Subframe Bushings

[ptcfast2]

Alright, to on my Lumina I'm trying to get those darn subframe bushings out. All 4 of them are pretty much shot (they are all very very mushy and the rubber is cracked).

Everything was going fine until I had to remove the bottom half of the rear bushings. It seems that they are rusted onto the frame (They won't budge!). I removed some of the rubber on one of the lower rear bushings so I could get a better angle at breaking it loose. I tried for a bit with a large flathead screwdriver & hammer and proceeded to move to an air hammer for a tiny bit (no luck yet ).

Before I decide to go to town on these bushings to get them out does anyone have any tips or tricks that can relate to this to this? I'd like to make this job a bit easier if at all possible.

[maxwedge]

Try a PB blaster overnite soak.

[ptcfast2]

Soaked one side last night to test. Went out today and still couldn't get it to budge with the air hammer. If I even have a chance to get this thing off without using a dremel/saw I need to remove all of the rubber from the bushing to get a good angle at it. I'm thinking a torch next? I don't know of a chemical which will simply dissolve rubber on contact...

[ptcfast2]

I managed to get them both out today using a propane torch and an air hammer. I figured that if I had any chance of getting these out easily I needed to be able to impact the metal insulator directly to get it loose. All the rubber was going was softening the impacts, so it had to go....

So I burned off all the rubber on the bushing with the torch, lowered the frame enough to get a good angle at the top of the sleeve/bushing and hammered away. Popped right out!