I performed an inspection of my front control arms the other day and came to the following conclusions:
1) The ball joints are shot and must be replaced.
2) The bushings look good, but arguably should be replaced while I have the arms out.
The car has 240K miles on it.

One of the two bushings is flared on one end to hold it in. This hasn't been mentioned in any post I searched. Of course, the GM shop manual shows the use of special tool J... for removal and J... for reinstallation and J... for flaring, etc. What has to be done to get the flared bushing out without these special tools? I have access to a press and can make any spacers, etc. needed to press the bushings out, but the flare kinda messes up the equation. Do you cut/grind off the flared part? Or do you "bend" it in by beating on it with a drift of some kind? Also, do you have to flare the new one after it's installed?

And regarding the ball joints, everyone says to get Moog parts, but what about GM replacements? How do they stack up quality-wise? I tend to go with GM parts whenever I can (and where they're reasonably close in price to aftermarket).

 

Can't honestly say I recall the flare... When my dad and I did it we just drilled out the rubber portion, then hit the outer shell from the side to collapse it. When it folded up, it dropped right out. My PST replacements were only flared on one side, so we pressed them in straight side first.
My ball joints came as part of a complete front end kit. IMO that's the way to go. $200 gets you a brand new front suspension and steering.

 

It may very well be that the GM ones have to be flared. This is not the case with replacement ones.

You remove the old ones with an air chisel, and put the new ones in with a hydraulic press. Personally I find it PITA beyond my tolerance. So I buy the soft parts I want to use and go to the boneyard and pay $30 for a spare pair well in advance of the time I plan to do the swap, go to one of the local corner tire stores right before closing time on Sat afternoon, and slip the mech a $20 to change them for me, and the BJs too if he'll do it. Then when I tear the car down I don't have to fool with it and it's that much less time the car spends disabled.

I would absolutely not put GM suspension parts back in. They are no better than aftermarket, in fact they are made by the same companies for the most part, except they are packaged for mass production vs. single replacement. Moog is fine. TRW, Perfect Circle/Dana are also good dependable products.

I agree with the other post, if those parts are worn out, then the rest of those fine OEM parts are equally used up. Do the whole thing all at once. You won't believe the difference.

 

If you plan on replacing the bushings it would be a good idea to go with energy suspension components the fronts cost around $35 bucks and come with sleeves and grease. Any machine shop can do the job for you. The shop I took mine to charged $10 per bushing, to remove the old and press in the new.

If you plan on replacing the rubber with rubber then I still recomend taking it to a machine shop unless you have the right tools to do it. The ideal way to remove the rubber is to heat it up with a torch, then drive it out. To remove the sleeve you will need an air chisel and a hydralic press to install the new ones.

If you decide to go with poly then I recommend installing them on the rear also. After installing them on the front I noticed that the rear-end felt loose. After installing them on the rear I had no complaints and the car has never handled better. The front ones are the biggest task. The rears are simple, I didn't even have to jack the car up just removed them with it on the ground. Two bolts and they drop right out. Just make sure that you block the tires and only remove one control arm at a time, so that the axle doesn't shift on you.


Mark