***! TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK !****(still awaiting a period of “field testing” for these).
Energy Suspension bushing and inner sleeve installation without the use of a hydraulic press; just some hardware, a wrench, a socket and an air-powered impact gun.
Borrowed the idea and gained some more confidence for this installation process after watching GallowayChicago’s bushing install video; thanks man.
I tried to install the bushings using the bolt-press method, but the bushing would not quite fit– it would just compress and then when a little bit of the leading edge would go in, it would slip out and go crooked within the bolt-press jig.
I added relief cuts along the edge (one at a time across from each other; 6 was the min # that worked) after taking a cue from what appeared to be a relief spot in all of the bushings on the leading side (side that goes into the link or arm socket first; this side also appeared to have a tiny bit more taper than the other side as well). I started by making this relief deeper, then started adding slots, just as deep as the edge, being careful not to cut into the main cylindrical part of the bushing.
Materials:
1x- threaded rod (want this to be very close to the inner diameter of the metal sleeve insert of the bushings; length just needs to be long enough to fit the whole bolt-press-jig assembly together- so length of bushing + length of link/suspension arm socket + all other hardware thickness)
2x- grade 8 hex nuts
2x- large washers (want these to be able to cover and be a little larger than the largest diameter of the bushing, so the edge of the washer doesn’t cut into the bushing and the washer will help distribute the force exerted by tightening the nuts on the “bolt press jig”
2x-washers appropriately sized for the hex nuts being used (mentioned above)
*multiple washers between the sizes (2 of each, one for each side of the bolt press jig); just used to properly transition between the two other washer sizes used (large against bushing and hex-bolt-sized against the hex nut
- lots of appropriate type of grease, depending on what the bushings are made of (thankfully most Energy Suspension bushings come with just the right amount of “polyurethane-safe” grease.
Tools:
-compressed air source
-impact gun
-sockets for hex nuts
-adjustable or crescent wrench for hex nuts
- small saw or dremel with rotary cutting wheel
Steps:
1. using the small saw or dremel with cutting wheel make cuts perpendicular to the apex of the bushing surface, ONLY on the outer edge, being careful not to cut into the main cylinder body of the bushing; again just on the edge- this is only to provide enough “flex” for this larger outer edge to tuck and go through the link/ suspension arm’s socket.
2. put a hex nut on the threaded rod so that the nut fully threads on it, but only protrudes a slight amount if any, then the multiple sizes of washers small to large (consider space restrictions; may have to put rod through the link/suspension arm socket first and then start assembly of the jig; may have to thread the rod even further than just “fully seated” on the hex nut on the one side).
3. Put the threaded rod through the bushing on the opposite side of the link/ suspension arm socket, then stack the washers on top from large to small, followed by the hex nut
4. Grease EVERYTHING- lots of grease: inside link/ suspension arm socket, on leading face (slotted side) of bushing and the bushings exterior surfaces
5. Using impact gun (bushing side) and using wrench on opposite side, drive the hex nut down on the bushing side. May have to go slow at first to get the edges aligned and then just fully drive it in. The bushing will not go fully in, but just drive the hex nut tighter until no more forward progress is made.
6. Disassemble the jig and repeat the process for the inner sleeve (remember grease everything!). This time the inner sleeve should push the leading edge of the bushing fully through the link/suspension arm’s socket as long as there was plenty of grease available; if not, one can gently pry out the other side with an appropriate tool
*Tip: found the grease included with these is best removed from tools with a two step process: first WD-40, then Brake cleaner to remove the WD-40
Hope this helps. If anyone has any questions, please free to ask.
I’m Daniel Carrión, manager of Tigernuts Traders, a Valencian company leader in Tigernuts and its derivatives commercialization. We have to go back to 1997, the year when the company was established, to better understand our mission, make this tiny tuber and its amazing properties known worldwide. Since then we have been evolving to get to the point where we are now, worldwide leaders in Tiger Nuts commercialization and cultivation having own managed farms in different locations worldwide.
In our company everything turns around Tigernuts, but for those who don’t know about the product yet, permit me doing an introduction. Tiger Nuts, or chufa in Spanish, it’s a very delicious tuber with amazing properties. They aren’t a new product; indeed, they were already consumed during paleolithic era and since then different civilizations have given them a key role in healthy and balanced diets. Somehow its consumption decreased and there are records confirming at the decade of 1960’s it was only planted in Valencia (Spain) and in West African countries.
Although its traditional uses have been to chew them or produce Horchata (a traditional Tiger Nuts milk manufactured in Valencia region), from our company we have always believed in investigation, development and innovation with an only objective in mind, offering as much different products out of this exotic food for inviting everyone to give it a try.
We want to offer healthy and unique foodstuff covering nutritional and alimentary requirements of consumers for their health and welfare. For this reason, our company works ceaselessly studying and developing the infinite possibilities of a product that was consumed by the most advanced civilizations and that we have re-discovered.
This modest project, born more than 20 years ago, has grown exponentially and nowadays we are selling our products worldwide, essentially for foodstuff industry but paying attention to the emerging markets were Tiger Nuts is getting introduced, such as cosmetic industry.
Our company has always waged in investing in research, development and innovation. This has been our spirit from the very beginning and we are conscious that in this path is the present and future of our customers and clients. With this idea in mind we work in the constant evolution of our products range, and a proof of this desire to improve is that we spare no expenses to obtain novelty and top-quality products.
Attending to our customers’ demands, and applying a sustainable vision on the lands we raise, Tigernuts Traders started planting under organic certification, being pioneers in this kind of crops. Nowadays we are the largest supplier of Organic Tigernuts worldwide, having stock enough to deal with any request we may receive.
But our compromise with quality goes further from the fields. Once Tiger Nuts get to our factory all the tubers pass through an exclusive selection process handled by our well-trained team to make sure only the best quality product gets to our customers. We do and exhaustive cleaning of the Tiger Nuts, eliminating sand, stones and any other material that is not a Tiger Nut. Then we process all them through our hi-tech colour sorting machine which scans every tuber and eliminates all the non-standardized product. The final product accomplishes the highest quality standards.
Our quality department takes samples of every batch and make exhaustive analytical reports to assure the product we supply accomplishes all our customer’s standards. Our objective is to always offer the best quality Tiger Nuts in the market.
The one other objective we work for daily is to satisfy any demand of product at any time of the year. To achieve this, we count with a talented, motivated and multi-language professionals team. And this is because we keep basing our business in a personalized attention to every customer, listening and understanding every case requirements. This has enhanced our logistics to arrive to over 30 different countries worldwide.
The qualities of our human capital and our individualized service permits us offering Tiger Nuts all year round, because your satisfaction is our satisfaction.
Innovate, making the difference and offering the best quality has always been our goal. This is our corporate philosophy, the one that moves us every day to offer the best quality product at the shortest delays.
Because we are Tigernuts.