Well I will be probaly next weekend. The ball joints and tie rod ends are bad. So with 186,000 miles I figure might as well replace it all. I'll probaly go with the front end kit from Performance Suspension tech. Any other sugestions are welcome as well.
So what will I need to replace the bushings. I've heard it can be a b!tch. I have a machine shop with press and such, plus my father in law has a mechanic shop. Rather not deal with that if I can avoid it. I might as well ask about the ball joints as well. Any special tools needed to remove them?

 

You can remove and replace the lower ball joints with a 10lb. hammer after you remove the lower control arms. The upper ball joints are secured with rivets which you can drill out, the replacements will come with nuts and bolts.

 

I forgot about the bushings, it's really easy to remove those. Simply saturate the old bushings with gasoline or the accelerant of your choice, and just burn them out!

 

I just bought all the parts to rebuild my front suspension. I was going to go with the PST kit...called them to find out whose ball joints they supplied and they wouldn't tell me. I didn't want to put in brand X so I said f*ck them; called Summit and bought the Energy Suspension Poly bushing kit and Moog upper/lower ball joints and tie rod ends. Purchase price came out to $250.

 

What is the ride quality difference between stock bushings and the poly?

 

The ride feels very controled and precise! The polyurathanes are noisier than the stock bushings though.

 

Use a propane torch, won't **** off the neighbors as much as with gasoline Also, good luck on the bottom control arm. I gave up trying to put bushings in that SOB, so I bought BMR lca's. The ride is very firm. Use lots of grease when reassembling, less chance of a future sqeak.

 

I put all poly in my front suspension, I had a shop I like burn out the old bushings and install the poly.
Its not that hard to remove and replace the front suspension.
Since I had it all apart I put in all new ball joints as well.

 

i was gonna do the exact same thing tomorrow, was gonna either get the pst set or something from summit

 

It would be nice if you could, but you CAN'T use lots of grease. There's hardly any room in the a-arms for the bushings, let alone any extra grease. Coating the bushings thoroughly with grease is OK, not excessively, and I can guarantee you'll have problems getting the bushings squished together with lots of grease in there, let alone installing the a-arm. Been there done that.

 

I found getting the A-arms off was the hardest part. The rust around the monting bolt on the vertical bushing swells the metal sleeve going through the bushing and fuses them together. I used a propane torch and cooked that sucker good and smacked up on it with a 4lb mini sledge.
Luckily though I was putting in BMR A's so I didn't have to worry about putting new bushings in.

Pics in sig of some of the install.