UKSaabs

The tool parts are quite useful as you have a cup to receive the old bush and a tool to pull it through but several folks on here have mullered the threaded rods - both mine sheare din half - Mine was a Sealey tool - second Sealey tool I have had fail in a year - the other was the spring clip remover for the hoses on the end of a cable drive with remote handle.

i have just been to my local autofactors and they didnt have any of these bushs for saab in any of there books so i have orderd some for a vectra b i gather that they are the same?

Yeah I've seen/understand the tool mate just think I could knock up a home made version for less money ie. Piece of steel tube with big washer or flat piece of steel on the end and there's your receiver cup bit etc

I previously owned a Vectra B with the same rose bushes, decided to save £40 (Andrew Page's) and not buy the Vauxhall tool as I only needed to change 1 collapsed bush (£9). I could bash it out using a lump hammer, suitable size socket, some threaded bar and huge washers, or so I thought I ended up 6 hours later with a well battered socket lots of spanner rash and car left on axle stands overnight. Eventually I got the old bush out new one in. three weeks later I decided to change the other 3, bought the tool all fitted in situ within 1 ½ hours.

I just thought I'd add my two-penneth after spending a fair chunk of my weekend doing this job.

I bought the special tool (Sealey vs-721) and after both of the threaded bars broke as per previous posters (despite taking lots of care to make sure everything was square and keeping the bar well lubed etc.), then went down to my local metal wholesaler and bought some threaded rod. This didn't break, but the thread stripped so I finally got the joint out by modifying the tool to pull out the ball joint part from the centre and then cutting through the outer shell with a junior hacksaw.

The tool was then not the right size to push the new joint in as the insertion cup wasn't deep enough, but fortunately I had a hollow cnc'd ring of the same size knocking around in the garage from goodness knows where which did the trick.

My advice, as I think someone else said on the thread, is to wherever possible do this job with the trailing arm off the car - particularly if you are dealing with an older (1997) or high-mile (186k) car like I was. The joint was literally as good as welded into the arm.

Spoke to my mate who is in the garage trade and he said that if they had this job come in they would take the arm off from the outset and use the 5-tonne hydraulic press to remove the rose joint!

Found this thread while googling around for Saab 9-5 and rose bushes...

I am in the middle of replacing my 4 trailing arm rose bushes. Using the "rose bush tool" found in many different varities on ebay, I easily did the upper ones.

Also removing the lower ones worked out OK. But when attempting to press in the lower ones, I'm kind of scrathing my head.
The tool I got from ebay has one deep socket, and one more shallow socket. Both have an outer diameter of 60mm. But when mounting the shallow socket as in it is done here:
http://s289.photobucket.com/user/johno1 ... rt=3&o=106

The socket is to big to fit properly in the narrow space in the trailing arm. The result is that the lower edge of the socket slips outside of the lower edge of the trailing arm, which in turn results in the bushing not aligning properly when pressed. Two times it has gotten stuck on its way in in a "bad angle", and I've had to push it back out from the other side.

Question is - what diameter size should the shallow (the one on the left side) have? To me it seems that 50mm diameter should be enough, and then it would better align and get support on the trailing arm all around the circumference.

johno wrote:

Murphwiz wrote:Done loads of the tranverse link bushes, 10 mins each with an air gun and the tool, bit longer if your spannering, but still absolutel doddle of a job, all done in situ, just pop the bolt out, push arm up/down and your in.
I also have the required tool if anyone needs a loan.

Well thats great news (more along the lines of what I wanted to hear) Mr Murphwiz Sir.
I knew Id read somewhere that it was an easy enough job with the tool, but a right PIA without it.
Thanks for the info matey.

Hiya johno,just about to do the trail arm and rear rose bushes on my 9-3 3.0 diesel.This looks like a pretty straight forward job to me,but do you know where I can hire the removal tool from mate.

Regards
Eddie

I am off to look at an early 9-5 tomorrow and was warned about checking rear tyre wear etc relating to worn rose bushes.
This thread reminds me of the time I changed out the front wishbone bush on the wife's BMW Mini Cooper, without removing the subframe. The job took all weekend on axle stands and nearly killed me. It's a large bush, around the size of a coke can and really hard to remove and refit without proper BMW workshop tools, ramp etc etc. The second bush is still on the shelf in my workshop.

redrocket wrote:Things were going so well until..............

Oh eck, now Ive gone & broke Carls tool!

been there and broke my bush tool as well

I found it just as easy knocking these out with a small cold chisel and a hammer,And tapping the new ones in carefully using a piece of 2x2" to tap the edges.Went in very wel using this method,but the trail arm bush on the other hand was a total ''Censored'' to get out and the new one was very tight and had to be ever so slightly ground down using a sanding disc on a grinder and the knocking it in again carefullt tapping the edges true.

eddie66 wrote:

redrocket wrote:Things were going so well until..............

,And tapping the new ones in carefully using a piece of 2x2" to tap the edges.

How do you manage to tap the edges evenly all around the circumference so it goes straight in using this method?

My big rtab's were a huge pain in the bottom to get out, especially with the arm still on the car as it just wobbled about wherever you tried to apply any force with a hammer. The replacements were a doddle to fit as I went for poly for this reason.
I've not done the rose bushes (yet) but recently changed the front arm console bushes on my brother in law's polo which is a similar principal... and whilst we had a home made tool for it using threaded bar, washers and nuts, I must say as much as the tool helped and played a key part, it would not have done the job alone, whilst the tool was under tension, several "adjustments" were made with the big hammer to help it on its way in!

Have also heard a few horror stories of cracking the trailing arm using the hammer and drift method

Guess that can happen....

Finished doing my rose bushes using the "rose bush tool", which in reality is a threaded bar+washers and nuts.
The upper ones are a breeze. But i noticed that it is much easier to get the bushings in if they are pushed in from the front side of the arm, rather than the back side (which most other people seem to do).

The lower ones are much more work, since it's little room, and the bushings tend to enter the trailing arm in a wrong angle.

cozmo wrote:

eddie66 wrote:

redrocket wrote:Things were going so well until..............

,And tapping the new ones in carefully using a piece of 2x2" to tap the edges.

How do you manage to tap the edges evenly all around the circumference so it goes straight in using this method?

Alittle copper slip is usully the best lube method,and if you put a light coating on the bush itself,and then support the trail arm with an axle stand,insert the bush to the edge of the housing,and with arubber mallt or nylon hammer push down on the trail arm whilst holding the bush and tap it home gently working your way around the bush.Dont apply massive blows though,as it can cause the bush tsplit at the edges. Takes a while but it saves having to remove the whole arm.

Ive got this butt of a job to do on my 9-5. Had a free bonnet badge from saab as long as she could have a free safety check. They picked up both sides, passenger side was the worst. Also the fuel filter needed doing. that was in the boot still from last summer. Done the fuel filter last weekend and order the bushes. Know im going to see if i can hire a tool from a tool store. If not ive seen a few on ebay for £25.

Not looking forward to doing this job. Would a bit of heat help ?

I assume your filter is one of the banjo ones? Got to do mine - got the toll and the filter .. can I get the clips off......no!