I absolutely believe in preventative maintenance (including "sealed for life" transmissions and superchargers), but there are also somethings that justifiably fall into the “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it” category. Suspension bushings were always in the later,…. That is until this weekend (Oh-My-Friggin-Gaud). After spending a total of seven hours removing and replacing the upper control arm bushings, these things are DEFINITELY on the preventative maintenance schedule now! At a minimum, every 50K miles. Mine may actually have been on the car for almost 170K miles since new in ’03, and I will tell you now: They should NEVER go unattended for that long!

Thankfully, I was at least able to pound the pivot bolt forward to get the extraction "started". Pic 1 shows the first dilemma: As noted by Rev Sam (a Godsend for sure) the conical washer behind the bolt head must slide rearward as you move the bolt forward. You can see that the mess remaining inside the bushing was not going to allow that. I had to get in there with a cutting wheel to remove old bushing bits and pieces. If the rear bushing had been in this state, I might not have been able to extract the pivot bolt at all! The second pic shows what was left of the front bushing – it is absolutely unrecognizable. And even worse, the third pic shows that the failed bushing was actually beginning to wear a flattened spot into the pivot bolt itself.
Curiously, just as Rev Sam found, the right side was in slightly better shape. But although the rightside bushings may have been “recognizable” as control arm bushings, they were still badly rusted, totally shot and non-functional.

Additional comments:

***Spinning the pivot bolt with an air wrench while beating on the nut end aided getting the bolt started on its way out. Leave the nut on for as long as possible to protect the tapered end of the bolt. The taper aids in getting the bolt through the alignment washers during reassembly.

***Rev Sam’s suggestion to place the rear alignment washers in first is spot-on, but you can make it even easier. Before installing the control arm, push a 3/8” ratchet extension through the rear bushing and suspend the rear washers on the end of it. Carefully maintain the washers on the extension as you press the control arm into place; then slide the extension all the way through. Now you only need to worry about wedging the front washer(s) in while working the pivot bolt through the front bushing. Then, just tap the pivot bolt through the rear bushing, displacing the ratchet extension. It’s still a PITA, and will most likely still call for some wiggling, but this technique REALLY sped things up on the second installation.

***The head and nut on the Pivot Bolt are both 24mm, so you’ll most likely need to make a special trip to Lowe’s, HD or parts dealer in advance of starting the task. I would not try this project without an air wrench.

***The “URO” rubber bushings are quite well designed, but they are more delicate than you would expect. When pressing them into the control arm, do not exert any additional force once they are “home”. The bushings WILL deform if you do this. Be careful. They go in very easily with a press and you can over-do it just as easily.

***The inside of the control arm bushing tubes exhibited a surprising amount of rust. I chipped away an unnerving amount of that really hard, crystalized, black stuff (and it was NOT petrified rubber). I cleaned it out as best I could and coated it in a heavy layer of grease for some protection. If the corrosion continues unchecked a new control arm will be necessary sometime in the future. This is another reason to put this job on thepreventative maintenance schedule – a good wire brushing, rust treatment and coat of paint are definitely in order.

Bottom line: REPLACE THOSE BUSHINGS!!!

 

uro bushings?

caveat emptor

 

Yeh, I hear you Plums. There was one other favorable post for them somewhere in here, so I figured I'd give them a try. They really do seem to be nicely designed and assembled. However, their material quality (durability) has yet to be determined. I'll be keeping an eye on them and plan to swap them out in two to three years if all looks good. I'll have a better feel for them at that point (or before) and will make an informed up date on their quality then.

But for now,... let's face it: I could have used Play Dough & Bubble Gum bushings and made an improvement over what was left of the originals. So regardless of their ultimate quality, the UROs are just fine for me right now. We'll see.