- Joined
- Aug 1, 2003
I dont like the idea of farming out work on any of my autos so I didnt hesitate to take on doing the upper a-arm bushings myself
i did a search on this going back a year and read some good suggestions to make this job easier .(at least it sounded good)
thought i would share this.
I needed to change the rear one on passenger side (the one that the DP burns up)
i have read about how it could be done on car by beating out old with an air chisel and cranking new one in with the washer and nut , couldnt see how this could be done with the DP inplace , so forget that idea I would be taking off the whole arm and might as well do the front bushing while i was at it ,
taking the whole arm off wasnt too difficult.
jack up car with jack under lower arm
pull tire off
remove nut and pop upper ball joint (I used a large pitman arm puller not a pickle fork since i wasnt going to replace the ball joint)
removed the two frame bolt nuts at the arm shaft
at the rear I couldnt cant get arm off it with header in way (used a pry bar to push bolt in ) , at front couldnt get arm off with oil line in way (tapped bolt in with a hammer)
now the arm was off the car ,time to get the bushings out
sprayed all with wd40 ,took both end nuts and washers off . used a 4" peice of 2 1/4 "id pipe to brace the arm on the concrete floor and I slid a pickle fork around the shaft at rear of the bushing and a couple wacks with a hammer on the forks and the bushing popped right out , I didnt drill out the rubber or heat it with a torch since it was already pretty much gone from the DP heat
pulled out the shaft and with the pipe backing up arm again on the other side , just wacked out front bushing .
now it was time to put in the new ones
greased up the front bushing and used a ball joint press to put that one in fully seated (probably could have done it with a hammer and the pipe on inside braced on the edge of my bench or just put it in the bench vise )
slid the shaft back in and reinstalled the washer and nut and tighted it up , then moved on to installing the rear bushing , I thought i would try to assemble it and crank it in like Ive read on this board ,I used a 1/2 impact gun and had no such luck , I was able to seat the bushing on the shaft but it didnt seat in the arm (just bent the ear) . quickly backed it back out and the ear went back . knocked the bushing back out , this time i took the bushing and decided to grind the sides down just a little with a belt sander , greased it up again , this time it seated fully .
now i need need to make a small heat sheild for it and do the other side , even though the bushings look good , the passenger side feels noticeably firmer when i push down on fender
after that I'll do the swaybar bushings and if the front isnt tight enough for me then I guess ill be doing the lower bushings
i did a search on this going back a year and read some good suggestions to make this job easier .(at least it sounded good)
thought i would share this.
I needed to change the rear one on passenger side (the one that the DP burns up)
i have read about how it could be done on car by beating out old with an air chisel and cranking new one in with the washer and nut , couldnt see how this could be done with the DP inplace , so forget that idea I would be taking off the whole arm and might as well do the front bushing while i was at it ,
taking the whole arm off wasnt too difficult.
jack up car with jack under lower arm
pull tire off
remove nut and pop upper ball joint (I used a large pitman arm puller not a pickle fork since i wasnt going to replace the ball joint)
removed the two frame bolt nuts at the arm shaft
at the rear I couldnt cant get arm off it with header in way (used a pry bar to push bolt in ) , at front couldnt get arm off with oil line in way (tapped bolt in with a hammer)
now the arm was off the car ,time to get the bushings out
sprayed all with wd40 ,took both end nuts and washers off . used a 4" peice of 2 1/4 "id pipe to brace the arm on the concrete floor and I slid a pickle fork around the shaft at rear of the bushing and a couple wacks with a hammer on the forks and the bushing popped right out , I didnt drill out the rubber or heat it with a torch since it was already pretty much gone from the DP heat
pulled out the shaft and with the pipe backing up arm again on the other side , just wacked out front bushing .
now it was time to put in the new ones
greased up the front bushing and used a ball joint press to put that one in fully seated (probably could have done it with a hammer and the pipe on inside braced on the edge of my bench or just put it in the bench vise )
slid the shaft back in and reinstalled the washer and nut and tighted it up , then moved on to installing the rear bushing , I thought i would try to assemble it and crank it in like Ive read on this board ,I used a 1/2 impact gun and had no such luck , I was able to seat the bushing on the shaft but it didnt seat in the arm (just bent the ear) . quickly backed it back out and the ear went back . knocked the bushing back out , this time i took the bushing and decided to grind the sides down just a little with a belt sander , greased it up again , this time it seated fully .
now i need need to make a small heat sheild for it and do the other side , even though the bushings look good , the passenger side feels noticeably firmer when i push down on fender
after that I'll do the swaybar bushings and if the front isnt tight enough for me then I guess ill be doing the lower bushings
