Best way to change OEM to Polyurethane bushings?

[fergulus]

I am going to be swapping out all but a few OEM bushings for poly, and want to know what y'all have used to press out your OEM bushings. I have used a hydraulic press before, and want to know what people use as a pry (what you press through the bushing to clear out the metal part as well.

I have already had to do this a few times, and have found that a 3000lb press wasn't enough for a few of them. I have also been forced to take a cold chisel and cut the steel cylinder out of the control arm. There has to be an easier way to do it!

 

[dikdiamond]

For most of mine I used a blow torch,and burnt them out. I didn't have access to a press or air chisel. Worked great for me

 

[ACM]

10 ton press and a selection of sockets removes most. Some of the 2G rears are a problem - the arm will collapse without formers to support it; they are unboxed U channels with the steel bushing sleeve providing arm support. These have to be treated carefully and supported all around, otherwise the arm collapses, whether pushing the bushing out or pushing the new bushing in.

I personally use Prothane as they are much less "rubbery" than Energy Suspension. Lower front bushings are a problem in general as the arms move in all three planes, so the choice of material is critical. The harder these bushings are, the more strain is placed on the PS pump, rack seals etc. I already lost a rack related in part to this, so you do need to be careful. Using spherical bearings in these locations obviates this issue, however the mount support for the inboard pickup of the curved arm becomes important as it's in single shear - with no rubber to isolate the bolts I would be extremely surprised if the didn't snap or at least bend considerably.

 

[slowgsr]

the best way is to use a oxy/actyl torch.. Heat the metal part that contains the bushing, the bushing may catch on fire, no big deal. Just be careful the smoke is very hard on the eyes.. next get your air chisel and a flat bit (what i used) and just punch it out. It will come out very easily. Its a easy/fast painless method. Make sure the part is supported well in a vice, next you can just clean out the inside of the suspention part, and grease it up and push in the new bushing.. I like to use the vice to squeeze it in.

its easy to change the bushing, the hard part is getting the suspention parts off the car.

 

[fergulus]

I have the complete suspension bushing kit from Prothane. I was informed by a friend that does time attack that you want the bushing under the front shock to be OEM to absorb the initial impact from the road, and that everything else can be swapped out. I went ahead and bought new OEM lower lateral arms (the ones that connect the crossmember, shock, and knuckle). The rest of the bushings I will pull out and replace with the Prothanes.

To: ACM: Are you referring to the lower control arm being a point of shear, or the lateral arm?

To: slowgsr: I've already had to use a hacksaw on my lateral arm getting it off the car . The bolt and bushing rusted together, and the rubber disintegrated, so the bolt spun freely. Its never fun when you have to take a hacksaw and cut through 3/4" in of hardened steel!!

 

[ACM]

The front shock bushing should be changed for a spherical bearing. If that's unacceptable leave the stock bushing in place. On that note, ALWAYS tighten the lower shock mounting bolt with the suspension at standard ride height, otherwise the damper body is under a lateral bending stress through 90% of the travel, rendering the damping ineffective. The reason is not to absorb impacts - those are supposed to be fed into the damper - the reason is because the mounting point moves around so much the damper will get literally bent if a stiff bushing is used here.

That rubber bushings at the bottom and top of the shock absorber assembly act as springs, but because they're outside the damper, they're undamped. There's upwards of an inch of undamped spring there - makes mockery of the $1k dampers that got installed. It's not as obvious in the front (until you replace them), but try fitting ES upper mounts in the rear, then run the dampers stiff and race on jointed concrete - that undamped spring will become crystal clear.

The straight lateral arm is in double shear, so that's fine for a spherical bearing (though it probably will need reinforcing). The curved arm - compression strut, whatever you prefer, is mounted in single shear, and that's the one that's a problem. Single shear means that the bolt is only supported at one end, not both, so it's very susceptible to bending loads.

I have the complete suspension bushing kit from Prothane. I was informed by a friend that does time attack that you want the bushing under the front shock to be OEM to absorb the initial impact from the road, and that everything else can be swapped out. I went ahead and bought new OEM lower lateral arms (the ones that connect the crossmember, shock, and knuckle). The rest of the bushings I will pull out and replace with the Prothanes.

To: ACM: Are you referring to the lower control arm being a point of shear, or the lateral arm?

To: slowgsr: I've already had to use a hacksaw on my lateral arm getting it off the car . The bolt and bushing rusted together, and the rubber disintegrated, so the bolt spun freely. Its never fun when you have to take a hacksaw and cut through 3/4" in of hardened steel!!

 

[fergulus]

I have spherical bearings on all 4 corners for my strut mounts from my coilover setup. If I am not mistaken, you are talking about arms that already have spherical bushings on them from the factory. This would be where the arms connect to the knuckle.I have never seen any ball bearing spherical bushings sold for a DSM suspension, so I'm confused as to what you are referencing.

 

[ACM]

I have spherical bearings on all 4 corners for my strut mounts from my coilover setup. If I am not mistaken, you are talking about arms that already have spherical bushings on them from the factory. This would be where the arms connect to the knuckle.I have never seen any ball bearing spherical bushings sold for a DSM suspension, so I'm confused as to what you are referencing.

There are no spherical bearings present on OEM DSM suspension, unlike the Evo - you're referring to the ball joints, which (almost ?) all cars use. That only deals with the outboard pickups, the inboard pickups (and the shock mount) are still squishy rubber bushings

This is what I'm referring to (thanks DG) :
Far North Racing - A-Arm and other stuff

Charles

 

[Bender]

I'm doing a write up on it right now.. Look for it in a few days on my site. Automatic DSM'S

 

[ScottH]

I replaced all the bushings on my 1g and we burnt all the old ones out. After burning the old ones out I used a wire wheel to clean up the surface metal in and around the bushing and coated the area with black bed liner in a spray can then put ES lube in and installed the new bushing.

The bed liner spray in a can ran about $9 dollars a can at Advance Auto.

 

[Bender]

Did you just chisel out the inner shell then?

Burning just the rubber won't remove the whole bushing.

 

[Dallas J]

I used a sawzaw to cut a slot in it, then a chisel to bend out one edge. Then it comes out pretty easy.