control arm bushings

[pokerman11]

on my '98 V,

Putting tires on today, and the Tire shop calls and tells me my control arm bushings are shot. Like $500 to fix them both. Well no way. In the barn I have a lift (for the farm) so going to fix this myself.

Issue is that it is litterly 0 degrees in my barn right now and I was going to wait a week or so until fixing this.

Any danger issues driving with blown bushings? No expressway just local less than 40 MPH travel - just for a week until I can get parts and it warms up abit

[pokerman11]

Actualy I got the car back and the bushing are not that bad. I think the tire shop is interested in making more service $$.

I got my bushings from the local Chevy dealer. They are only $10 each. The GM part number for me is 10393215 for the vertical bushings.

Interesting is that the local auto parts stores do NOT carry this part.

Taking the control arm off is easy enough. I might just replace the ball joint while I'm at it (did that to one side last year)

Anyway here is my question. These vertical bushings need to be pressed in/out. Can somebody tell me some suggestions on how to do that?

Looks like the press out from the top and in back from the bottom. I was thinking of trying to use a 1 7/8" socket to press out, and then like a 3" iron pipe on the bottom and press in a vise. Just worried that I end up pressing out the rubber and leave the metal.

Anybody have any suggestions?

tks

[srlbotanical]

I did this job about a month ago. I only had to replace the front vertical bushings, and they were totally shot. The rear horizontal bushings were fine, I can't see how they would ever go bad. My local Mechanic has a press and he pressed the new bushings in for $20.

I was planning on pressing them in my self, but I could not figure out a way to do it with out damaging the bushings.

Also, the control arm is the same for each side, just flipped over, so the bushing presses in from the top on one side and from the bottom on the other.

The hardest thing for me was getting the ball joints loose. I finally figured out that the wheel can be turned all the way to one side which exposes an area of the steering knuckle that you can beat with a hammer. A few hard whacks and the ball joint drops right out of the spindle.

Anyway, If I had to do this again I think I could have both sides apart and back together in about 2 or hours.

A shop with a press is the only way to go.

Hope that helps.

Steve

[pokerman11]

Thanks for the info about the interchangable left/Right on this control arm. I see the driver side presses in from the bottom and the pass from the top.


I don't think I'll have much issue with the ball joint, as I just put new ones on a few months ago, and don't rememver having issues with the ball joint (other than drilling out the riviots).

I am going to talk to a local shop about getting the bushing pressed in - sounds like the way to go - as I already have the parts.

One other note- I did see a lot of entire control arms for sale on ebay and at the junkyard sites. They come complete with bushings/balljoints. Also I noticed that this control arm is the same for a lot of Chevy's not just the venture. It's a $35 part from my local junkyard.

[srlbotanical]

Originally Posted by pokerman11

Thanks for the info about the interchangeable left/Right on this control arm. I see the driver side presses in from the bottom and the pass from the top.

Sorry... I don't want to mislead anyone. The control arm is exactly the same on both sides, but they are not interchangeable because of the tabs that are welded on for the sway bar linkage. So you do need to buy either a pass or drivers side control arm.

If you pick up a control arm from your local bone yard, I would still recommend replacing the vertical bushing. Seems like they always go bad.

[pokerman11]

Just as a follow up. I changed my front vertical bushing on the control arm (driver's side) this weekend. It was an easy job - just took about 2 hours.

I ran the control arm down to a local auto-Mac and fliped him a $20 to press the old out and the new bushing in . Then an extra $5 because he did it on the spot.

As an aside the local (non-chain store) auto-Mac told me he would have done the entire job for $175.

I have a car lift on the farm, so this job was easy, however without the lift - perhaps it would be worth spending the extra $140 and let the local guy do it.

I had $10 in parts plus $25 press fee - total $35.


One other suggestion is if you are doing this yourself - look hard at your ball joint - if your bushings are going bad then extra stress is being placed on the ball joint. While you have everythign apart - perhaps worth putting a new ball joint in there (~$20 part). You have to drill the rivots out to get the ball joint out - but then THAT will make taking your control rod arm off A LOT EASIER.

[actionintegral]

Looks like I will be doing this job in the near future as well. I have a "clunk" sound with each change in speed.

[pastaben]

would bad ball joings and bushing on the control arms cause pulsating vibrations while driving? I can't tell if its my rotors warped, drums out of round, because the vibration is amplified upon braking, but at steady speeds slow to fast, I have what feels like a washing maching out of balance vibration in the car. Will replacing control arm bushing, joints help, you think?

[pokerman11]

I'm no expert but could be bad rotors or unbalanced tires - perhaps bushings but don't think that would be where I would start.

A bad ball joint will cause clunking during turns, easy to test - lift the wheel into the air and try to move the tire at the very bottom. There should be almost no in/out play in the wheel.

For bushings - you can look at them. Look at them and see what they look like. Mine were exploded and easy to see it was bad. Compaire the left side vs right side.

Out of balance tires or cracked rotors can cause what you are describing