prothane bushing/harbor freight press

[josun54]

I have been searching all over the forum where I read that some of the members have used a press to aid them in removing/installing the bushings. My question is what type of press do I need from harbor freight?

 

[daren_p]

To remove the stockers, your going to need a hydraulic press, a 15-20 tonn should do. I tried an arbor press (not hydraulic, just uses gear reductions) & it wouldn't cut it. I had to burn the rubber, remove the center sleeves, cut the outer metal sleeve, then the arbor press made easy work of removing them. There were two lower knuckle bushings that I wasn't able to cut completely through & I was able to eventually get them out with the arbor press, but it took a 3 ft expension on the handle, two guys, one foot up on the work bench for extra leverage, etc, etc. So basically just get a hydraulic press, it makes things much easier

 

[teamo2t]

I took mine to a "full service" auto parts store. They did something similar to what was described above for about 20 bucks!

 

[JusMX141]

I used a large, sharp drill bit to drill out the thickest part of the rubber. The remaining rubber (aside from the small amount formed to the outer metal sleeve) came out when I drilled out the center sleeve.

From there, a Sawzall was used to quickly cut a gap in the outer steel sleeve (be careful not to go too deep and cut into the aluminum of the mount itself) in two places about 180* from one another. The remaining mount pieces practically fell out when striked with a hammer and drift rod.