Change control arm bushings myself?

[green95ss]

Is this hard to do? I would like to replace all of them in the car, as it now has 101,000 miles and the suspension feels loose over bumps. Does anyone sell a kit and/or has anyone done this themselves before?

Thanks in advance,

Guhan

 

[SPEEDY TY]

I have romoved the bushing from several 40+ year old cars. If they are old and rusted I burn out the ruber w/ a torch (a propane thingy should do fine). Then I beat the sleeves out. Its not hard to do, just a little time consuming. Then I carefully beat the new bushings in. If you mess up the inner sleve just clean it up with a file. Put some anti seze (sp?) on the inner sleves so they won't rust to the thingy they bolt to.

As far as where to buy, I have been told that GM carries aftermarket polly bushings (cost an arm and a leg tho), but just do a search for energy suspensions.

 

[terryk]

If you stare at the manual long enough you're realize how easy it is to fabricate the tools to remove and install new bushings using threaded rods, washers and iron pipe sleeves. The ears want to pinch together so I cut a pipe in half the size of the ear gap and put it in there to hold them apart. The bushings are only held (pinched) on one side. The other side it just a tight fit.

The uppers are little trickier because of the shaft. For the cost, you might want to just have a machine shop do it. Mine were $18 for labor for both sides of the uppers. Still, you can fab the tools to do it.

I've been doing the lower style (no shaft) myself for years on various GM cars.

Don't forget to put the spacers in the top if you have them.

A final note, some replacement bushings aren't pinch enough by the arms (slight diameter difference or wear from being swapped). Be prepared to haul the arms (upper and lower) to a welder to have them add three tack welds to the bushings to hold them in. That cost me $10 for all four arms (8 bushes and 24 tack welds).

I only use rubber.

Terry

 

[BJM]

10 years ago no local garage wanted to change my bushings and even the ones who would would not guarantee that they would not wreck the arms. I built my own press with some plate and angle iron and use a smallish 6 ton bottle jack to apply loads.

For supporting the arm (U shaped ones) I found a 2 1/2" pipe and cut off ~1.375" chunk, or whatever the internal width of the arm is. Cut that chunk in half leaving you with 2 "C" shapes to push in around the bushing while pressing it out.

The best mandrel set ever invented is my 3/4" drive socket set. The sockets go right up big enough to receive the bushing when it pops out to small enough to push the bushing out. I stack up the receiving socket, the arm, and the one doing the pushing in the press and pump away. My press is not very huge or bulky and it takes up some energy while pressing. The bushings always come out with a huge bang. Pressing in is very simple and quiet.

Only on my Buick's upper arms have I resorted to drilling out the rubber on the bushing and then used the press to crush the shell down to get it out. Then the shaft slides out and then I pressed out the second bushing on press.

Make or buy a press and you will never go back again. Since I made my press, press prices have dropped a lot.

 

[SPEEDY TY]

I'm a bit of a pyro, I like to burn them.