Keep 33 year old good bushings or replace?

I'm putting BNE's spherical trailing arm bushings in. My FRONT bushings on the trailing arms still look ok, but I did buy new Volvo bushings for this project too.

What would you do? Keep the 33 year old German manufactured bushings? Or switch to the new Romanian manufactured Volvo bushings?


I'm really asking because I tried pressing the old bushings out last night and was thoroughly defeated! lol. I dnot have an impact socket that fits the bushing shell exactly right, so removing these will involve fire and cutting tools. Don't really want to go through that today.

If you're already taking out the arms, replace everything you can so you don't have to later.

That 30 year old rubber is hard and unflexible compared to a new fresh rubber bushing. If you want the best results it's worth it to change the bushing. Volvo has a drift and receiver for that so the trailing arm is supported well. Be sure to support the arm well if you are pressing it out. Some time with penetrating oil will help break the bushing loose. That one and the front control arm bushing are the toughest to replace.

dl242gt said:

That 30 year old rubber is hard and unflexible compared to a new fresh rubber bushing. If you want the best results it's worth it to change the bushing. Volvo has a drift and receiver for that so the trailing arm is supported well. Be sure to support the arm well if you are pressing it out. Some time with penetrating oil will help break the bushing loose. That one and the front control arm bushing are the toughest to replace.

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Yeah. I had to burn out the front CA bushing when I did it. Then cut through the shell until it came loose.

I guess that's what I'll do to this one too. I don't have a press so I'm trying to do it with an acme screw and impact sockets.


At least I can take solace in the fact that these bushings will last 30 years or so before needing this again! lol

Those front trailing arm bushing make my press creak and pop when it starts moving that bushing. The penetrating oil time helps. If you can let it sit on there for a day or two.

When I replaced the wagon front bushings the front smaller bushing was seized to the bolt. I had to cut both ends of the bolt to get that arm out.

I have to say that when I replaced the rear suspension bushings on my 1963 PV a few years back, they initially looked pretty bad from the outside (dry cracked rubber) but upon actually removing them I found that the dry rotted layer was very thin, and the bushings were still really in great shape throughout 95% of the rubber. It really wouldn't have been a problem to let them stay in use another decade or two past the 55+ years they'd already served.

Yeah thats the thing. These aren't even dry rotted. They look and feel fine, but they must be original. I have to scrape off some undercoating to see the shell.

This car seems to have been stored indoors it's whole life.