Control Arm Bushings: Opinions Sought

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
05/26/2019 at 10:48 • Filed to: None

The upper control arm bushings need replacing on my ‘97 Safari. I can swap the entire arms, or I can pull the arms and press in replacement parts. If I am doing this work in my driveway to save money, and I have the summer off because teacher instead of real job, why not save the money and replace the bushings and ball joints instead of buying arms? Also, why not do uppers and lowers at the same time?

Thoughts?

DISCUSSION (37)

jimz > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 11:18

those should be piss easy to press out/in or have pressed in.

Khalbali > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 11:20

I would definitely do uppers and lowers at the same time, I’ve never done just the bushings though as a dealership tech we always just did the whole arm.

lone_liberal > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 11:22

The only reason not to do it yourself that I can think of is not wanting to deal with taking out the coil springs. There is also pressing in the bushings as well as pressing in/out the lower ball joint but there are tools for that.

Urambo Tauro > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 11:47

Sounds like you have plenty of time to work on it. Might as well save a few bucks and re-use the old arms. I’d definitely do both uppers and lowers at the same time, while it’s apart.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 11:50

I’ve never done just bushings on these. But I have on maybe a Chevelle...? Basically the same style suspension IIRC. The bushings were right bastards to remove. No press could do it. I ended up using a cutting torch. What's the cost difference between arms and parts for arms?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > lone_liberal
05/26/2019 at 12:09

I’ve got the time and buying the individual parts is like 1/4 the money.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2019 at 12:10

About 4x the cost for parts, I believe.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro
05/26/2019 at 12:10

Upper and lower bushings and ball joints. Rebuilt front suspension at that point. 250k on the chassis, 100k on these bushings.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Khalbali
05/26/2019 at 12:11

I believe I can get all of the parts for about 1/4 the cost of the complete control arms.

lone_liberal > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 12:16

I’m not the one to dissuade you since I’m going to be changing my springs and ball joints myself. The only thing that gives me a little concern is removing the springs but I think as long as I keep safety first it will be fine.

Urambo Tauro > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 12:38

Okay, so these aren’t the original bushings then. Well, as long as the arms are still serviceable to press new parts into , I’d still gravitate towards re-using them. Maybe even clean them up and throw on a fresh coat of paint!

MoCamino > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 13:17

I just did this on my 79 El Camino. I replaced the upper and lower bushings along with ball joints. None of it was that bad - except for the removal of the old bushings. Granted, I think it might have had the original 40 year old bushings (!), but they were a monster to take out, even with my dad’s 20 ton press. If I had to do it the hard way again, I’d burn out the rubber part of the bushing and use an air chisel to remove the outer sleeves. We had to do that on one of them, and even with that it was tough. Had to be really careful not to damage the control arm, of course.

If I do have to do it again I will shop hard for assembled control arms. If the best you can do is four times the cost, I’d do it the hard way again. But I’d whine about it the whole time. :)

With all that said, your van is way newer than my EC. Depending on how corroded things are under there, they might just press right out. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 13:58

Then my vote is to try the bushings yourself. But don't buy parts until you actually get them out. If you can't get them out, have a shop try once you have the arms off. And if that still doesn't work just get whole arms.

Khalbali > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 15:10

Probably why the dealership doesn’t do that lol. Although I dunno if they were meant to be replaced, I don’t think you could get just the bushings OEM. And to be fair almost all the ones I replaced were part of a recall on ball joints and the rest were mostly used inventory cars.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > lone_liberal
05/26/2019 at 16:57

In what for a vehicle?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro
05/26/2019 at 16:58

All of the paint has fallen off the body, so I probably won’t paint the suspension.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MoCamino
05/26/2019 at 17:01

Turns out not 4x expensive. Much less than that, and the only complete uppers are MEVOTECH, which I’ve never heard of, and of which I am suspicious. So for the mere sake of kwality, I may rebuild the uppers. Lowers are available from ACDelco.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2019 at 17:02

Turns out the margin is smaller than 4x, but upper control arms seem to not be readily available at all; only in a brand called Mevotech, that I’d never heard of. So I may wind up rebuilding the uppers, at least, and I can use ACDelco bushings and ball joints.

lone_liberal > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/26/2019 at 18:48

A 71 Camaro. It’s all pretty straightforward, I’m just a natural chicken.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/27/2019 at 00:04

Mevotech is useable. I've gone with them before. Definitely worth trying to rebuild. Worst case, it'll be a learning experience!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/27/2019 at 08:05

I ordered bushings and parts from Rock Auto last night -- all ACDelco Professional. Four ball joints and 8 bushings. AutoZone has a good press kit available. Parts were $165 after the 5% discount I had from last order. Would have been around $375 for complete arms. I have a very sturdy vice. I've rebuilt a number of struts over the years as well as prop shafts and other things, so I'm confident I'm up to the task.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/27/2019 at 12:06

Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out! If the press kit is the threaded rod style, make sure you grease the threads really well.

Yours can't possibly be worse than the Chevelle bushings I did. Those were 40 years old at the time after all.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/27/2019 at 19:29

When all else fails, melt the rubber. These will be very clean because I do not live in Snow Land.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 08:00

Mevotech seems pretty decent, they’ve become the Moog replacement for my vehicles, so far they seem to hold up well.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 11:19

How’s that camera performing? Have you tried it out yet?

I am going to go full Viking on this, rebuild the control arms. I stand to save $200+ going that route, and wind up with all Delco parts.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 12:07

Pretty much everything I’ve posted lately has been taken with it, it works great! Appreciate you doing that for me!

Hopefully it doesn’t end up being more work than it’s worth. That’s the reason I always buy “quick struts” instead of buying just the strut, the money I save is rarely worth the work of swapping parts over to the new strut.

Good luck regardless.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 12:19

You posted a picture of your two girls helping you mask the van and I thought it looked like it came from that camera. Those Lumix cameras are really quite decent and I’d much rather see someone enjoying it than throw it away or sell it to someone for $5.

I’m not too concerned about the amount of labor involved in rebuilding the A-arms because I’m a teacher and I’m off for the summer, so I have more disposable time than disposable money.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 12:29

I started using it around this post: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/issues-sorted-1834209089

Pretty much everything since has been from it. I pretty much keep it by me whenever I’m working on something so I can snap pics along the way.

Can’t really go wrong if you have the time, good luck on it ;)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 14:14

There was a picture of your daughters helping mask the fan for paint. Did that pic come from the Lumix?

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 16:04

This one? https://oppositelock.kinja.com/went-black-last-night-1834914756

If yes than yes, these were all from the Lumix.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 16:18

Yes, that’s the one. Cute pic, by the way... It’s fun to see those youngsters so earnest in lending you a hand. When I saw it, I thought it was the Lumix. I could not tell describe the quality of the picture, but I thought it would be.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 16:37

They are 12 and 10. They love helping me on vehicle stuff. My oldest is my paint mixer when I’m painting stuff. They both know how to bleed brakes. The oldest helped tear down and put my new engine back together. I enjoy the help and teaching them, so hopefully when they start driving they won’t get fleeced by mechanics around here if they don’t do the work themselves.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 16:41

Why don’t they get certified and rule their respective shops? Competent woman mechanic? The others will bow. And despair.

Kinja'd!!!

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 16:54

If that’s what they wanted to do, I fully support that!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 17:00

That’s a really good answer, Dad. Seriously. But t hey might not think of it if you don’t mention it, though.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/28/2019 at 17:04

My oldest is already pretty sure she wants to get into something automotive, so she’s golden. The middle is still kinda spacey, so I’ll give it a bit yet.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
05/28/2019 at 17:39

I have three daughters of my own. The youngest is graduating from high school in a few days. So I really meant what I said about your answer, the way you defaulted to them being the captains of their own destiny ( cliche ). If any of them are automotively interested, your support and encouragement would be everything. The hardest part would be putting up with rude, vulgar, sexist buttholes (potentially).

I have a friend who owns a full service auto shop and he’ll pay the cost and paid time off for his mechanics to get further ASE certifications and they’re just not interested.