AWilson

I can't get the A-arm bushings out. I don't have a press and they seem to be original. I want to get the frame and misc. rusty parts to the sandblaster on Monday as I have the day off for President's day. So I need to get the A-arm bushings out.

I was thinking about melting/burning them out by carefully putting them above a nice fire in my fire pit in the back yard?

I know it will work but is there something I can damage while doing it? Like maybe warping of the A-arm.

Has anyone done this crazy thing!

Don't tell me to use a torch cause I don't have one.

Jud Chapin

If you do a search, you will find a lot of info on the subject. A torch is one way to get them out. They are not expensive.

SanDiegoPaul

An air chisel will remove them. You have to get the center out first, then crumple the outer part. It's a pain in the ***.

I've done it so many times for my other cars that this time, I ordered new ones from VanSteel here on the forum. They came powder coated, clean, correct, and with new bushings & ball joints. For the price Dan sells this stuff for, it doesnt' make sense to wrestle with the dirty stuff.

TXredc3

I used a drill to get the rubber out. Drilled a ton of holes. The middle sleeve should then be easy to get out with a little bending and prying. The outer metal piece is a little tougher. I used a saw-zall and cut away enough metal to where I could then bend the outer sleeve in and pull out. I never had a lot of luck with the air chisel but I may have been doing it wrong.

Streamline

Once they are out of the car you can use an upper control arm bushing removal tool. Do a search on ebay, they are on there. Perhaps try an auto parts store that has the loan a tool to rent one.

79VAVette

Or use the right size hole saw, 1-1/8" if I remeber correctly. I did the sawzall trick and it worked out pretty easy. You can then hammer the new shells in.

AWilson

Ok, its done. That really sucked. I did it my way. I built a fire in my back yard and burned all the rubber out. This also served double duty by burning off 40 yrs of grease making them ready for sandblasting. The uppers were easy, I just hammered them out. The top ones, I used a cold chisel to split them in half then worked them out of both ends.

Thanks for the tips. Like you said there isn't an easy way.

76projectstingray

i just did mine also. I used everyones advise and went with the drill/torch/air chisel method It was a PIA!

AWilson

Building a small fire in the backyard and tossing them in was the way to go. Went from a PITA to fun. And again all the grease was burned off for powdercoating.

dannyman

I'm really not sure what that heat treating will do for the arms!???

I used drills, hammers, heat and a large vise. A perfect task for those, "need to get some rid of some tension", days.

cpetku

Holy He**

I just blew $500 on an industial press (not the HF POS) to try and press out the A-arm bushings per writeups on the web. I may have distorted the arms a little and while the metal cups are now free, the darn inners are rotted to the mounting bracket with no way to remove. Who the F*** designed this SH** back in the 60's?

I'm ready to build the sacrificial fire pit and throw everything in it. Drilling out the rubber in the rear #3 bushings sucked, but was a pleasure compared to a-arms...

mspry

Three years later I am feeling your pain! My start a fire pit this week.

wcsinx

Doubt it gets hot enough to matter ... just don't quench them

Personally I just hit mine with a propane torch until they started burning on their own. Then they just kinda smoldered and sputtered for the next 30 minutes until they literally plopped out on their own. There was hardly any flame at all.

Then like others said, an air chisel to collapse the shells works great.