The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Pilot Bushing

Quick question, I am replacing the clutch on a 216 and need to know what is the best way to remove the pilot bushing.

Charlie

find a piece of dowel that's a snug fit - grease gun the hole nearly full of grease, put the dowel in, smack it with a hammer

Bill

Be careful when you put the new bushing back in. Don't force it with a hammer. I learned the hard way, and ended up removing the entire engine, cutting out the 2nd bushing, and installing a 3rd one. The bushing is made of soft brass. Any distortion from pounding on it and it binds up on the transmission shaft.

After the old bushing is out, carefully clean the hole in the crank shaft, put a light coat of grease on the new bushing, freeze the bushing to make it contract in size, then tap the new bushing into the crank shaft with a larger wood dowel. Good luck.

If the grease thing don't work, there is a tool that will. It is basicly a slide hammer with a hook on the end (well it is not a hook) but it grabs the bushing on the bottom side and allows you to drive it out. And use a wooden dowel with a frozen bushing (put it in the freezer for an hour os so) then drive it back in You don't want it to get marred up when you install the new one.
Note: You can buy a can of stuff from your local welding supply and from some parts houses that when sprayed on a surface will freeze that surface. Great for removal of broken bolts and stuck bushings.

Believe it or not use wet toilet paper, less messy too. Stuff the hole full of it & then use wooden dowl or something to pack it in. The more you force in the more the brass bushing will come out...Joe

The toilet paper worked for me, get it good and wet. I used one of the plastic clutch disc alignment tools. You want as little clearance as possible between the bushing and what ever you pack the paper with.

Larry

Thanks boys,

I'll let you know the out come.

Charlie

i broke a pilot bushing tool using the slide hammer on a stubborn one and i don't like the grease/toilet paper trick but i am sure everyone is right about it working. maybe it's just if my wife finds greasy fingerprints on the toilet paper roll my goose is cooked. i like to just run a coarse thread tap in and then put in a bolt and it presses it's self out. i don't know if it gets any faster or easier than that. the id is a little large for the particular tap i use but it cuts enough threads to work well. saves hunting for perfect size dowel or worrying if you are driving it in more if it contacts the inside of bushing. good luck

It's not even necessary to use a bolt- - - -just keep turning the tap and the bushing walks right out of the hole in the crankshaft!
Jerry

I take an air chisel & whack it up.

I was at my local O'reily auto parts and they had a pilot bushing remover tool free to loan if this helps.
Rick.......

The toliet paper trick worked just fine. Who would have thought that toliet paper stuffed into the hold would force the bushing out but it did. Toliet paper is great stuff not only did it make my wife's butt bigger it also removed the bushing. LOL

Charlie

there you go, glad to hear you got it out. many ways to skin that cat.

I tried the wet toilet paper trick last night on my pilot bushing and viola! - it worked! Never underestimate the power of simple hydraulics even if it's wadded up wet TP. It was actually more tedious to pick out the compressed toilet paper from the crankshaft hole than to pop out the pilot bushing.

Thanks for the tip!

Dan M.
1949 Chevy 3600 w/261 Six