like "Brains" from The Thunderbirds but who cares? At least you won't bugger up another SU  ;D

[Smallfry]

I didn't think the smaller SUs had ANY bushes fitted as standard......................only as a rectification ?

 

Sure that "brass" you can see is not just whats worn off the spindles ?

[Mark]

No, It's a bush that the spindle runs in and you get four new ones in the SU kit to replace the two per carb. The spindle wears them over the years and you get to much play. If I could have I would have left them in and just replace the spindles but they were to far gone.