Rear axle beam bushings on Mk. II

[Dakotakid]

Who all has replaced rear axle pivot beam bushings on their Mk. II's?

How much of a difference did it make in handling/ride? I honestly have never done this and I have one car (turbo golf) with over 500,000 miles on it. I was totally amazed with new front bushings......is replacement of the rear as "rewarding/improving?" I can see that my rear rubbers are cracked on the sides (pivot point).

Perhaps I should ask Charlie Sheen about this.......?

[theman53]

I asked someone and this is the response:
Section 11, pages 29-31.  As you will see, it would be a lot easier to find a good used axle beam assy and swap it in whole.

He is talking bentley sections there

[AfflictedPast]

Sweet looking samurai's... i'm getting ready to drop a 1.6td in my 87. it's sprung over with yj springs, toyota axles, gears lockers t case gears ect..

[R.O.R-2.0]

I asked someone and this is the response:
Section 11, pages 29-31.  As you will see, it would be a lot easier to find a good used axle beam assy and swap it in whole.

He is talking bentley sections there

a rear beam swap is cake.. just did a disk beam swap yesterday on my 86 golf. added a sway bar, and it has good wheel bearings.

(only reason i replaced the drums was because of a bad wheel bearing, turns out i got a sway bar as part of the deal too)

car stops like a mofo, and handles much better. handles more like a mk2 now, instead of a mk1. you just touch the brake pedal now, and you are pretty much eating dash..

[fatmobile]

I think the main problem with pressing in new rear bushing for a MK2,
 is the surface you press them in with is not straight/flat. It's kinda stepped.
 You need to make up a weirdly shaped "jig" for pressing them in.

[Dakotakid]

Crapnoids.....when I left the farm, I left 4 of these beams behind which were MUCH fresher than the stuff I drive most of the time. I just didn't have the room to store them.

[R.O.R-2.0]

and the fact that your press either has to be horizontal, or verticle with atleast 4 feet from the floor to the arbor table..

you still gotta take the axle out to swap the bushings. for the price of the bushings, i bet you could get a good axle beam.

[fatmobile]

I think you can press it in using a bolt/nut.

[bvolks73]

When I had mine replaced years ago my mechanic just unhooked the bolts and let the front of the axle hang down low enough for him to drive them out with an air chisel. He chamfered the edge of the hole and then beat the new ones in with a big hammer (all done on a hoist of course). It took him about a half an hour.

[damac]

I did this by hand on my car to save money  

I was redoing the brakes so I jacked the car up, unhooked the brakes and pulled the beam.

I only had hand tools and a torch and it took me a few hours to get them out.  A hand propane torch wasn't really hot enough to just burn them out so I had to do in stages.  I ended using a hacksaw and a sawzall to cut the core from the rubber, then cut through the outer shell enough so that I could fold it over and then hammer it out.

Getting the new ones in, I had already purchased a big piece of allthread with bolts and metal plates from the rebarb section of my hardware store for cheap.  I used these various pieces and some pipe fitting reducers for the front control arm bushings and the wheel bearings.

First off I got them lined up and then kind of used solid pieces of metal to spread the pressing action all over the complete piece, otherwise you could easily crank down and chunk that rubber off the new bushings.  Once you get into it you kind of get a feeling for it.  I used some duct tape to crudely keep my shims from flying all over the place.

I did bend my metal plates a bit but was surprised once everything started to bite that I didn't strip any nuts and I didn't have too much trouble cranking with a wrench.  I found I had to readjust my angles with new shims a few times as you could see it wasn't pressing exactly straight.

As far as performance I have no history with these cars.  When I loosened the back, the beam dropped to the ground so I know they were shot, I believe all original suspension at 200,000 miles so I replaced all that stuff.

[bvolks73]

Mine had almost 400,000 kms on it when I had them replaced and the new ones were still ok when I put the car up at 756,000 kms.