DR.ZED

Moving into a house in April, and will be getting a full air compressor set.

I'm interested in hearing the difficulty level of changing all the bushings in the front end (doing the LS1 brake upgrade at the same time).

Any information would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Edit: car is a 94 Zed.

J96Z

I just changed out my shocks and springs today and I did the front upper bushings pretty easily. Actually it was a pain digging out all the old rubber since you have to reuse the old metal shell from the stock bushings, but it's pretty straight forward. Onthe lower control arm, I found that the forward bolt will not slide out all the way because the steering rack is in the way.Igot the back bolt out no problem but that forward one drove me nuts. I loosened the steerin rack bolts and it still won't move far enough to get the bolts out. So I guess I'll just wait until I need to remove the steering rack to replace the lower bushings unless anyone has another way around this problem. I alreay posted it and am still waiting for a response. By the way, my car looks alot better with the DMS springs on. Good luck.

Vader

To get the lower bushing bolt out, all you do is turn the front wheels to the left or right, and the inner tie rod moves out of the way accordingly.........easy.

Injuneer

Getting the old bushings out is relatively easy.... no "digging" required..... just heat them with a propane torch until they melt and fall out. Very messy, stinks and a lot of smoke, so do it outside.

Replacement is just as easy, unless you get the ES poly bushings.... the uppers and lower horizontal bushings are easy to insert, but the lower vertical bushing is a different design, that requires you to remove the steel "can" from the a-arm. Mine was rusted in pretty badly, but came out with some pounding. The ES replacement bushing is a 3-piece deal that requires some compression to force it together.... I did is with a large C-clamp, but it wasn't easy.

After heating the a-arms with a torch, give them a coat of paint, or they will rust even faster than normal.

revtime

OH Yes, what fun. All my front suspension is polly. I took the upper and lower control arms off and I hate to say it but I cheated and took them to a shop and had them put in the bushings and new ball joints. I then reassembled it all and I have to say it is enough work just taking them out and putting them in.
Vertical bolt on the lower control arm will give ya fits, mine was rusted pretty bad and took some real beating with a 3 pound hammer to get both of em out. Horizontal bolts are pretty easy as long as you remember that the steering wheel turns. I fought it for like an hour before I figured it out.
I don,t know how much mileage you got but it is not much more expensive to go ahead and put in new ball joints and outer tie rod ends. I did everything, shocks, springs, upper and lower ball joints, tie rod ends, and bushings.

DR.ZED

Thanks all.

This post is VERY informative, and information laden.

EXACTLY what I needed.

Thanks!!!!