It's TAB time. The job i have been procrastinating about. Got them in the mail Friday front and rear, and picked up my shocks and a new pair of springs while I was there.
Question.
The FEBI tabs are not perfectly round. Is this normal? I am not talikng tapered is i know they are, but diameter up and down is greater than left to right. There are spaces in the rubber which i would assume are spaces to allow the rubber to collapse into under stress without tearing. There is a down arrow signalling proper insertion. The bushing is very slightly oblonged with the widest point being the upper and lower part where all the rubber is and the skinnier part being left to right were the spaces in the rubber are. Again this is normal? About a 1/16" difference.
Homemade tool is almost ready. Couldn't find a 1/2 X 8 NF grade 8 bolt at seven eleven so I need to go to the supplier sometime next week to complete my official Brickboard Tab puller per Art again and Erlings page.
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91 Brick turning 400,000 this month

Yes they are oblong. There should be an arrow on the Rubber telling you which end points down. Aside from being oblong, the hole in the TAB is not centered so pay attention to the arrow indicator on the rubber. I believe the Meatier rubber faces down. Use bearing grease on the threads of the Bolts. They are working pretty hard. Press the old ones out toward the Center of the car. You should be able to see the taper on the old ones showing which way to push.
http://home.no.net/ebrox/TAB.htm

When replacing the Springs, I found it easier ( on the Passenger side) to take the small bracket off teh Caliper. It's the bracket that is meant to leverage a bar off of when installing the Brake Pins. It'll give you that extra room you need because the exhaust is there.



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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

Yes the bushings are oblong a bit and tapered some, As are the original ones. Make sure to follow the arrows or make sure to install exactly as old ones came out. On the new poly bushings there is a wheel side direction for the bushing and sleeve. Please do the rear ones first as it keeps the arm from wiggling around while trying to remove the rear bushings with a home made tool that requires some amount of pressure to extract the bushing shell. I made a few posts a while back on redesiging the pusher part of the tool to install the new poly bushings and new shell. There is also a few posts on where to order the special grade 8 -20-8 bolt, nuts and washers required to substain the heavy pressure. I think they sell the bolts for around $3.00 or so. Last thought, make sure to install the bolt for the tool from the center side direction. If you use the tool with the bolt installed from the wheel side you will not be able to remove it after you remove the bushing or install them.
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Max..1989 244 DL 5 Spd., V15 Phase II Cam Bilstein HD, Turbo Swaybars, Poly Bushings all round, Turbo Wheels, Black leather interior, Electric mirrors, LED dash and gauge lights and now NEW ECODES with the turn signals, 1992 black 244 next project

I also had trouble finding the bolt and started looking for threaded rod and couldn't find it either. I went to an industrial part of town just west of downtown Dallas and found the grade 8 bolt and nut. I bought 2 of each just in case. The gas to go there and back cost more than the nuts and bolts combined.
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If it needs to be maintained, repaired or replaced on a 1990 240, I've probably done it. '90 240DL, 245K looking forward to 300K badge. >>You haven't really worked on a car until you draw blood<< :-}

I used my homemade tool with the car on a lift, and it was very easy. I loaned it to a friend and watched him struggle to an unsuccessful effort in his driveway (burned 'em out instead, was putting in poly and needed only the shell, but didn't want to burn the rubber out in the driveway in the car).

I used a piece of 1/2" x 20tpi threaded rod cut to length with an old 240 lugnut welded on one end to form my "bolt." Couldn't find the correct length bolt locally, either, and I had the allthread sitting around from a prior project.

We made a flat piece of 1/4" steel plate into a bushing pusher to press in the new bushing. To press the bushing out, you need that cylinder of a specific diameter as the instructions call for, so it will fit into the round hole in the flange on the axle. But to press the new bushing in, I found that my grinding was not precise enough and my cylindrical pusher was too small when used on the slightly larger non-tapered side. Flat plate with a bit hole in the middle worked fine, since the bushing's final resting place leaves some of it sticking out past the flanges on the axle, thus the cylinder isn't needed.

Good luck...leverage is your friend.

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forums.turbobricks.com

I just finished my tool last week. Erling's page looks like he's using all-thread, rather than Grade 8 1/2"x8", so that's what I'm using. Neither Home Depot, Ace or any fastener suppliers in the area carried anything of that size. In the end though, I might just end up burning out the old ones and replacing them with poly.
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'82 260 Diesel (RIP), '89 240