Well, the bushings on the passenger side LCA are out as of yesterday afternoon! (For details on my rusted bolts, see <a href="https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=185664" target=newwin>the Day 1 message</a> and also <a href="https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186057" target=newwin>the Day 2 message</a>.) So here's how I did it.

First I followed ChevyMad's advice at the end of <a href="https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175370" target=newwin>this message</a>. On the bushing from which the bolt-rusted-to-sleeve came out of the center, the drill did the most amazing thing. I put the bit between the outer shell and the rubber bushing, and started the drill. It dug in, but didn't dig a hole. The drill started walking around the inside edge of the bushing, against the shell. I was going to stop the drill but I noticed it was walking the bushing up and out!! The bushing popped out in one piece. Very cool.

Other bushing; the "front" leg of the control arm, still had the sleeve in it. Drilled a few holes into the bushing, putting the drill in the gap between the inner sleeve and the outer shell. It drilled in a few times, and then on the last hole, the drill bit did it's magic again, and walked around the inner diameter of the shell, pulling the rubber up towards me, and out enough so I could remove the drill and yank the bushing out.

Shell destruction! I have an air cut off tool (spinning wheel), but you could do this with a hacksaw. I flipped the control arm upside down, so I could see the center of the shell. Then I cut the edges of the shell "inside" the control arm's "U" shape. Then I angled the cut-off wheel to make a "V" between those cuts. The final bushing looked like this:

I|/\|I Where "I" is the control arm's U-shape, and what's between were the cuts. I smacked the "V" flat with a ball peen hammer, this crushed the center of the sleeve.

Then I took the cut off tool up again. I flipped the control arm on it's side, and notched the outer "flattened" end of the bushing shell (on the outside edge of the control arm leg). Then I laid the control arm flat again, and I used a cold chisel with a hammer to crush the ends of the sleeve inward. By this time, the sleeve had collapsed to "half" it's original diameter. Then I put the control arm on it's side again, on a brick, and smacked the crushed shell with the ball end of the hammer. The shell pushed out super-easy.

I took some pics, when I fix that damned bolt-rusted-to-sleeve that also happened on the driver's side , I'm going to take step-by-step pics.

I just hope the new bushings go in just as easily.

 

For kicks, here's a badly drawn picture of what I did to the bushing shells.

 

I'll be doing it myself again soon, this will help a lot and save me $100---THANK YOU SIR!!!!


Ed

 

No problem, Ed! Hell you've helped me out enough with this rebuild, glad I could return some! I took step-by-step pics of how I removed the driver's side's old bushings and shells yesterday. I -even- stuck a paper towel inside the shell after each cut (well, haha, except for the first cut) so you could see the cuts very clearly.

I -even- took two short movies of how a power drill can make those rubber bushings pop out!

Oh, one correction to my above directions. I didn't smack the center of the bushing shell (cut into a "W" shape) directly with a hammer. I used a hammer and a cold chisel. Don't have an exact measurement for the cold chisel off hand, but it's one of those $1.50 Craftsman ones, I believe it's got a 1/2 inch tip.

 

a dead blow hammer, wd-40 and a cold chisel did the job for me. and it only took about 15 min of whacking and both sides were done.