Hey,

Need to put new Upper control arm bushing and outter tie rod ends to pass inspection. Told the shop I would do itmyself. Does anyone know if anything specific needs to be done in order to change them out. I heard something about the bushings being pressed in, rumor or truth? If anyone has had any experience with this certain task, feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I did the upper and lower a-arm bushings. They all came out by melting/burning them out with a propane torch. No press required. Messy, but not that hard. The ES poly replacements simply pushed in with a C-clamp.

Just a friendly hint... there is a "Suspension....." forum.

 

Thanks man, I'll hit them up to see if anyone else has any suggestions...

 

I've been looking into doing this on my v6 beater. From what I've come up with, I think there are actually two different ways of doing this depending on what kind of bushings you will be putting in. If you are going to go with OE rubber type stuff, then you will need to press the old bushings out and then the new ones in. If upgrading to the poly, then it works as Injuneer has said. What is interesting is the poly bushing upgrade is actually cheaper than putting OE style ones in. And speaking from experience having done this on other vehicles, probably easier.

Can anyone confirm the OE vs poly thing?

-Dave

 

I did all of the bushings on my front end, and the uppers are not bad at all, provided you have a torch. If you have it all apart, you should probably go ahead and do the lowers too, but they are not as easy to deal with. I'm not sure how OE replacement bushings are made, but I think that they have come with new sleeves that would need to get pressed into the arm, after the old ones get pressed out. With Poly bushings, you reuse the old sleeves, and thus the burn 'em out method works the best.