i decided to go ahead and take the centerlink that came out of my car apart today...what a heinous task. i think i went through 3 cutting wheels and by the time i was done i had totally massacred the body, and it may not be useable...
the backside of the ends are covered with a fairly thick steel cap that is actually two seperate pieces; the "dome" and a ring around the outside edge that is swaged in place. at first i thought it might be possible to just cut off the ring and hammer the pin out with all the guts, and maybe this would preserve the domed cap for reuse... wrong. you must cut out the center cap only without disturbing the ring or you lose what holds everything securely together...
here you can see the early stages...each "quadrant" is a crescent-shaped sliver of whats left of the cap:
after a while they started to come loose and could be pried out:
and then a huge chunk let go:
heres whats left of the cap and the external part of the nylon bushing (what the piman/idler arms tighten down against):
this is what the whole thing looks like when assembled inside the 'link ends:
and each part, L to R: main bushing, pin, centering rings, and the other bushing that is just under the cap:
a very important part of this is to first measure what will be the height of the new bushing by torquing the arm (pitman or idler, whichever side youre working with) and carefully measuring the gap after youve removed the nylon sleeve with a knife so it looks like this:
of course, i forgot to do this part first, while the pin was nice and tight, so i had to fake it by using a small puller to hold it firm while taking measurements (measure in inches, it will make shim/bushing shopping much easier):
i may have put a little too much force on it and squished the nylon a bit more than it normally is, so my measurements (taken at 4 points around its circumference) were higher than some others ive seen on the forum and they varied by about 0.010", but i'm using a stack of bronze washers so i'll be able to adjust...the average was 0.4625".
once the guts were out i could see what a mess i'd made of the end...i had cut a notch out and tried to chisel the ring off:
without the swaged end to keep the pin & bushings in place they would be free to just pop right out the backside, so i might have to devise something else...maybe just weld it shut...luckily i still have the NOS 'link, so i might overhaul that one properly (now that i know what not to do) and use it on the car. then i can repair this one once i figure out the best way. it may work better to use a very small grinding wheel or burring tool than a wheel...less collateral damage...
