I spent Sunday working on my suspension bushing replacement crusade.

Saturday, I took a trip to the closest Harbor Freight (Tacoma) and picked up a 20-ton press, and a set of wrenches that included the necessary 30mm for the radius arm. They were having a parking lot sale, but I resisted and quickly got out of there before spending too much cash. The press was on sale plus a coupon, which saved me $80 - gas to get to Tacoma.

Pressing out/in the panhard rod bushings was child's play. Then came the driver-side radius arm.

Whoa!!!

Loosening the nuts was easy enough (thank you PB Blaster), but maneuvering the axel into a position that aided getting the arm out was a PITA!

Pressing the bushings out wasn't too difficult, though I did take a bit of a risk. I didn't have the right jig to match the diameter of the larger bushings, so, I decided to use the new bushing, with a short piece of plumbing joint pipe on top of it, to press out the old and in with the new in one shot.

It worked! Then came putting the arm back in.

Ugh.

This took a couple of hours of twisting, turning, jacking, etc. to get the rear of the arm into the frame, and the two front bolt holes lined up on the axle. Many four and five-letter words were uttered, and I did have to slam a couple of cheap Mexican beers to remain calm, but in the end I conquered the EVIL radius arm; the driver-side only.

In the process, I had to remove one side of the front sway bar, and the tierod end (rear of wheel), which I luckily had a new part for. The tierod was an adventure in itself. But again, PB Blaster came to the rescue!

This morning, it rained in the Northwest (shocking!), so I was able to take a wet drive to see if the stopping starting "clunk" was fixed; I posted about this long ago. I did not hear or feel any clunking, and the suspension was smoother over speed bumps--some of which can be attributed to the OME spring/shock replacement from a couple weeks prior. It did clear up mid morning, so I am reserving final judgement until a good solid day or two of rain before I declare "mission accomplished!"

Today, I worked until noon and then took the rest of the day off to replace two more tierod ends (front). It went relatively smooth, and I think the alignment is still good. I will need to replace the fourth tierod end when I do the passenger (EVIL) radius arm. Then I will get a pro alignment.

And of course, there are the rear bushings, but that will be saved for another summer weekend.

The good news is, the press has already paid for itself, and I am only a 1/3 done with the bushing replacement jihad.

Cheers.

 

My 97 has 100K more than yours. What are the symptoms of needing the bushings replaced? What do you look for? Is this more of an issue with vehicles with lots of off roading? Or is it just chronological age and dry rot? Anything we can spray on bushings to extend their service life?

 

I don't know exactly how long the rubber bushes are supposed to last, but for mine, there had been chronic leaking of steering fluid (PO never dealt with it), which coated the bushes on the radius arm and on one end of the panhard rod. This likely hastened the death of the bushings.

The symptoms I noticed were clunking when braking or taking off from a stop when it was wet out, and an occasional clunk when hitting a speed bump.

I doubt that all my bushings are bad, but now that I have the kit, and the tools, I feel compelled to swap them out and not worry about them for (hopefully) the life of the vehicle.

 

Why do you guys keep bringing up topics like this...??? It is only making my TO DO list longer.

Nice job on your bushings. Makes me wish I'd brought my press to Alaska with my from Idaho instead of giving it to my brother.

 

I always disconnect the tie rod on the side I'm working on. (way bars were removed soon as I bought the truck so can't address that).
For reinstalling taking an old radius to axle bolt, cutting it shorter and grinding a taper on it helps a lot getting the holes aligned.
Then it's just a matter of judicious use of the jack and a prybar to move the radius arm to get the bolts in.

 

ratchet straps are youre friend when working on control arms and radius arms.

 

Perhaps I should invest in some when I do the other side!

 

Yes, aligning the holes was a PITA. I'll try your trick on the other side.

 

Good excuse to buy a new, better press.