What are the symptoms of shot rear beam bushes?

[thai-wronghorse]

A reciprocating saw comes in very handy with the removal of these buggers.

[Diamond Hell]

Never touched anything brake related when i swapped mine out.

Any pointers on this avoidance of touching the brake lines would be ideal.

[thai-wronghorse]

The rear beam was left in situ and i simply dropped one side of the beam to body mounts at a time whilst the beam was still connected to the rear struts. There is just enough clearance to get the bush pivot bolt out and let it lower down and sit on a trolley jack whilst you bring the fury to the deceased bushes in question.

At no point did the removal of the brake hoses or lines cross my mind.

Drill, burn, cut and swear at offending items until they exist no more.

It's worth knocking up a bush installation tool as it saved me sh!t loads of time, effort and sanity.

[Len]

A very, very experienced mechanic friend of mine did the rear bushes on my car and he said it was the worst job he had done on any car in his life!

As thai says burn em, hit em, etc. etc.
They are a right pig to get out!
Apparently!

[Dave_IOW]

I can always bring some air chisels back from work to assist us, I've already got mine to do, double rear beam bush night, sounds fun

[Bellend]

Pssst pussy.

Whack the old middle sections out, usually they fall apart. Inside is two sleeves. Knock the inner one out by getting a chissle in the smaller edge. Hard to explain but it's about 8mm thick then just ram a bar through it and it will slide out.

Then comes the harder part which is the outer sleeve. Get a small chisle and ram it in between flat, it's tough but keep going and going. Then just get a sharp chisle and use it to cut it.

Done a few now and it takes about an hour a side. An installation tool is easier, threaded bar, a plate and a 65mm socket is my choice and works better than a bought one.

Clean up before installing new and use fairly liquid. Impact tool makes easy work of installing with a tool, to wind it up.

Lemforder one's fit easiest and will probably last the longest.

Goes without saying but line them up properly and don't tighten them until car is level.

[gazareth]

or you could just inject them with sikaflex . done it to my old golf and it lasted 3 years until car was put off road.

[Diamond Hell]

I'm fully up to speed with how to remove shells of bushes, thanks.  TBH once the inner is out I generally get the air hacksaw in there and cut a slot in the shell, which releases it with much less hammering and aggravation.

Clean up before installing new and use fairly liquid. Impact tool makes easy work of installing with a tool, to wind it up.

Don't use 'fairly liquid'.  It has various things in it, many of which are corrosive if left hanging around between two metal surfaces.  Using copper slip would be much more sensible, empirically better and less pikey.

[JC]

or just dont bother and use the Rado 

[Diamond Hell]

It's my POS Golf3 and I'll be as nice as I want to it.