Hi all, I've been talking about these a fair bit lately to quite a few members, so thought a bit of a piccy diary might help, so here we have a step by step changing of a standard eyelet bush and alloy top hat arrangement for a heavy duty / strong bush kit. Plenty of us use them already, but if you don't then have a read.

Why change? the bush is the sacrificial part of this arrangement, and wears out to protect the eye of the shock, it is fitted with two alloy top hats, as these wear the bike develops a small amount of play / knock and you can detect this by holding the rear wheel between your legs and pulling upwards on the main frame of the bike, if you detect a smidge of play then chances are your bush is worn.

So follow the pics and description below.

Pic 1 below, rear shock removed from bike, with standard alloy top hats fitted.



Pic 2 below, is the heavy duty bush kit replacement, it contains a new eyelet bush, a solid steel pin, two rubber seals, and 2 alloy spacers. This one is from TF tuned, but others are available on line.




Pic 3, the parts in more detail.



Pic 4, see the standard eyelet bush, and the two removed worn alloy top hats, notice as these wear in conjunction with the bush, even with a new bush fitted the bike will still have play. The alloy top hats do not tolerate wear for long.



Pic 5, shows the bush removal tool, used to remove the old bush in conjunction with a vice, and then also used to fit the new eyelet bush as per the picture.



Pic 6, this shows the steel pin, then seal, then alloy spacer fitted to the new eyelet bush. Replacing the alloy top hats with the new arrangement.



Pic 7, the new parts from another angle. This is now ready to be fitted back to the bike.



Once upgraded all play through the bush is gone, and the joy of the heavy duty bush kit is they last about 4 or 5 times as long as the standard arrangement. Well worth the upgrade. About £15 or so.

Also for most bikes you really only need to upgrade the lower eyelet bush with the heavy duty bush. The upper shock bush receives far less wear and hence lasts much better. If this needs swapping though the process is the same.

Also to note the mount kits are specific to each bike and available in a range of different sizes to suit your bike. TF tuned has a handy calculator loaded with lots of frames to get your correct measurements.

Cheers to Tony Bobby 4 Eyes for being the donor bike for the pics / examples.

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