I finally took the plunge a couple weeks ago and started the bushing overhaul on the S. It's been a very slow painful learning process for me, but recently took a turn for the better. I made the mistake of going into this project overthinking everything and thinking that it was going to be a complicated process and the only way to get the bushing sleeves out was to press them out. I was very wrong. I had been slowly making progress on my bushings over the last two weeks and mulling over ways to press them out. Then the other night things finally clicked for me I went to lowes and bought a nice little Bostitch chisel to replace the shitty flathead that I had been using and went to town on them. Before I knew it I had 4 of the upper control arm sleeves out in a little under an hour. Now I have six arms done and only four lca's to go! I never knew such a small tool (chisel) could make such a big difference.

**Quick question, on the rear lowers is the metal sleeve for the camber adjuster bushing supposed to come out?

**Edit** I just realized reading back through your comments that some of you mentioned the chiseling approach and that I read over it, but didn't retain the info. Damn you selective hearing (reading?)!

 

I was going to try to press them out with a hand bottle jack and a jig

Post some pics if you can as I will be doing this as well


What are you replacing it with?

 

I am replacing my oem bushings with a full set of front and rear Energy Suspension bushings. Depending on what brand you go with, install may be different. Some brands have you remove certain metal sleeves whereas some require you to burn out the rubber and leave the metal sleeve. If you were to install a set of ES bushings you would be able to do all of the upper control arms with just a chisel and steel mallet. On the rear lowers you will be able to use the chisel and mallet on the far right one, but you will need to use a ball joint fork to separate it since it is made up of two halves pressed together. ES' instructions tell you to leave the compliance bushing's (at strut position) metal sleeve in, but I'm not sure about the sleeve at the camber adjuster position (straight up from the compliance bushing). For the front lowers ES instructs you to leave all the sleeves in, so there isn't any need to press anything out on them, just burn the rubber out.

 

I will using power flex bushings. I believe those you remove all the sleeves and leaving the arm bare and clean it up and press it in

 

I just did this in my track car except i used the spoon rubber replacements. I had access to a metal lathe which made it a breeze being able to turn up my own dies.

 

i will going down this path too. but instead i will just keep the OEM bushings. please document! my compliance bushings are frozen so ill have to cut out. did you have to as well? or were you lucky enough that they werent seized?

 

Luckily none of mine were frozen. Why are you going with oem? I'll post a few pics in a couple minutes

 

i have a used but in good condition set of control arms with good bushings in it. and most people have advised OEM is good. so i will stick with them. dont forget to put some anti seize on! especially on that compliance adjustment bolt and bushing.

 

I have a set of compliance bushing oem bolts if you want to buy them. They are just sitting here

 

Can any of you offer any advice on how to press in the new bushings? I can't seem to get any of the bushings in the lower control arms. I've tried pressing them in by putting a rectangular steel block on top of the bushing and using my little 6 ton a-frame press to press it in, but only one side ends up going in and it actually cut one of the bushings last night it's only 1/4" or less, but still not good. I'm using plenty of lube, but I just can't seem to get both sides to go in evenly. Should I take the sleeve out of the bushing or leave it in when I'm pressing them in?