How to remove a leaf spring/rubber bushing FAST AND EASY!! 

hey great video thanks for taking time to help us out, we really appreciate it.

Thanks, this made removing my dirty old bushings a snap

If you do not have a torch or air hammer use the biggest hole saw you can fit in the rubber section. It works well and pulls all the rubber out when you can finally push through. Work both sides with the hole saw. Then cut the inner sleeve in half with a Sawzall and work it out with cold chisels.

Thanks for the video. I was killing myself on 60 ton press. It did nothing. Watched this, 5 minutes later and the bushings were done!

Picked up a Husky air hammer at home depot for $45 a couple months ago. Love mine!

Nice, i just bough one of those cheap air chisel tool in (harbor freight ) And works great . used that to chisel out some chassis rivets .👉😃👀

It’s a great technique to learn on a bushing that’s completely seized, but a bushing press can be rented for free at most auto parts stores and lower the risk of damage. A press can also be operated by hand wenches if you don’t have a compressor. They work just fine, I’ve done double sleeved bushings on tractor trailers by hand so I’m not sure I would air hammer unless I absolutely had too.

perfect - I just torched my old bushings out before watching this vid - did it the same way too. Later we'll see if my air chisel holds up.

Great video man... thanks! Now I can prepare.

Not too shabby of a video. Admittedly, I’m just watching these videos mainly to watch other people struggle to feel better about my project last weekend. I have a 94 bronco and although nothing was wrong with the springs or the bushings, the hangars were rotting away. I live in Illinois so our salt problems are just as bad. I’ve heard that this is the wrong way to burn bushings out. Supposedly the right way is by heating the eye, but I also read that can ruin the spring if you don’t keep the temperature below 400 degrees. Who the hell has time for that and not many of us have the means to know if or when we are exceeding that temperature. In hindsight, if I could time travel back to a week ago I would have just cut everything out and got new springs and bushings pre-installed. This is only half of the hard part. The next part that sucks is getting the new ones back in. Stick em in the freezer the night or two before (the bushings), hit me with silicon grease right when you take em out and they should go in without too much of a fight. Also helps to take a wire brush tool and clean out the rust from those spring eyes.

That 300 Year Old Tool, Saved Your Life!!!

Good job, man

I did it with a propane torch and still on the truck. Took about an hour, but the air hammer is the best tool I've ever bought. Last time I did this on the other side I drilled out and burned out the whole thing...took hours.

Damn Ben! Great technique. Genius. I hadn't thought of this and am busting my ass trying to do this. No Oxy-Acy but maybe Map Gas can get it done. Thanks.

impressed !!

What you can do sometimes depending on the bolt orientation is cut the bolt head off and keep tightening the nut will pull the bolt out remove nut add shims when the nut bottoms out . keep repeating

Good video

Thank you for the video but did you think all this heating, may ruin the Heat Treatment of the Leaf Springs steel? JB

Hand torch using mapp gas.

Hammer a large screwdriver or chisel into the spring space, where the curl ended to expand the curl, hammer out bushing, oil up outside of new bushing, hammer it in, take out screwdriver or chisel….done! About 15 min., per spring.

A few have expressed concern about compromising the spring eye's strength by using heat. As a tool & die maker for 25+ years and hobby knifemaker, here's my take based on how tool steel is heat treated: Annealing renders tool steel dead soft by heating to it's quench temp, probably around 1540 Fahrenheit, then cooling very slowly. Springs are born from annealed spring stock which is first shaped & formed. It's hardened by heating again to it's 1540 quench temp, but this time cooled rapidly, leaving it as hard as it can get...too hard for a spring, so... The next process is "tempering" or "drawing" the excess hardness out of the tool steel, by heating again to the specific temp which makes that alloy a spring, then allowing to air cool. If tempered at progressively higher temps, tool steel will generally get progressively softer, depending on the alloy. This "draw" temp for "spring steel" is about the same as molten lead, 621 degrees, which means you won't actually threaten to draw more temper out of the eyelet, until it starts to turn blue. If one is worried about it, just buff some areas and don't let those bright spots turn color...and of course be careful about direct, concentrated flame contacting the spring. The rapid heat & cool effect can certainly coax a crack yet not color the steel.

How do you get a leaf spring bolt out that will. It come out I’ve try map gas and it still will not come out my leaf spring is completely snapped

chrisfix says torch the outside... anyway my question is ... isn't there a danger torching the eyelet if it's still attached at the front end to the frame of the truck?

I knknow, Those are easy

😊😊

Good work! BTW did you do the shackle flip on your square body chev in the background there?

I'm fixing to torch my bushings out but metal expanses with heat so I'm gonna heat the outside of the leaf spring end and try to knock the bushings out in one piece.!!

The drill bit trick is way easier

Where are you near in wisconsin?

You're changing the metal properties of the steel, use a press instead.

30 minutes later ,all state on fire...

If you heat the outside it will slid right out.

I get the point of what you're doing here and I was with you up until you started splitting the weld on the leaf spring... How is that not a safety issue?

If you heat up the leaf spring itself where the bushing is heated up hot get a punch you knocked that whole thing out

Every body make videos how to remove, which is easy, about installing

But not very one has a compressor to operate a air hammer

Next time show the flame going INTO the steel tube rather than confusing some (not me) by the side view. I've done many that way and I know you weren't heating it very long, but it triggers others. I just aim the preheat flame straight down the steel tube and they often drop out.

It's easy strike with hammer

"ill be back when it stops burning" wind blows a tumbleweed into the flame, flame spreads to lawn, house burns down...

Yes…FAST and EASY..IF you have an acetylene torch and an air hammer!

Don't get why people do this. You just press them out with a hydraulic press or a ball joint press lol.

😂😂😂😂Same language and shit we go through in upstate n.y! Same bkyard fun and good times with rusted shit!😂😂😂😋

Air chissel?dont have one too😂😂

that spring eyelet will break within the year torches ruin the heat treating to the steel.

"2 things a lot of people have." Not trying to be rude as I appreciate the video but like few people are going to have an acetylene torch in their garage. Unless you are a welder you don't have that. Just sayin.

Lollllll 400 years old.

think id rather eat some toast drink a beer (real fast), and go back to bed. tiz what i did. never got done. but it is ok tomorrow is another day. got stress free. cheaper than doctor bills. walk away.

Yeah, don't do that. You completely ruined that leafspring. Some have a weld holding that together, if that one did, it doesn't now. Some don't, but the bushing have tolerance, which you just completely took out of spec by spreading the end

Really men?2 things evryones got..an oxigen torch?!i dont have one!

I hate cars from the north , man they are disgusting!!!

' right word is LIFT SPRING... NOT leaf spring... leaf is a only death branch of plant - tree skin off... ' hi ben... try use a hydraulic press can do that push the rubber off the spring hole