LCA bushing removal question

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Rushthezeppelin

New member
Alright so I've so far gotten the front bushings out of both arms but both rears are being quite stubborn. Using the stock bottle jack to try and get them out. Got the arm clamped in a vice that is not secured to my bench (haven't gotten around to it yet) and loaded them up with the bottle jack as much as I can considering the vice is not secured. Hit both with PB and ATF at the hole in the sleeve on the arm as well. Used heat. I noticed both of the front bushings wicked up the PB in that hole much better than the rears. Any other special advice? I don't want to just keep cranking the jack and bend my arms (although I suspect I'm not that close to doing so with my vice not being secured).
 
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Rushthezeppelin said:
Alright so I've so far gotten the front bushings out of both arms but both rears are being quite stubborn. Using the stock bottle jack to try and get them out. Got the arm clamped in a vice that is not secured to my bench (haven't gotten around to it yet) and loaded them up with the bottle jack as much as I can considering the vice is not secured. Hit both with PB and ATF at the hole in the sleeve on the arm as well. Used heat. I noticed both of the front bushings wicked up the PB in that hole much better than the rears. Any other special advice? I don't want to just keep cranking the jack and bend my arms (although I suspect I'm not that close to doing so with my vice not being secured).
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I had the same issue you are currently having with your LCAs, they’re a real pain! Haha. One thing that helped with me was blast it with a ton of heat, like a lot. Then I’d hit the outside of the arm where the bushing is with a hammer to free up the bushing with pressure of the bottle jack. Worked good for me, just be careful not to damage the arm.
 
Rushthezeppelin said:
Any other special advice?.
Click to expand...
Take the 30-60 mins to bolt the vice down and make your life 100x easier, you won't get very far otherwise or at least not without tearing your hair out. Use a torch and don't be afraid of a little rubber burning
Also if you're concerned about splitting the arms you can tighten a small ratchet strap around them to keep them from spreading - I had to do so on both mine because they were so stuck in there. They build up a gnarly amount of tension, one of the bushings shot a solid 10-12ft in the air once it broke free, so just keep trying. Apply good pressure, heat up for a while, more pressure, etc etc
 
Devbot said:
Take the 30-60 mins to bolt the vice down and make your life 100x easier, you won't get very far otherwise or at least not without tearing your hair out. Use a torch and don't be afraid of a little rubber burning
Also if you're concerned about splitting the arms you can tighten a small ratchet strap around them to keep them from spreading - I had to do so on both mine because they were so stuck in there. They build up a gnarly amount of tension, one of the bushings shot a solid 10-12ft in the air once it broke free, so just keep trying. Apply good pressure, heat up for a while, more pressure, etc etc
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My 200lb ratchet straps aren't going to do much to counteract the potentially thousands of lbs of force the jack will generate.

I'll have to try the hammer with heat method next. If that doesn't work I'm going to see about heading to a buddies shop and try the press and bearing splitter method.
 
I made a puller 1/2" allthread various flat washers various sockets Map gas torch plenty like days of PB came out relatively easy.
 
Heat + hammer didn't work. Going to take it to the buddies shop probably Saturday. He has all the sleeves needed and the bearing splitter. Not interested in bending these arms even though they only cost me 20 (really they cost me a lot of grief in a pick and pull more than anything lol).
 
I used a 3/16" drill bit with a drill and drilled out the rubber around the sleeve. Removed the center of the bushing. Then, used a Sawzall the cut the steel sleeve, then used a chisel and hammer to punch the sleeve out. It came out very easily with the sleeve cut since it holds no tension at that point. Be careful not to cut too deep and cut it on the inner side of the ring where it's welded to the arm. My .02
 
Chisel and hammer did it for many of the 62 suspension parts I had to remove when traditional 20 ton press and other handy tools did not work (mostly because its very difficult to hold the particular part steady in press and/or other clamping devices). Painful but it got done.
 
jgue467 said:
Chisel and hammer did it for many of the 62 suspension parts I had to remove when traditional 20 ton press and other handy tools did not work (mostly because its very difficult to hold the particular part steady in press and/or other clamping devices). Painful but it got done.
Click to expand...

Looks like chiseling up the flange on the bushings and getting a bearing splitter between the flange and the arm sleeve gives reasonable enough purchase to get it in a press. I'd like to take as little chances as possible in damaging these arms if I can.
 
Curious once you get the old ones out what you decided to replace them with.
Factory rubber or going with poly bushings?
 
Sarki said:
Curious once you get the old ones out what you decided to replace them with.
Factory rubber or going with poly bushings?
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Whiteline poly. I've had them for a few months but put off throwing them in because most of the rubber on my truck looked good. That changed though when I found the stuck cams on my passenger arm. Shop was able to get 1.4 degrees caster on that side but I'm sure they did it by binding up those bushings quite a bit which I'm sure will lead to them tearing in a rather quick manner.
 
Rushthezeppelin said:
Whiteline poly. I've had them for a few months but put off throwing them in because most of the rubber on my truck looked good. That changed though when I found the stuck cams on my passenger arm. Shop was able to get 1.4 degrees caster on that side but I'm sure they did it by binding up those bushings quite a bit which I'm sure will lead to them tearing in a rather quick manner.
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Exactly what I have on my bench waiting for me to stop being lazy and start the project.
May have a lead on a pair of very low mileage used lower arms at no cost so if that’s the case will probably go that way, time will tell.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ride once those new poly bushings are in as the improvement will be noticeable.
 
When you're concerned about the amount of force needed to press the bushing out using the bottle jack technique because you don't want to spread the arms out and ruin the LCA, using a press to do the job is what's in order. The video below shows you how to use the press to get the bushings out and also discusses how to handle cutting out a cam adjuster if it unfortunately is rusted inside the bushing sleeve.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6FzEHygizoI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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Sarki said:
Exactly what I have on my bench waiting for me to stop being lazy and start the project.
May have a lead on a pair of very low mileage used lower arms at no cost so if that’s the case will probably go that way, time will tell.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ride once those new poly bushings are in as the improvement will be noticeable.
Click to expand...

That definitely seems to be the consensus. Pretty excited about it. Already was a massive improvement doing the rack, tie rods and rack poly bushings but I'm definitely not at new vehicle ride quality levels. Might do the rear control arm bushings at some point too. Tell you what I'm glad the wandering steering is now gone, that stuff is fun when you are going up I70 and the chain ruts are throwing you around on a roller coaster ride.
 
Rushthezeppelin said:
That definitely seems to be the consensus. Pretty excited about it. Already was a massive improvement doing the rack, tie rods and rack poly bushings but I'm definitely not at new vehicle ride quality levels. Might do the rear control arm bushings at some point too. Tell you what I'm glad the wandering steering is now gone, that stuff is fun when you are going up I70 and the chain ruts are throwing you around on a roller coaster ride.
Click to expand...

I replaced all the original rear bushings a year or so ago and went with Whiteline poly bushings. I had noticeable wandering/sway at the rear when on the highway.
The difference was very noticeable. I also had approx 210K miles on those originals so most anything would have been an improvement.
 
Sarki said:
I replaced all the original rear bushings a year or so ago and went with Whiteline poly bushings. I had noticeable wandering/sway at the rear when on the highway.
The difference was very noticeable. I also had approx 210K miles on those originals so most anything would have been an improvement.
Click to expand...

I suspect at least one of my arms is original since the cam bolts were rusty while they are totally clean on the other (I suspect a PO had an issue with the other side trying to get it aligned and just replaced the whole arm at the request of a shop) and if so it has 278k on it.

Anyways just got back from buddy's shop. One side barely even needed anything at all on the press. I suspect I was super close to getting it with the bottle jack. Other side however, holy smokes was it in there. I'm betting we probably loaded it around 6 tons or so but that's just a guess based on how much it took before it went bang, and then bang some more and more. The washer that's pressed onto the sleeve was bent in just a tad from that, anymore and it might have just bent into the outer sleeve and pushed the rubber out with it then it would have been sawzall time >< It was in there really really good but we got it out. Biggest PITA part of this was knocking down the flange to get the bearing puller on. Getting it knocked down under the arm was a a chore, use a combo of punches and chisels and just kept fitting the puller on to see if it was good. Anyway my bushing saga is over and it's time to clean and paint the arms then put whiteline bushings in and then install them on the truck.
 
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