Upper contol arm bushings R&R

[Archangel]

Ok, I spend the whole day today fighting the passenger side control arms (got a stubborn bolt, had to cut the bitch off), which resulted in the lower control arm being ready for installation of the poly bushings. Question is, how I go about the uppers? I got off the nuts that hold the control arm to the shaft, the outside edge of the bushngs has been burned and cut off - how do I remove the shaft so I can get to the bushings and sleeves there?

[mrltd]

Scott actually ground the bumps off my shafts to install them, I would imagine that you could do the same to remove them. Normally you would press one of the outer shells out of the control arm.

[85crownHPP]

yeah I was wondering how the shafts came out of the uppers too.... the stock ones in my donor arms dont look bad at all, but I want new lower ones for sure. seems silly to do lower but not the upper though....

[mrltd]

Very silly...do them. The uppers on my wagon were so far gone that the shaft wore through the outer shell. And from what I could see, they didn't look to bad either. Drove really nice too!

[Archangel]

MrLTD, grinding the small teeth won't help, the fuckin shaft just doesn''t want slide cause the damn sleeves are like bonded by rust to it. I got them to move a little though, I'm planning on finishing the passenger side tomorrow, dunno when I'll do the other one, maybe next weekend.

[mrltd]

Ah, I though the whole rubber part of the bushing was already out. The part I meant for you to grind was the actual shaft, where it gets wider for the mounting bolts to go through it. If you can get the whole shaft out, a grinder or chisel would make short work of the sleeves.

[Archangel]

Yeah, the chisel trick works fine for the sleeves, the problem are the rubber bushings - can't even burn them while they are in there, my propane torch doesn't focus the flame, had I had an acetylen torch it would be breeze.

[Archangel]

DONE!!! Turned out WD-40 pretty well desintegrates old rubber, a little help from the small kitchen knife for separating bones from meat and I pulled the bushings out even with the shafts in and with the sleeves. It feels sooo damn good to know it is all over

[mrltd]

a drill bit also works good for destroying the bushings...Arms have to be off the car though.

[Archangel]

Control arms were off the car, but I don't have a cordless drill, and even if I had one I'd be quite hesitant to use it like that.

[85crownHPP]

At work the other day I got the bushings out of my 92-95 style upper arms...
I sliced the parts of the bushings sitcking out with a ginzu knife, then heated the outer sleeves with a handheld propane torch untill the bushing started to cook and oozed out. After a bit of this, I was able to prod the rest out with a pick.
The innder sleves slid right off the shaft and free fronm the bushing. i did spin the shaft a few times with the impact gun on one nut (other nut removed) so that may have helped free the inner from the shaft. The outer sleeve is fused to the arm like it should be i guess lol


Any good way to clean the rest of the molten rubber out of the outer sleve?

[turbo2256b]

Should have brought your uppers to me I got the tool to do them.

[gadget73]

Scott uses a propane roofing torch / weed burner. Few minutes with that and the rubber just pops out of the sleeve.

[Archangel]

Should have brought your uppers to me I got the tool to do them.

Figured so, but how was I supposed to get there, walk like 20 miles? Remember it was Independence Day weekend, everyone I know was gone, the only transportation that would be available to me would be my ex's El Camino, and I'd rather crawl every single one of those 20 miles than ask her for help.

Thain, yeah, I know, only I couldn't find anything like that in Lowe's and the nearest Harbor Freight location is pretty much in Dave's backyard (read above).

[1987cp]

:bump: :bump: :bump:

This grinding of bumps Mike speaks of ... does he mean that Scott removed some material around one bolt hole on the UCA shaft, so that it will slide further into that side's bushing shell and allow the shaft to be completely removed for cleaning?