Suspension and bushings help

spock2001us

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Aug 23, 2005
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This weekend I am redoing my entire suspension so I am asking for any hints or advice when it comes to bushings.

I am putting in new Eibach Pro-Kit springs, ball joints (Moog), tie rod ends, brakes (while I am there, cause the pads are lifetime), I have Monroe shocks that I put on 5 years ago (before I discovered this website) and they are lifetime warranty, so I am going to just replace them with new ones for now.

And, I am also installing the Energy Suspension Master kit....which of course includes the LCA bushings in front and both arms in back. So, give me some advice how to remove the old bushings. When I did bushings years ago on an old Honda, I tried everything to try and press them out, then I finally put them on a vice and used a deep socket to press them out.

Any hints or advice to removing the old bushings from the arms? Of course I could have bought new arms with bushings already installed, but what fun would that be???....lol.:shrug:
 
The only bushings that are difficult to get out are the UCA bushings on the axle housing. I just used a drill, rasp and screwdriver and just hacked away at it. When all the big chucks were out I finished with sandpaper to smooth it out again. Other than that, everything should come out without any problems.

Good Luck
 
I gotta say that IMHO paying a machine shop to do the bushing R/R is money well spent (should be 30 bucks or less. Call around). You can burn, drill, etc those things out, but that is some nasty chit. I am really really cheap and I still had a shop do it.

My two cents. Good luck.
 
from what I have heard, and will do soon myself, the drill method only takes like 10min. Why would you pay someone to do that...prob. cost at least 50$ prob. double that...

Then again I am 99% of the time not happy with the quality of work done by shops in general so....
 
95strokerPSU said:
If yours are anything like mine don't even waste your time trying to press them out. Just get under there, get comfortable and take it out piece by piece. Wear goggles too, I had a bunch of stuff get in my eyes before I grabbed goggles.

Are you saying I have to drill them while they are still bolted on the car?.....I hope to remove the arms and work on them at my tool bench with a drill and vise.
 
take em off put them in a vise and go at it.
Since your droping the car you might want to look in to off set rack bushings, bumpsteer kit and some x2 ball joints.
 
As far as the front would go...

I would say buy a 03-04 cobra A-arm. the whole unit is like 170$ for both, getting you a better ball joint, better bushings, stronger A arm, 10% tighter turning radi, and its already assem. all you do is bolt it in after removing your stock one.
 
blksn955.o said:
As far as the front would go...

I would say buy a 03-04 cobra A-arm. the whole unit is like 170$ for both, getting you a better ball joint, better bushings, stronger A arm, 10% tighter turning radi, and its already assem. all you do is bolt it in after removing your stock one.

This is true. In fact if you just bought the X2 ball joint upgrade it would only be $35 more for the whole assembly mentioned above.

Bushing replacement is not fun at all. Take your time and good luck.