The rear leaf springs have been operating at close to their maximum mass for the last 2 years (80,000 km) over some very rough terrain.  It was therefore not too much of a shock to find the rubber bushes were on their last legs.  Unfortunately, the local Iveco garage in Puerto Montt Chile, didn’t hold any spares and they needed to be shipped in from Italy.  After 4 weeks the spares arrived and I set about replacing the bushes.

I loosened the nuts on the suspension shackle joint and then jacked-up the rear chassis until the bolt through the bush was loose to turn.  I then removed the bolt and the old bushes were easily removed (one just fell out and the other could be worked out easily with a screwdriver).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new ones were pushed into place as far a possible by hand, then the bolt was installed through the bush and one end plate.  The nut had to be put-on backwards to catch the thread, then tightened to squeeze the bushes fully home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was just a case of removing the bolt and reassembling the suspension.  Very easy job and no special tools required.

Update – Jul 2016

I decided it was time (97,000 km) to replace the front bushes on the rear leaf springs.  I used the same basic technique as I had used for the rear ones.  However, I needed to use a second jack to push the spring clear of the chassis bracket and the winch to pull the axle forward so that the spring went back into position when refitting.  The bushes were a tighter fit than at the rear and so I used the original bolt with some large washers to squeeze the two halves of the bush into place.

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