steering and suspension Radius rod/Control arm bushings...best way to remove without a press?

[jrhone]

Ok so im under the car doing the front radius arm bushing that's basically gone and want to do the control arm bushings while I'm in there. The radius arm was pretty easy. I pulled what was left of it out by hand. The control arm bushings not so much. They were in pretty good shape so they wouldn't budge. Took a propane tank and nervously put some heat to them. They ignited at one point but they still wouldn't budge. I put it all back together and enjoyed the poly radius arm bushing on one side because I was tired of fighting with it. Already though the front wheel rubbing that was happening at full lock was gone. No more clunks or squeaks from the front end over bumps and I can feel the responsiveness again in the steering. I bet the full poly setup is gonna be nice so how can I get these bushings out without a press??

[Arash2002tii]

You can always burn them out as a last resort

Edited February 3, 2015 by Arash2002tii

[nbcbird]

You won't get them out by hand. Try fashioning a puller made from some pipe, threaded rod, nuts, and washers. Not sure burning is a good idea so close to the combustibles close by.

[Arash2002tii]

Well are they in the control arm or in the car? If you pull out the control arm and the bushing is in it you can just burn it somewhere safe, but I'd definitely try a puller before that. You can probably just borrow one from a parts store.

[Doug Riparetti]

I put a "Cut-off" wheel on one of those Harbor Freight air tool, cut the rubber on the front side, then just push it through, took about 5-minutes. Putting it back in was a little slower. Not a difficult job, MUCH faster with air tools/impact wrench etc...

[peterschop]

+1 on what nbcbird said.

 

I made a puller out of a few large sockets, threaded rod, nuts and washers. One socket to push the bushing and a 1 1/2" socket to receive it. You can use a piece of sch 40 PVC pipe if you don't have the right size socket. I used the same method with a little dish soap to put a new rubber bushing in. Not to hard to do. I would only use a torch as the last resort, but that's just me.

['76mintgrün'02]

plus two for puller method.  I would even have soapy water on hand for that.  I fought with the bead of a tire to try and replace a valve stem.  As soon as I added water to the equation, things went smoothly and it was very easy.

 

I have read a little about the torch method and the idea is to heat the inner sleeve just enough to get it to let go of the rubber and drive it out.  Then you can cut into the remaining rubber with a utility knife and pull off a chunk or two and push or pull the rest through.  With the metal inner sleeve gone the remaining rubber has room to move.  The thought of holding a torch there to burn out the rubber is less than appealing and seems unnecessary.

[dlhoovler]

I "burned" out my control arm bushings. Mintgrun is correct; the idea is to keep the torch moving on the inner metal sleeve until it heats up enough to melt the rubber around it. At that point, you can quickly remove the torch and yank the sleeve out with a pair of channelocks--tarry too long, and the rubber will reattach to the sleeve. Done carefully, you won't actually ignite the rubber.

 

Then with the sleeve out, you should be able to push/lever the bushings out with a large screwdriver. The first one took me about 10 minutes to figure out the technique. Then the second took about 2 minutes, if I remember correctly. And yes, the control arms were off the car.

 

I installed urethane bushings mostly for ease of installation; they went in faster than the old ones came out.

 

-Dave

Edited February 5, 2015 by dlhoovler

[Hans]

My 47 year old bushings came out with the Peterschop method - threaded rod, washers, etc. The front ones as you know will come out using the radius rod as a lever. If using stock bushings, easier to buy new arms.

[roadhog0]

Heat up the metal collar with a propane torch, you can do this without burning the rubber, just keep the flame close to the collar. When the rubber starts to let go get a screwdriver out and press the collar out. The rubber bushing will probably then split in two and easily pry out. This is how I did it on the rear. The front radius rod bushing (in the subframe) can be pried out with a screwdriver.