Remove and Replace Rear Twist Beam Bushes

[Sekred]

I replace my rear twist beam suspension bushes today. Here is a short "how to".

Raise vehicle on solid flat ground and support on car jack stands. Chock front wheels.

Remove wheel rims.

Unclip hand brake cables from twist beam, remove the two 10mm brake calipar retaining bolts from each side and then remove brake calipars and tie up and out of the way. Remove the brake discs from each side of the vehicle.

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Remove the 6mm bolts and remove the ABS cable from each side and loop out of the way.

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Support Twist beam with a hydraulic floor jack and remove the two 12mm lower shock absorber retaining bolts from each side. Lower the floor jack and let the twist beam pivot down. Removes the springs by pulling out from the bottom first.

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Remove the 13mm nut and clip that secures the handbrake cable to the twist beam under the vehicle on each side.

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Support twist beam each side towards centre with two hydraulic jacks and raise twist beam to take some weight.

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Remove the six 12mm bolts, 3 each side that retain the twist beam pivot bracket to the vehicle chassis.

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Using the floor jacks, carefully lower the twist beam making sure it does not catch on anything. Remove the twist beam from the jacks and place it on some thick cardboard and drag it out from under the vehicle.
Remove the two 12mm bolts and then remove the twist beam brackets.

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Now you can remove the bushes. I use a 3/4 drive 2" socket and a 8 pound hammer and drove the bushes out. They were really not very tight. The socket I use had a 66mm OD and was just about perfect to do the job. The OEM bushes have a 69mm to 70mm OD so anything in the range of 66 to 68.5mm OD will do the job.

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I replaced the OEM bushes with Power Flex, Poly 80a.

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Reassemble is basically just a reversal of removal. It would help if you had a buddy to give you a hand, Lining up the pivot brackets while trying to raise the twist beam on the floor jack was a little bit of a PITA.

Make sure you position the springs correctly with the tail/end of the coils facing in the same position for each side. Mark the spring position if you want to before removal.

I used an online torque chart to tension my bolts as follows. A manual is better if you have one.

All 12mm bolts, 70 foot pounds dry thread.

10mm brake calipar bolts, 40 foot pound with a few drops of lock tight.

I would allow 5-6 hours to do this job

 

[Pete]

Great write up, now you have to post a review on the bushings

 

[Sekred]

Thanks, my images didn't load how I intend. I will do a write-up when it stops raining here.

I will try reloading the images in one hit latter

 

[Siestarider]

Maybe there is an enterprising vendor who will take on camber and bushings and allow swaps, so all that work to remove and replace twist beam can add camber too.

 

[Sekred]

Images in no particular order during disassembly.

 

[GAbOS]

Nice pics!

 

[bhmax]

Thanks for this, helped a bunch while getting my Superpro bushings in. I had a ball joint tool kit handy that had some pieces the right size to knock the stock bushings out. They came out easier than I expected. It was tough getting the new pieces to stay in while putting the sleeve in. An Irwin Quick Grip clamp helped press that together and hold it in.