Trick to remove leaf spring bushings...

I discovered this attempting to drill out my old rubber leaf spring bushings on my 99 Tacoma. I've got new ones waiting for me to weld the brackets back on, so I didn't care about damaging the old ones.

 

same thing happened to me when I did mine. I still ended up having to burn them out, much to the horror of everyone else in the shop at the time.

 

By far the only way the ever worked is the Oxy-Fuel torch for me.

Still waiting for some super slick way to have them pop right out

 

I thought about torching it, but the smell from cutting the bolts (which were fused to the bushings) was bad enough I decided to try and drill them out, and in the process the drill bit kept slipping in between the spring and the bushing. I was prepared for a huge battle with the damned thing, but then they just started coming out. I've had enough battles repairing this truck's frame so it was great to have it go easy. Figured I'd film the second one and pass it on...

 

Doesn't that score the crap out of the inside of the bushing channel?

 

I didn't notice any scoring. If there are some scuffs I can smoothe them out with a file.

 

Thats awesome. Thanx for sharing.

 

From my experience if this trick worked for you you were incredibly lucky.

 

Worked for both sides, so 2 for 2. I'm not doing the rear bushings just yet, so we'll see.