control arm bushings

[phaelax]

a few months back i had new struts installed, at which point the guy told me I needed new bushings. Someone else mentioned that the bushings might need to be compressed. Is that true? Or is this something I could do myself?

[BNaylor]

An automotive machine shop will use a press to remove the old bushings and install the new.

[rickisrad]

Is there a way to press out the bearing with a c-clamp or something like that? I need to put bushings in both of my control arms.

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by rickisrad

Is there a way to press out the bearing with a c-clamp or something like that? I need to put bushings in both of my control arms.

You probably won't get enough force using a c-clamp. I did lower control arm bushings on a Camaro Z28 in the past by using a bottle type jack (1.5 ton rating) and using a vice but you have to be careful not to bend any part of the control arm.

[richtazz]

I did the vertical mount front control arm bushings (toward the front of the van) on my wife's mini-van (very similar to the GP) with no problems in my driveway. I didn't replace the horizontal mount bushings (toward the rear of the van) so I'm not sure how difficult they are. I used an air hammer to drive the old ones out and a piece of wood to hold the control arm out away from the frame while removing/installing the bushings. I tapped the new ones in by hand with a hammer. It took longer to jack the van up and take the tire off than it did to actually change the bushings.