Resolved 2G Rear Knuckle Bushings

[LiquidX]

So, what did everyone do to install these? Did you leave the knuckle attached and then drilled/sawed/torched them out, or did you remove the knuckle and then attempt to press them out?

I have 10 bushings left to install and it's 5 per side on the rear. I can manage the 2 for the upper control arm, it's just the 3 here that I'm interested in.

Any help or advice would be great.

If the knuckle needs to be removed, what's the best way to do it? We removed the 4 bolts in the rear along with everything else but the hub wouldn't come off and we couldn't figure out the parking brake cable (didn't have any manuals)

 

[97gst_spyder]

I used a hole saw and cut the center out with most of the rubber, then sawzaw'ed the sleeve then used a flathead screwdriver and hammered/pry'ed the sleeve out.

I took mine off the car when I installed the Prothanes.

 

[housegsx]

Look up Wes' suspension blog. He used some nuts/bolts/washers to press them in with a wrench I believe. While still on the car.

 

[LiquidX]

Thanks Erik, I found the blog but it doesn't mention anything. However, here is the picture for everyone else that's interested.

So I'll guess that you drill out a hole in the bushing, cut out the bushing, procede to cut out the metal sleeve. Once that is done, use a bolt longer than the length of the bushing and insertion hole, 2 washers (3 if they are thin) and a nut. Tightening should pull the bushing in.

Does that sound about right?

If that's all there is to it, then it shouldn't take more than maybe 5 hours for both sides?

 

[daren_p]

^That pic looks like he's just installing the new urthane bushings with bolt/washer, not removing the stockers? I've never tried but the stock bushings take a good amount of force to remove, wouldn't think you could remove them with bolt/washers, but I could be wrong.

I've done it twice, both times off the car. First time was burn & cut the sleeve, second time I didn't want to go though that hassle again, so I bought a press! Press was much quicker. My first time, I didn't have any issues seperating the hub, so no issues to remove. Next time was during the awd swap so everything was in pieces to start with.

 

[LiquidX]

That is just the installation of the new bushings. I'm trying to decide on how I want to tackle the removal of the old ones.

I was suggested using a hole saw to cut out the bushing as a plug but I'm starting to think the saw would get gummed up very quickly. My idea is to drill a single hole in the stock rubber and use the sawzall to cut out the bushing and then cut out the sleeve. It's the method I had to use with the rear trailing arm as the press wasn't going to work with the small, small, small supply of press tools.

 

[LiquidX]

Wes' method worked out well. We (Mike - 90tsi717 and myself) left the knuckle attached to the vehicle and managed to get them out. We started off by trying to drill the bushing out and cutting the rubber. That didn't go over so well. Fire is deffinatly the way to go!

I was thinking it would have taken a lot longer to burn out the bushing but once you heat up the sleeve, it'll just melt the rubber around it away and you can just pop it out. Putting in the new bushings required us making a stop at Lowe's to grab a longer bolt and fender washers to press in the bushings. Worked out very well. Just needed to hammer the bushing in the rest of the way and on a couple; the new sleeve needed hammering.

There were a couple sets of bushings that didn't like being pressed into their new home and mainly it was the 2 for the trailing arm (knuckle side). When pressing it in, the flared end was sheared off making it "head less" but they went in great and hold where they need to.

We got 8 out of the 10 needing to go in. The remaining 2 were for the driver side upper control arm. We unexpectedly and abruptly got "told" to leave the garage so we will need to be doing those 2 at my personal garage that doesn't' have a lift or air tools.

The handling is much better now and the car just turns on a dime but that may also have to do with the Tein Flex coil overs too

 

[mysticj]

Use torch while still on vehicle and dremel to cut the sleeve off. Then use a fancy--NOT--long bolt and washer combo...Took about 7 minutes to get each bushings in. FYI, Mitsu sells/use a bushing removal/installer tool...I don't know the price of it yet.