Hey guys, lets try this again. I had this all typed out and lost power before I could post it. Anyways, I wanted to replace some of my rubber bushings up front with poly. So I took off the sway bar, end links, and control arms. On the control arm I also removed the ball joint. I pick up some NAPA premium ball joints, take my poly bushings and the control arms to the garage to get pressed in. I get a phone call a little bit later and told the ball joints don't fit properly. So I go and get some Moog from another store because they are suppose to be oversized slightly and drop them off. I get another phone call little bit later and the same thing. WTF. The guy at the garage said that he could lightly tap the ball joints in with a hammer so this was no good (for both left and right - is this common or is it just my luck?). I know when I took the old ones out it took more effort but maybe it was rusted. So basically what should I do now. I have heard of UMI's new ones. Do they come loaded (poly bushings and ball joints)? Is there any down side with them for a stock setup or any other issues. Should I get a used set of control arms? I found some on the net for about $75 cdn each. So the way it is looking now $150 cdn for used left and right control arms, $100 cdn for moog ball joints, $100 cdn approx for mechanic labor to press everything in. So that is looking like $350 cdn for this while the UMI ones are $380 US plus shipping and brokerage. Or is there something else I can do. What turned out to be simple bushing install has turned quite expensive. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Darrell

 

I'd try another shop or try urself with a hand press to be sure the shop guy isn't just messing it up.

 

If they have to be tapped in (not too loose), put a couple of good tack welds on them and call it a day.

 

hmm, posted April 2008, first response - October 2008. Damn, sometimes this forum really drops the ball eh?
I'm guessing he got it figured out over the summer...

 

Yeah it goes like that sometimes. I can bet that when my car is in pieces and I need urgent advice I won't get a reply for days...but when it is a non-time sensitive question I'll get 3 replies in an hour LOL

 

Hey guys, I got it all figured out. UMI was about to release their front control arms for our cars then. So I got in on the group purchase. Nice pieces from UMI. I figured that why ship in some used ones and then pay somebody to press in the balljoints and polybushings with no guarantee that it will work. UMI came with everything already done just had to slap them in.