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DamirGTI

Trailing arm shaft pressing .

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DamirGTI

Haven't yet done any of these , as i had luck finding really good like new rear beam back in the days of "tour de scrapyards" ! 

 

But after all those years , it'll need some work sooner or later as one arm has a little bit of free play now .

 

So , was wondering , how much press force (roughly) is usually needed to press the old shafts out and new ones back in ?

 

Don't have a press but thinking about making an DIY one from some scrap iron collected around the shed , and 8T bottle jack for which i have no other use but collecting dust .

 

Would 8T be enough force for this job or it needs more "T" ?

Also , can it be done by any chance by heat + hammer ?

 

Thanks !

D

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Tom Fenton

8T will probably move most of them. Occasionally you get a tight one. I’ve must have pressed 100’s of these out.

If you get a tight one that your 8T won’t move then some heat into the arm will probably help get it moving. 
I’ve not personally hammered them out but it’s possible as I’ve knocked trailing arms off seized beams where the shaft stays in the tube. It’s horse work.

Bottle Jacks are pretty cheap, if you can weld and fabricate making a frame to turn it into a press isn’t difficult, but buy a 15/20t bottle jack.

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Ozymandis

As to the actual force, I have no measured quantity.

 

I use a large "Parkinsons Perfect" Vice, a 7lb sledge hammer cold and a suitable drift, they come straight out with 3 or 4 well aimed 2 handed strikes of the hammer. Before I turned up a dedicated drift i used a 3/4 drive impact socket of the appropriate size. An assistant to hold it steady is helpful, yet I have done several on my own.

 

Berate me as a bodger, i dont care, it works well and quickly with minimal expense in time,  money, or effort.

I have used this method for several decades and never failed to get one out or in, and not damaged an arm.  They arent very tight.

 

I started out using  a big fly press, but it always took so long to remove whatever tooling was in it and set the press up and then have to re set the tooling,  one day I tried the sledgehammer and have stuck with that. its a lot quicker.

 

I think the percussion is a big help to shifting them. The fly press always needed a good swing to get them moving. By all means try a press though.

 

I warm the arm to bash new shafts in as it makes an easier job of it. Thats done with the arm resting on a timber baulk on the concrete floor. And its easy to whack them in a bit too much if You havent an assistant to steady it, no problem, bash them back a bit 2mm ish below the outer surface of the arm.

 

Some times the shafts stay rusted in the bearings and the arms come off the shafts on scrap axles, showing they arent that tightly held in the arm.

 

Torsion bars are fiddlier to get out without damaging things than trailing arm shafts.

Edited by Ozymandis
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DamirGTI

Righto , sounds promising B)

 

Understood , like the wheel bearings there's always a few from time to time which size up/rust in the hub and need considerable more effort/pressure in order move them out .

I have friendly mechanic garage near me with 30T press available if i get stuck , and machinist as well .

 

But first , kinda want to try doing that by myself with my own tools .. and "recycle" some bits and pieces from the shed while doing so . 

 

Beam was in excellent condition when i found it , from low mileage 205 , back then i just disassemble it and stuffed with grease as all the bearings and shafts where like new . So taking it apart again now shouldn't be problematic either .

 

Will see what happens , thanks !

D

 

 

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welshpug

you will need some pretty hefty "scrap" to build a press !     :lol:

 

 

I used a Clarke 10T press for many years with decent success, bought it used for £100, sold it about 15 years later for £100, only because a friend Found an EPCO 20T press from around 1960 or so.

 

Actually, I managed to find an article from 1966 that said the press would have been around £100 complete at the time!

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Gohn

like the idea of building or even buying your own press

  be way better to tinker on my own instead of having to go pay a local shop and hope they dont wreck a swing arm

the only part I had to think on a bit was making sure to press the shafts out/in the correct way

 

the ones here come out pretty well, probably a little easier than locations with salt roads, just guessing though at maybe 3 tonne

 

and front wheel bearings come out at 2-3 tonne, just did two the other day

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DamirGTI
2 hours ago, welshpug said:

you will need some pretty hefty "scrap" to build a press !     

 

I might have some , hence the idea about it B) .. it's my brothers welding project , which is an welding table mostly made out of railway kinda iron bars , which nobody really uses just stands in front of the shed like some kind of a monument .

When he leaves for a few hours , i'll do the cutting/dismantling/transformation ! :ph34r:

 

1 hour ago, Gohn said:

be way better to tinker on my own instead of having to go pay a local shop and hope they dont wreck a swing arm

That part especially made me think it's time to start doing it by myself ..

Not so much about the money as till now for all the stuff i've used others to press them for me just wanted some beer money mostly ... think i just got fed up packing bits and taking them to the mechanic shop or machinist to be pressed , bothering them when they're are usually pretty busy with they're own daily tasks , then waiting and driving back to pick up the pressed out parts ...

 

And yes , ditto , i very much prefer the idea of being able to do all that is needed by myself .

 

D

 

Edited by DamirGTI

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welshpug

I would bolt it together rather than rely on welding.

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Ozymandis
19 hours ago, DamirGTI said:

And yes , ditto , i very much prefer the idea of being able to do all that is needed by myself .

04DF24.thumb.jpg.7028e740edab3bd45150ef22af093bd9.jpg

There You go, made only a couple of miles away, my 1978 one still works perfectly, its a good brand.

 

21 hours ago, welshpug said:

 

 

 

I used a Clarke 10T press for many years with decent success, bought it used for £100, sold it about 15 years later for £100, only because a friend Found an EPCO 20T press from around 1960 or so.

 

Actually, I managed to find an article from 1966 that said the press would have been around £100 complete at the time!

 

Are You sure Your not from Yorkshire?  Sounds like my kind of economics.

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Gohn
19 hours ago, DamirGTI said:

got fed up packing bits and taking them to the mechanic shop

know that feeling

just makes it worse when you have to let someone else touch your car

after 5 years of asking, a local engineering joint lets me use their 100tonne press for $10

but I still like the sound of the Clarke 10T

 

quite impressed with the use of the hammer also

it does sound funny to begin with but percussion moves stuff, I just never would have had the guts to try it

 

if you do weld your press up, dont do what a local roadworthy inpsection place did to my car - weld AWAY from the car

I got roadworthy, at the extra cost of a LF window that felt like a cactus (weldspatter) and a broken door pouch

two more reasons to do it yourself

 

 

 

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DamirGTI

Well , it's been ages since i've let someone else fix my cars ! .. was only short period in my early 18-19-20's when i just started driving and didn't know much about fixing cars ...

 

And those few years of mostly "bodge jobs" done by the mechanics/auto electricians/body shops made me quit using they're service and slowly starting to teach myself how to do all those car related jobs by myself for myself and for others too .

By reading car repair books , practicing , and also working/hanging around at the friendly mechanic garage which was willing to share some knowledge/tips and tricks .. as there where no internet at the time thus not as nearly much information/how-to as these days .

 

These days i just use tyre shop .. mostly everything else i do all by myself .

 

Not trying to say all the car maintenance and repair shops are bad , seriously , there's some really good ones .. from what i've seen , more than anything it's the time (the lack of it) which kinda kills the job quality .. too much cars waiting to be fixed each day , and pressure/limited time available spent on fixing each one of them as the people/customers are also quite often "brainless people" which want they're car fixed and up and running yesterday !

 

With modern cars of today packed up with electronics and all kinds of crap , that simply isn't possible to "shift" from broken to fixed in a split second as most people think and expect .

 

 

 

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DamirGTI
5 hours ago, Ozymandis said:

There You go, made only a couple of miles away, my 1978 one still works perfectly, its a good brand.

 

I've an selection of big hammers too , will try that manual hammering out shafts .

 

D

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calvinhorse

How will you put the shaft back in? I wouldn’t risk hammering it 

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SRDT

You can put the shaft on the freezer and heat the arm, but you only have one try.

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DamirGTI

If it's not as tight press fit as others say , i thought it might be doable back inside as well by hammer/heat-cooling/support approach ?

 

I've done bearings like so (both smaller and bigger) , though doing them on a press is more controllable/convenient obviously .

 

Was under impression that the arm shafts must've been really tight fit , job for 20T press at least ...

 

Looking at some repair videos how they do them shafts on a 106/206/saxo/berlingo (different beam design i know) , an threaded bar and machined cylindrical tube support can be made like puller for the shaft removal and installation .

 

Few (3) ways of doing it as it seems ... press will be best though , as later i'll be able to use it for doing wheel bearing , bushings etc. .. handy tool for various garage jobs .

 

D

Edited by DamirGTI

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Ozymandis
On 2/8/2021 at 6:35 PM, calvinhorse said:

How will you put the shaft back in? I wouldn’t risk hammering it 

Its easy!

 

I have no idea why every one believes its so difficult banging the trailing arm shafts in and out with a 7lb hammer, fast and simple, we have done this for decades with no failures or mashed, smashed or broken bits.  Its hardly rocket science despite what the digital generation seem to believe about the physical world.

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calvinhorse
5 minutes ago, Ozymandis said:

Its easy!

 

I have no idea why every one believes its so difficult banging the trailing arm shafts in and out with a 7lb hammer, fast and simple, we have done this for decades with no failures or mashed, smashed or broken bits.  Its hardly rocket science despite what the digital generation seem to believe about the physical world.


 

you’ve said it yourself, you have years of experience, telling someone who’s never done it before it’s a good way to do it isn’t a great idea

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Ozymandis

One day many moons ago I picked up a sledgehammer and had a go, it was a success the first time with no previous experience. A big hammer an Oak stump and a big socket.

 

First hand knowledge.

 

Is that not a good reason to recommend to someone to have a go?

 

I did it and it was absolutely fine first go.

54 minutes ago, calvinhorse said:


 

you’ve said it yourself, you have years of experience, telling someone who’s never done it before it’s a good way to do it isn’t a great idea

 

 

 

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calvinhorse

As a last resort it’s a brilliant idea

 

to absolutely remove any possibility of bending an edge over so the shaft won’t go in the inner bearing I’d use/borrow a press 

 

 

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welshpug

I'd rather save up and buy/make a press than hammer stuff.

 

doing bushes and wheel bearings in the future will be a breeze, as well as beams.

 

one ever so slightly off strike could render a beam scrap, these days its not worth it.

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PhilNW

Buy a 10T press, one that is designed for the forces involved and you can control the application of the forces rather than hammering.

 

I bought one, one of those items that once you have it the more jobs you find to use it on.  

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calvinhorse
8 hours ago, PhilNW said:

Buy a 10T press, one that is designed for the forces involved and you can control the application of the forces rather than hammering.

 

I bought one, one of those items that once you have it the more jobs you find to use it on.  

Mines 12 ton, ideal for crushing apples to make cider!

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PhilNW
53 minutes ago, calvinhorse said:

Mines 12 ton, ideal for crushing apples to make cider!

:) Seems like a good use for it !!

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stef205

I made my press, fully electric/hydraulic fed up pumping a handle like a peasant :lol:

Forklift ram and a taillift pump. 

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