My T has a little "looseness" up front and I want to address that. How much of a project is that? From what I gather, you have to ream the new bushings to fit? I do not have a reaming tool, so what would "Plan B" be for a guy like me?

How big of a job is this? What special tools will I need? Should I set aside an afternnon, an entire weekend or a whole month for this project, lol? Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank's,
Steve

The reamer and surfacing tool are almost a must for a proper job. The video and / or the booklet offered on this site is invaluable to the job. It is not a bad job. With good luck, and proper tools a day should get it done. If you don't do it properly, it is a waste of time.

There have been threads about this before. I will repeat again, that I got a perfect fit using a long 1/2 inch drill bit in a drill press, and careful use of the angle grinder for height of the new bushings.

Whatever you do, do the whole job! There are many threads on what to do, I just did it, and it was not bad at all with all the info here on the forum. Use the Search function, and your questions will be answered. If you complete your forum profile, you will probably find T folks in your area willing to help.

There is a way to do it without the expensive seldom used special reamers - if you have access to a lathe, see Garnet and Richard Gould's posts in this thread: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/87703.html

Your profile dont say where you are at but I know our local club has a few tools that get passed around to those in need.You might check to see if there is a club local to ye.I bought a reamer a while back on ebay reasonable.So they can be had.
1 thing to keep in mind.However you ream,drill or hone,or handfile your bushings,make sure they are in alignment.I learned this the hard way as I took a set of spindals to a coworkers grandfathers machine shop and bless his heart he tried,but you could stick the spindal bolt in from either way and it fit thru the first,and tight into the second and wouldnt turn loose to save your life.What it amounted to is he didnt have a full lenght reamer.He reamed 1,turned it over and reamed the other.Ye kaint do dat! Wont werk!

You have to drill out the new bushings for the spindle bolt? The O.D. of the bolt and I.D. of the bushings are not the same? I guess I'm missing something here. Are we talking about the bushings in the spindle or the axle?

Steve

Mr. Steve, you need to let us know where you are as you need help and with out the book or tools ,you are in for a learning experience. It is about a days job to remove the axle spindles and rebush .It isn't difficult once you've been there.

Jack

I had a friend do it and it took him less than an hour, but he is a mechanic. The bushings in the spindle.

I replaced my spindles and bushes just recently. To get a bush out I threaded it with a tap and screwing a bolt into place then knocked the bush out with a steel rod from the other end. That was the easy part.
I had the misfortune however to buy a kit from a well known USA supplier plus a fixed reamer and a cutter for adjusting the height of the bushes. The reamer was of a very high quality and of course appropriately expensive. Unfortunately the entire kit of spindles, bushes and brass oilers were to put it crudely just crap. As I live in Australia I hope Americans understand what crap is? The spindles were 0.004 inches undersize which meant that I had to then locate an adjustable reamer with a guide. The bushes were found to be 0.008 inches oversize and I then had to find some others of the right size. The bushes should be I am told 0.0015 inches oversize for a press fit. But this was not all! The brass oilers supplied for the spindles had the wrong thread and were impossible to fit. So I am just so glad here to have the opportunity to get this off my chest. You might ask why didn't I send the parts back. Well from Australia that is a little expensive as the international airlines hold us all to ransom here with their airfreight charges. I just hope I don't get sued over this tirade. Happy motoring!

Well Trevor, I have had the opposite experience.

I hummed and harred long but eventually purchased the kit of spindles, bushings, reamer and facing tool. It was the best thing I ever did.

I belted out the old bushes with a removal tool, pressed in the new bushes, reamed them (twice) faced them (up to four times) and I now have a beautifully working front end.

I also used a shop press to straighten the axle and adjust the camber.

Tie rod ends are new and the drag link is tight.

I too am in Australia!

well if you got some parts you werent happy with,specialy for what you payed for shipping,I would be on the telephone letting them know about it.You can let them know the problems without a fuss fight.It is way past time for all folkes to quit takeing a beating on stuff if they aint happy with what they bought with thier hard earned money.

Trevor,

Don't blame the airlines for the high postal prices. We were forced into airmail by the US postal service withdrawing surface mail services. It took longer but if you are organised. you could work around the delay. Now we have no choice.

It's been a while since I did my bushings, but all the ones I bought were too big on the OD. I have seen quite a few front spindles with hairline cracks in them--I suspect from having oversized bushings pressed into them. Fortunately, I have a lathe, so I just turned them down to a proper press fit--but why should we have to do this with such a commonly-replaced part??
BTW, the nice thing with the lathe is that I could measure the distance between my axle "eyes" and the length of the spindle body, and pre-turn the bushing flanges for a proper fit before pressing them in.
T'
David D.