Planning on doing all NEW OEM bushings in front and rear suspension. Any suggestions?
 

I am about to venture into get new suspension bushings all around into my 97 4x4.


REAR: (Already Purchased)
48702-35070 Bush Sub Assembly Lower Control Arm (4 bushings)
48710-35040 Arm Assembly Upper Control (2)
What bushings to use for Panhard bar?

FRONT: (In the shopping cart)
48061-35040 Bush Lower - Front (Two bushings)
48061-35050 Bush Lower - Rear (Two bushings)
48632-35080 Bush Upper - Four Bushings
90389-A0001 Strut Bushing Two (Bilstein Strut from 01 Tacoma Progressive Springs)

Sway bar bushings are done already.

Am I missing anything here?
Also, what do you use for the Panhard bar bushings? I have 2 inch lift in the rear and 1.5 inch in front.

I am thinking of using neoprene bushings for the panhard as that arm does not flex as a control arm. Shauna in 4WD247 said not to use neoprene in flexing arms and it makes sense.

Tim, I bought the press sleeve kit and is planning to buy a bearing separator tool/kit to do front-uppers. Any specific kit you recommend?
Thanks!

Following along, I also have most all the bushings on my to-do list to replace. Where did you source the parts from?

Also following along for my ‘97 Limited. Right now I’m looking at just using OEM bushings (I purchase mostly everything through McGeorge, their shipping has been fairly quick and reliable for me and the price is right for OEM.)

I did every bushing on mine last summer, but I didn't go OEM.

Might want to do the steering rack bushings while you are in there, you have to move it out of the way to do the LCAB's.

I ended up having to buy rear lower shock mount bushings, but you probably won't need them if reusing the shocks.

I'm guessing you will be doing upper/lower ball joints at the same time? If replacing, I'd just use a big ball joint separator fork, they are cheap.

Sway bar end links might be good to do now too.

I think you will be fine using poly on your panhard bar.

I did the lower ball joints (OEM) few years ago and got about 25K miles done. Upper seems OK and no play there. I got upper ball joint boots to go with this fix.

I might go with poly bushings for pan hard bar. HArd to find the rubber OEM bushings for that. I see rubber aftermarket bushings to that.

What brand sway bars end links did you use? OEM are expensive as a lower ball joint!

I used Mstudt's extended links from the forum. Just remembered I did outer tie rods at the same time too, so something to consider.

Rears
 

Demonstration purposes ONLY: If you are attempting this repair, do it at your own risk.

Started doing the rear suspension.

Important: Kept the wheels on Ground, front wheels Choked and REMOVED ONLY ONE CONTROL ARM AT A TIME.

Break loose the BOLT in the Lower Arm and NUT in the Upper Arm last 2 images in Post-9, WHY? (There are notches built on the nut in the lower arm and bolt in the upper arm that bites into the mounting brackets and those won't turn).

Loosen (BUT DON'T REMOVE) all Nuts/bolts on all 5 control arms to guide the bolt through the frame. I did not use any straps to align arms.

All took about 2.5 hours. New bushings were installed into Rear Lower arms. Bought upper arms so no bushing replacement were necessary.

I used a press sleeve kit

Installation
 

The Arrow marked on the bushing should lineup with the arm (see the old bushing above to note the arrow's direction)

Bushing number : 48702 - 35070 : goes to either end of the lower arm

4th Picture (with one press sleeve) shows the initial driving of the bushing into the arm: Make sure the bushing is straight to the arm. Drive it until about 0.5 inches left. Then, use the second press sleeve 5th Picture to catch the bushing coming out on the other end.

Last 2 pictures: Note the "Arrow" orientation

Rear Uppers
 

Rear uppers

Last two images show the BOLT (in Lower Arm) and NUT (in Upper Arm) that needs to be loosen first.

Torque specs:

Lower arm BOLT 107 ft-lb

Upper arm NUT 64 ft-lb

PanHard Bar 64 ft-lb

For the front control arm bushings, I found it more economical to buy the whole arm assembly with the bushings already installed. I went OEM lower and rockauto upper. For only a hundred dollars more, not having to worry about pressing out the old and in the news can be pretty tempting. But Im guessing your Texas control arms are not as rusty as a truck that started out being a Nantucket beach truck and then moving on to Michigan.

Any ideas as to where to buy a full set of bushings? Did you purchase them separately or is there somewhere you can get a full kit to replace all the bushings? Thanks

I don't know of a Full kit, though I've seen smaller ones that might contain all front shock related bushings for example.

I'd start looking thru your local dealer, they might work with you on price knowing you're getting lots of parts or go with some of the dealers mentioned here. I've also located some on ebay and amazon, though you have to make sure its the real deal which is not difficult searching for "OEM" with the complete part number.

The parts are getting a little harder to find, I think cuz costs of new vehicles is skyrocketing so folks fix up the good ol' stuff like these 3rd gens. Luck.

You can get a full polyurethane kit from energy suspension. Oem rubber would have to be ordered by part. Toyota partsouq would be cheaper but will have to lay international shipping.

Adding Amayama as well. Far cheaper than domestic dealers even with shipping.

I've already bought all my Toyota OEM bushings, springs, shocks, etc. from both dealers (friend gets 20%), amazon and ebay for those he could not find -fast enough, so I compared prices of a couple items (48702-35070 and 48710-35040) which I happened to get off both amazon and ebay. The amaya was $1-2 dollars less Yet shipping dates were 1 month away while ebay/amazon delivered 1-3 days. The ebay/amazon items actually are from dealers in AZ and CA.

So as usual, shop around, you never know where the deals are. Luck all.