What tool is needed to press out the front lower control arm bushings? Seems to be a bunch of different ones on amazon dont wanna get the wrong one.

 

A 50 ton press. Bring the control arms and new bushings to your local machine shop.

 

Getting the old ones out is one thing, putting the new ones in is another. It's easy enough to heat the sleeve with a torch and push the rubber out. Then collapse the sleeve in on itself, and they fall right out. Can also cut across the sleeve with a hacksaw to make it easier to fold in. Or go King Kong with the air chisel. Lots of ways to get them out.

There's a thread not all that long ago detailing how to do the job with a rented ball joint press. I'd expect there are plenty of youtube tutorials also.

 

been wondering same thing myself. if I recall, some guys are making a tool out of pipe, essentially stuck in the control arm during the press in, so the control arm is not crushed. how did you manage to get your coil springs out?

 

My 20 ton HF press did them easy peasy. Some BIG sockets and some galvanized couplers in roughly 2" dia work very well to push in/out the old bushings. Anything solid enough to fit between the insides (by the bushing) keeps the sides from collapsing when pressing the old/new bushings.

 

Or you can get 82-03 S10 2WD control arms with new bushings and ball joint from Rockauto. I bought control arms for mine for when I do my air suspension.

 

How closely have you compared the light truck control arms to thirdgen control arms? They look similar, but the part numbers aren't the same. Just in thirdgens the steering stops vary, and there are three different part numbers. How did you reach the conclusion they interchange?

According to GM, The S10 arms crossover to G body cars. Thirdgen arms only crossover to thirdgens.

 

I'd probably just have it done unless you rent the ball joint tool for free at your local parts house and rig that up to work. The cheapo hydraulic presses have the strength to push out the bushings, but usually not the geometry. No matter how I positioned the arms, I couldn't get it in the correct alignment for the press. Ball joint was a piece of cake, but not the bushing.

 

I drilled and burned out the old rubber and hammered/chiseled the old outer sleeve and folded it on on itself to remove them. Pressed the new ones in with the ball joint press tool. It worked pretty well using quick bursts with an air impact gun. Also, as was previously stated, you need to place a spacer of the correct width between the two sides of the stamped steel control arm so it doesn't collapse when pressing in the new bushing.