Hello,
I need to replace the bushes on my forks. I could either send them off (hassle, expense) or DIY (looks easy, parts are cheap).

I think I will attempt a DIY.

So, I will need a tool to remove the bushes.

These seem to retail at £100+ but I'm buggered if I'm paying that for what essentially looks like a bit of rod and a washer with 2 flats chopped into it.

Has anyone tred making one themselves? I'm sure it can't be that difficult!

Bump.

I'm interested too. I've got one of the Enduro bearing pullers (designed for HTII bottom bracket I think) but wasn't sure if it'd do the job.

Stu.

Fork bushings are a bugger, as they need to be sized to your forks, essentially the lowers/bushings are tapered so the further you push them in the tighter they get.

IMO, pay the £80, it will save a lot of heartache and only needs doing every 3-4 years if you look after the forks.

Old Skool marzocchis could be done by hand though, but the bushings were only ever a loose fit (hence the legendary plushness) but the system weighed more.

If it's a modern/fairly modern fork, just forget the idea. As above, you HAVE to precisely size the bushing to the stanchion. Failure to to so will give you either loads if stiction and bad stanchion wear or leave you with play. On the forks I've had done, it's only ever needed doing the once and it's fine for at least 3 years afterwards. Just pay TFT or Mojo to do it properly. Believe me, it'll be FAR less hassle and probably cheaper that way! 🙂

Sometimes they don't need replaced either. I recall TFT just "tightened" the bushings on my forks last time which, going from the above, just means moving them in the leg a bit.

get tft/mojo etc to do them. Far too much hassle than it's worth, you'll need to buy the right installation tool as well.

here is my blog about it

bushes came out ok, but only ended up changing the top ones.

Hmmmmmmmm interesting interesting – thanks for your comments, and also thanks for the blog link Dan – very informative!

My reason for asking the qustion initially was that I have a bit of play in the fork, so assumed this must be caused by bushing wear. I guess then that it may just be a case of working out which one(s) are loose and shoving them a bit further in (Last time I opened the forks up the stanchions were perfect)
I should also add that another reason I am considering DIY is that I'm not sure if I want to keep the fork or get shut for another model. The fork isn't really worth much s/h, and rather than throw good money after bad on a service it seems sensible to keep costs as low as possible.

Bush presses seem to be considerably more competitively priced ~ £25 each for upper and lower…. so with a home made puller to get the top bushes out if required then it may still be just the ticket. I also wonder if I could just get away with the longer lower press and a bit of careful measurement and trial and error…

Hmmmmmmmm.