Hello everyone,
Wanted to share for those contemplating pressing new bushings vs replacing whole control arm.

I bought used rear lower control arms from Ebay at about $70 each. Bought 3 price bushing kit from Ebay at about $100 per kit. Pressing out the old bushes was easy with hydraulic press. Pressing new ones in is a pain since everything has to be perfectly level and the weird shape of the control arm mans it difficult.
Later on the bushing to the knuckle failed giving the rear wheel camber this wearing out the insert tire thread. Recently, prices for new control arms have dropped significantly. I bought new ones from ford at about $200-230 each. For some reason one is more expensive than the other.
Anyways just watched to share for others to compare which route to take.

 

Pressing in new bushings can be done provided you have the correct tools which includes the correct size "mandrel" to push on the bushing rim.

Freezing the bushings before hand helps.

It is not easy as the angle has to be correct.

On yours it looks like significant damage was done to the aluminum alloy when pushing in the bushing which means the bushing was never actually at the correct angle even when forced in.

I bought a pipe connector of the correct size at Home Depot to use to push in the bushing with a 10 ton press.

I also "flattened" the sharp rim of the pipe connector.

 

The damage you see was caused from the failed bushing. There was no damage to the control arm itself when I pressed them in. I froze the bushings over night and poured boiling water on the control arms. I used press dies. The bushings themselves went in no problem. The pain is just making sure everything is aligned given the dimensions.

 

You seem to have had some bad luck with that then.

It is surely a pain to align things because of the shape of the arm.

I did mine about 2 years ago and they are still good so hopefully will stay that way.

 

Glad to see some people doing these jobs with "knowhow" on the need for heat to assist with pressing the bushes in/out. It is very important not to stress the aluminium casting too much to avoid cracking, so with aluminium having a coefficient of expansion far greater than steel, (actually about double), , getting the aluminium casting hot should make the job simple and straightforward.