| There were many different ways
documented on Dale's site and others, on how to remove the
bushings. I pretty much used Mark Fiumara's plan with a
few differences because of the tools I already had and
the parts that were available. First I lit a propane
torch and heated up the metal around the bushing. I
heated it until my garage smelled like somebody lighting
up their tires at the start of a drag race. Then I took
two large flatblade screwdriver and wedged them in-between
the bushing and the subframe. Pry down as far as you can
to get the bushing started. Then I took a 6'' puller and
put one side on the subframe at the section where the
bushing is indented a bit (this way the puller doesn't
catch on the bushing), and the other side on the joint
between the top and bottom of the subframe. I was a
little concerned about damaging the metal, but the amount
of force it took to press the bushing out was faily low
so no damage was done. |
 More
bad focus
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| To put the new bushing back in I took 2
2.5'' PVC pipe caps and drilled a 1/2'' hole in the
center of them. If you can find a 2.5'' and a 2'' steel
pipe cap like Mark recommends it would work much
better, but I couldn't find any. Anyway, then I
jam-locked two nuts at the end of a 1/2'' threaded rod,
put a washer over the nuts and put one of the pipe caps
face up over the nuts (That's the larger cap on the top,
in the picture). Then I took the rod and ran it
down the center of the subframe and through the center of
the bushing. I put the other pipe cap on the bottom of
the bushing with the rod through the center of it. I put
another washer on the bottom of it followed by a nut.
Then I just simply held the nuts at one end of the rod
with a wrench and tightened the lower nut. This will
squeeze the bushing into place. Oh, one other thing,
before tightening, I liberally sprayed the bushing and
subframe with lithium grease. Now as you can see by
the picture the bushing is longer than the subframe so I
hit a point where the bushing hit the pipe cap (this
picture was taken after the bushing was already
completely seated). If the upper cap were a 2'' pipe cap (what
Mark recommends) it would be especially handy, because
you could reverse it so it was pointing down and the
bushing would fit inside it.
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| Since I could only press the bushing in
part way using the procedure above, I had to finish it
off with a puller. "Why didn't I use a puller to
start with?" you ask. Well, because the puller
wasn't long enough to fit the bushing and subframe. |
 This
picture is upside down with respect to the previous one
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| I also replaced the trailing arm
bushings. They were a little easier to do. I heated the
trailing arm again just like the subframe. Then I simply
used a 3'' puller with a washer to press the old ones
out. I also had to cut part of the bushing that sticks
out so the puller could grab onto the trailing arm.
Otherwise it would just grab onto the bushing itself. |
 Geez,
somebody needs to teach this guy how to focus
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| Pressing the bushing it was easy as
well. I sprayed liberally with lithium grease again and
used a 6'' puller to press the new one in. The hooks on the
6'' puller were a little large and the bushing ran into
them, so I just finished off with a 3'' puller when the
bushing got that far in. |
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