How do you install these bushings into the LCAs? I've called a couple of repair shops, they don't have a press for it.... machine shop?

These little guys have a nice metal sleeve on the outside, making it seem like it's a .050" or more interference fit...

Can I do it at home? I tried my vice, but as I cranked on it, the bushing tried to twist sideways...? Heat the arms in the oven first maybe? grind a "countersink" into it?

Thanks!

 

anybody do these themselves? any tips/tricks at all?

 

They should be pressed in. You need to make spacers to fit inside the arm so it doesn't collapse when pressing in the steel sleeve (looks like a short piece of pipe cut in half down the center). I would try a machine shop first, and if not a GM dealer should have the correct equipment to press them in.

 

hmm, well a dealer would probably want more then what the bushings are worth to install them, and I prefer to avoid those shysters at all costs...
I'll check with a local machine shop...

Do you mean a tool like this? Drop it in the bushing hole as you try to press in the bushing? I may try to use the arbor press at work to do this, and just put a little bevel on the entrance area of the LCA....
Has anyone used a ball joint c-clamp type of tool for this? or a control arm bushing press tool? (saw one at parts source to rent, but it said it was for front control arms....Looked like the ball joint c-clamp...?)

Thanks

 

Exactly. It would sandwich in the control arm, and be larger in diameter than the sleeve you're pressing in. I would try the machine shop.

 

you guys are makin this too hard. Just drive the things out with a big ball peen hammer and be done with it. Thats what I did, I also drove the new poly ones in with a hammer too, this is not a science. On the front control arms I couldnt swing a hammer at them very well so I burnt them out with a small torch. Problem solved.

 

1) Burn the rubber and cut the sleeves if rusted.

2) Use a ball joint press to assemble/reassemble.

3) Drill the rubber and cut the sleeves

4) Luck out and they pound out with hammer and spacer/punch(happens sometimes)

5) Use a press and actual bearing/bushing spacers to change them out.

addendum) Do be careful when pressing them in/out, I have seen people taco the control arms from siezed bushing not coming out and they keep applying pressure

All the ways to do it out of the top of my head. Least ways I have had to do it over the years.

I am a mechanic by trade and gave up on this lol My friend at the machine shop charged me $25 to put in all bushings and my ball joints and throw it in the hot tank to clean the control arms for me.

Ask around u might be suprised at what u find.

later
Jeremy

 

yea, i've gotten them out fine (well, difficultly, but they're out)....
Maybe i'll try renting the ball joint press and see if I can get them in...
Thanks

 

Well I used Energy Suspension bushings, and rear control arm bushings went in pretty dang hard. I cut a piece of steel and slid it inside the control arm so that the control arm ends would not bend as I hit them with a hammer.

 

how do you mean a piece of steel? like the drawing I attached? or different?

 

He means between the 2 ears where the bushings go.

So when u hammer on them to put the bushings in or do it in a press(depending on size) u dont bend or collapse the ears on the control arm in.

{-} ----- {-}


Just put something between so it doesnt collpase when u install them.

Bushings are the {-} things in the pic I made(yeah me lol)

later
Jeremy

 

WOW WOW take it easy

These things almost fall in if you do it right.

Here's the secret take the ruber out of the new bushing shells then install the steel shells in the control arms first. once they are in grease the poly bushings and slide them in.

Ric

 

ratchet, I can't get the poly seperated from the shell....

3.8TA: I can't read ASCII pictures... but I think I get what you mean. I boxed these control arms, so I shouldn't have to worry about that right?

 

I used a couple of sockets when i did my LCAs.I have a 12 ton press & it was fairly easy.If you boxed all the way around then you wont be able to use any type of spacer,but if the ends are open.Use something between the frame ends or you may crack the welds.Also put something flat & thick enough not to bend on the bushing when pressing in/out.So you can apply pressure all the way around the shell. Or you could end up pushing the rubber/poly out of the shell.

 

dropped by my local machine shop today, $20 they told me.

Then he calls me back, and says there's no way those bushings are fitting into those control arms. Wrong size....?
I'll double check the p/n, on the box, and I think there was a p/n stamped onto the poly itself....

Anyone ever caliper the OD of the shells that I *should* be installing?

 

If there energy poly bushings.the # is 3-3136 with a letter de-noting the color.Cant help on the O.D though.

 

yea, i'm pretty sure that's what I ordered... for some reason I think the # on the bushing itself was different....
Can anyone confirm this? (ie, code on bushing matches code on box?) I'll probably go get them pretty soon here, and take a look at the bushing, and caliper the shell and email ES themselves.

 

I know that # on the bushing never matches the part#.I never noticed there was a code on the box.

 

according to ES:

'You need to remove the stock sleeve in the arm and the bushing with the sleeve will press in."

oops, I just removed the stock rubber chunk.... So I asked if I can remove THEIR sleeve, and use my old sleeve that's probably seized/painted into the arm....

"The sleeves will come out. As far as removing our sleeve the answer is don't do it."


Fair enough, i'll try to remove my stock metal sleeves, then try again...

 

Yeah that'll help.Make sure you use that washer with the bushing.I forgot which side it goes on, but its either the inner or outer side of the LCA.

 

I read in multiple posts above to remove the old sleeves. What have you been reading??

 

yea I know....
I remember reading in posts how to get out the old bushings... how it's a hassle.. I drilled the rubber bushing into swiss cheese, then pushed it out, as I think I read that on here.... never heard to remove the shell too...
but boy, looking at the LCA now, it's pretty obvious that's theres a removable shell sitting right there...
the guy at the machine shop did that too when I went to pick them up....