Most of the suspension bushings on my '71 need replacing. I ordered a complete replacement set of poly bushings. Other than the expected bloody knuckles, is there anything I need to know about before starting this project?

 

Its a hard job!!! Getting the arms out is not too bad but the bushings are murder I would suggest that you get a local work shop to press out the old ones, then take the arms home and clean them up then take them back with the new bushings and get them to press them in. Others on the forum will say that you can do it yourself but if they are the original bushings the are bl**dy hard to remove.

 

Its not all that hard, I just finished putting my suspension components all together. I bought a press on ebay, 12 ton unit, was cheap. The directions are in the overhaul manual for your year. We can help in here.
It might be good advice to have a local shop do the press work, will save some effort and time.
Trouble areas are the TA bolts, they rust in the tubes in the bushings and can be a bear to get out, sawzall, air hammer etc required.
If your a handy guy and can read and have real man tools, no problem.

Oh yea, get more beer

 

The hardest part is getting the old bushings out. I removed mine with an air chisel in about an hour for all four arms. Once they were out I cleaned the A-Arms up and re-painted them. After that putting everything back together was pretty easy and straight forward.

 

I did mine myself.It was very time consuming doing all of the front and rear as well as trans mount diff mount ect.I am a service manager at a mazda dealership so I have access alot of tools and equipment to make the job easier.It would be a PITA to do at home in the garage.

 

Getting the bushings out is easy. Just burn out the old rubber and assemble a hacksaw with the blade inside the bushing housing. Then cut the bushing in about two places just enough to collapse it with a hammer and chisel. The bushing housings should slide out with just a little finesse. I learned this trick on this site and it made my install a lot easier than just pounding away. Good luck.

 

Everyone's telling you to do too much work. I pried all of my bushings out intact by using a cold chisel and a 3# drill hammer. Only do the burn, cut, collapse thing if the easy way fails.

 

I agree with Batman. I used an air hammer because I have one and it took about an hour to completely dissamble all 4 control arms including cutting off the rivits for the ball joints.
Good for working out some frustrations

 

I'm about to tackle this job on my son's '75. We do have the factory assembly manual and the Haynes books as a guide. What other books or articles would be helpful?

Engine and trans are out but the body remains on.

We'll probably go with rubber over poly.

(Hope I'm not hi-jacking the thread)

TIA,
Dennis

 

First, but all the bushings in the freezer the night before.

I used a small hand saw to cut off the rubber on the outside of each bushing, like the lip of a mushroom. Cut it off, and you have access to that inner tube. Buy a 1.1/8" hole saw with no pilot bit, and gnaw out the rubber bushings. The hole saw will make quick smelly work of this.

Then, using Batman's cold chisel idea will be a little easier too.

On the lower arms, the arm has to go on from a certain side first, so when you press a bushing into the arm, make sure it's the rear facing one. You'll see what I mean when you get there.

Another tip, have two large sockets available. One that fits snug over the poly but sits hard on the flange of the bushing. That's the press socket. Then find a slightly smaller one for the inside, and put the whol thing in a vise. Squeeze it a little, then tap the arm with a ball hammer. You'll see it move on a little bit at a time. Squeeze a little more, and tap more.

Only use one bushing at a time so the rest stay frozen and expanded.

I just did this stinking process a few days ago, and mine was about as hard as it will get. I did not take them to a machine shop, but maybe I should have. If you don't mind paying their minimum prices go for it. I did it with a big vise, a ball hammer, chisel, flat head, hole saw, sockets, and a little blood splashed in for good measure. Feel free to PM me any questions, or post here for steps.

 

I just did my control arm bushings last week with poly in my '79.First i took a punch and marked control arm and rod to ensure i put it back like it came out. I then drilled the old rubber all the way around several times then took a small screw driver and picked what rubber i could out and would drill again,"use good quality drill bits to prevent breakage" at times using different size drill bits because the rubber was smashed closer on one side that the other, but after a few times doing that u get a hole all the way through the rubber then soon you will have the whole bushing out.Remember this is just the rubber after that you have to remove the metal framework of the bushing "for lack of a better term"I then used a small hydraulic jack applying pressure internally on the upper control arms with like two finger pressure on the jack handle til it was firm,"1X4 board between jack piston and bushing" then tap around using plenty of PB'laster and they moved out no problem.Jack til firm, then tap, jack til firm , then tap and soon they fall out. The lower control arms were different i had to spray them and clean them really well, then use a couple chisels and small screw driver and go behind the outer lip and get the metal to slowly pry away from the arm all the way around trying to keep it square.I found starting it was best using small screwdriver as chisel i know unprofessional but it worked better prying the old bushing metal away from the arm than the chisels did, once there was a gap then chisel time..anyway, going round and round like that with chisel in on one side driving the other chisel opposite of that one it actually went really well "Sometimes holding both chisels in place with one hand while tapping to keep either from falling or flying out"and all bushing came out with the same amount of effort on both arms. Installation of new polys consisted of sanding all surfaces nice and clean then lube, then tapping the lubed bushings in, stopping to make sure they were staying true if one side was higher i would turn it over and tap that area of the control arm til it squared back up, nothing hard or damaging, just firm taps. then after it got in far enough to get the bolt started on the end caps i put them on and tightened them firmly and continued tapping in circular motion making sure it stayed true and square and all mine went in very easily.Retightening end cap bolts after a few rounds of tapping! You can buy longer bolts and use the bolts in place of the end cap bolts to start using bolt pressure sooner in the proces if u like but i did'nt.When i was getting uncomfortable with the firmness of my hammering is about the time my short factory bolts would catch a thread. On one i did use a longer bolt i had handy to start using end cap pressure as a support tactic, anyway keeping the bushing square and true to the mating surface is the key to it being a simple task, time consuming to an extent, but simple and no threat of damage to anything by being to rough. As the guy mentioned in a post earlier freezing your bushings will aid in installation although i didn't do that it does make things easier contracting the bushings....anyway this is just another way of doing it with basic tools at home and u can rest assured if you are patient it will go well and no damage. Note: on the lower control arms there is a particular side u want to get the bushing rubber out first. If you take the right bushing rubber out you will be able to get the rod out. Take the wrong bushing rubber out then you have to take the other bushing out before u can remove the rod. Look closely at the shape of your rod and remove the bushing from the end with the smallest circumference first....g'luck

 

I don't believe in pressing. If you press there is a good chance you bend the A arms. I drill the old bushings out, the rubber drills easily and you apply no pressure.
Some even burn them out if they are going to refurbish the arms anyway
Really clean the a arms once the old bushings are out. I use a flapper wheel on a drill and the new poly bushing should slide in with little force.
If you press a bushing in and tighten down the end bolts the bushing itself acts as a damper and gets deformed. The bushings are just that bushings, shocks control the dampening.
Once finished I put the cross shaft in the vise and I can move the A arm freely up and down, no binding.
Again I don't believe in using a presss. Too many horror stories about bend arms.

 

You have a point there, i did use the end bolts and tightened them sngly and it improved installation for me.Not only as an aid to apply pressure but the huge washer acted as a plane to keep things square.Maybe the fact that i was installing polys is why i was successful and did'nt experience any distortion. possibly original type bushings will run into problems. As far as amount of pressure i snugged them to 4 fingers on backside of 9/16 wrench with thumb on front side pushing wrench with thumb til it was pretty firm. laid it flat on the bolt on a wooden bench i have and tapped around the arm, well lubed and ensuring squareness of mating surfaces was probably where i got my good fortunes...the arm is a folded metal framing and u can't just tap the top of it u have to tap the other surface under the top part of framing at an angle. Well lubed and clean as the gentleman said u should achieve satisfactory results. I used the end cap technique as i'm amateur and impatient. Try it w/o the bolt technique and post your results if that's the method you choose. I would agree on the use of a press to be very cautious

 

be carefull about breathing that crap.

I agree with your slip fit philosophy on bushings, u-joints and rear bearings.

Press fits provide an extra measure of safety for the general public that doesn't inspect their suspension often and don't have enough feel for the car to know something is loosening up.

 

I'm doing mine right now, what a SOB. The cross shafts are rusted to the inside of the bushing sleeve so using the air chisel method just allows both bushings and shaft to move side to side now. My next plan is to drill out the rubber so I can get to the inner metal sleeve and pry it apart to remove it from the cross shaft.

 

1.1/8" hole saw...no pilot drill bit.

 

At least for getting the old ones out..

1. Heat the rubber until they are "greezy" not burning.. the insides will slide right out without having to breath it.
2. hacksaw - sawsall a notch on the inside as close as you can without going thru the wall.
3. With a chisel on the outside of were you cut the notch, tap the outter bushing in. It will come out pretty easy.

 

When I tried #3, the chisel would just cut the bushing sleeve instead of pushing it. They were VERY press fit in there, and I had to use a much more blunt object. Maybe a flat head would nut cut like a chisel.

 

Thanks for the hole saw tip, I'll give it a shot tonight.

 

Scott, if u go with the drill method it may take u 15 minutes to get the rubber out.Run your drill bit next to the center hole and start drilling your drill will walk around the center pin breaking it free from the rubber then you can remove that rubber with the flared facing. After that just start drilling random holes 10 or so as far thru the rubber as u can get. Once you've did that and take a small screwdriver and pick a hole thru the rubber, twisting your screwdrive in the hole cutting the rubber into bits, and at one point in that you will come to a place you can pull chunks. Kind of focus on that area if it keeps giving you debris redrilling in that area when it gets slow. Eventually you will punch through the other side, once you've done that the rest will come out in chunks because you then have a void to work the rest of the material to. I did this process dry just last week. Then once the rubber is removed since it's frozen tap the driver or tool you are using into the crack of the metal thats froze it will open up, then spray some lube in it. after that you may be able to twist your tool and open it up to get it to slide off or drive another punch or whatever similar tool you have in the gap the screwdriver made. after that its coming momentarily if you have to redo the process or it works then. One or two of mine were froze to...15 minutes man if that, total process