| PROJECT R32 - TOP ARM BUSHES |
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Sadly the old Taxi recently failed it's MOT, on the nearside front top suspension arm, I have been aware for some time that it may be a problem, but had hoped the old girl would pull through, not to be... ho hum :-( Fortunately I have a part number for a RH arm, from Mike's adventures :-) (see page HERE), a quick trawl of the net soon reveals the number for the LH arm... so phone my local Nissan dealer (Birchwood Nissan, Brighton 01273 424000) Neil, on parts, is very helpful :-) ...'Yeah can get those in a couple of days... cost err, £160 ish each' eekk !! (also he fished out an arm from an early Primera, to compare, I had a suspicion that they could be one in the same thing... close, but not, shame as these were only £100 each). A further trawl of the net brings up part numbers for Nismo replacement bushes, so a call to Gary at GTaRt and a bit of luck, he had some of the very things on order, which were due in the following day and less than the cost of one arm to do both sides... cool :-)) (for part numbers see HERE) Removed the nearside arm (LH), so now just a simple matter of popping over to GTaRt and replacing the bushes ummm !!...., asked Gary if he'd mind me using his bench to do 'em them there... 'no problem :-)', however it was soon apparent that removal of the old inner bushes was going to be a challenge, it was proving difficult to grip the arm in the vice enough to apply the force to remove the inner bush.... Gary came to the rescue, with his big hammer and cold chisel and gave it some serious 'stick' (fortunate that he had 3 Shredded Wheat that morning :-)... believe me it was difficult :-( .....so many thanks Gary for that :-)) 1. LH arm, as removed from the car - 2. Some of the removed bushes, some of the inners were in worse shape :-)
1. The Nismo replacement bushes (Inner on the left) - 2. 'Competition use only' eh !.... cool :-))
Gary used his press to insert the new bushes, to the LH arm, when finished I took that away and fitted it back on the car, I returned the next day with the RH arm (somewhat harder to remove as the brake cylinder and servo hamper access), in the meantime Gary had made up some alloy 'cups', for the press, to aid with the bush fitting, nice one !! :-) It proved to be a similar challenge to remove the inner bushes again :-( ....but now Gary was getting the hang of it :-)
1. The RH arm with the new bushes fitted - 2. RH arm back in the car :-)
If all else fails you can always refer to the instructions :-)
So a bit of a drama, but more learned, for one thing leave it to Gary at GTaRt to do :-) ..I know he's since done at least one other R32 GTS, so he's well into to 'em now :-)) Finally... all Nismo'd up, the MOT was passed and the Taxi feels the better for them too :-)) RonS - March 2003 |
