THE BUSHES

1 Clean the insides of the damper mounting eyes and apply a light smear of copper grease to reduce rusting. Lightly grease the spring plate stubs, too. THERE ARE two sets of bushes: the damper bushes, and the spring bushes which includes the rear swinging shackle bushes in the chassis. Let’s deal with the spring bushes first. Seizure of the bushes that locate the rear shackles to the spring and chassis prevents the shackles from swinging, and thus reduces the springs’ ability to absorb shocks, giving a horribly hard ride with odd handling and fractured leaves. Seizure of the forward bushes which locate the springs directly to the chassis may not be noticed because the spring still has enough length to flex freely, though again, it can lead to fractures in the leaves.

The damper (shock absorber) mounting bushes can become compacted, hardened and worn, leaving the damper loose on its mountings. That means the damper won’t react immediately to spring movement, and you’ll hear a knock, or a bang if they’re really bad. It’s a simple matter to renew the bushes, and it’s now aesthetically practical to fit polyurethane bushes because Polybush is producing them in black which is more appropriate for a classic vehicle than orange.

Before replacing bushes, clean the damper eyes with emery cloth to achieve a smooth surface, and clean the upper locating stub on the chassis and the lower stub on the spring plate. This lower mounting stub is often badly corroded so, if it doesn’t have a smooth round surface, fit a new spring plate. If the mounting stubs on the spring plates are this rotten, 2 the bush will be a loose fit. Buy a new spring plate. Polybush now produces black damper bushes, check 3 polybush.co.uk/latest-news/black-land-rover-series-bushes