Bushing swap with a $5 tool, no fire needed.
 

This is an old ass press tool concept, after doing this on a whim at Garage Woolery and I was surprised to find that no one has ever seen this redneck engineered tool before.

Attachment 190494

Gonna need a few things from the Home Depot hardware section:

One 3/8"-16x24" threaded rod (I call it all thread)
Four 3/8" x 1-1/2" Fender washers
Four 5/16" or 3/8" flat washers
Four 3/8" hex nuts.

All of this came to $4.17 for me

Optional;
A single 36mm socket will work well too. This will come in handy later, worth having anyway.
Might try using autozones free rental and get their ball joint kit as well.

OR Two 2" (or larger) diameter fender washers, though if you
pull the front lower control arm bushings first, you likely won't
need these.

A couple of 14mm wrenches/sockets. If you have an impact gun, get a socket to fit it that fits these nuts and this job will go retarded fast and easy.

The tool is assembled like so:
You thread on a single nut, well down on the piece of all thread, you want to get enough thread to go through both ends of both bushings and room for a couple of nuts and washers,
Drop on two of those flat washers,
then a fender washer,
then a random deep socket or small piece of pipe. Something to act as a spacer so the nut doesn't get forced down the whole created as the bushing comes out,


thread this through the bushings
http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0841.jpg

Next you'll put on another fender washer (or 2 for added strength, they like to flex),
A flat washer (or 2, same thing),
and TWO nuts tightened together.

Should look like this on the other end:
http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0843.jpg

now start wrenching on it:

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0844.jpg

As you start on it, both ends will start to come in, eventually one will give more than the other and it'll pop out.

One thing I found helps is tapping the bushing with a hammer while compressing the assembly helps the bushing pop out easier and quicker.

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0846.jpg

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0847.jpg

Once the first bushings comes out, remove your jam nuts. Pull out the assembly and now replace the "random deep socket" with the 36mm socket (or 2"+ washers or pipe or something to big to go in the hole) and reassemble


You might note earlier I said these were "optional". Reason why I say that is, if you start with the front lower control arm and get lucky enough to remove the bushing with the large lip, you can flip it backwards and use it instead. The very top pic of me doing this job shows said reverse bushing doing its thing.

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0848.jpg

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0849.jpg

http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0850.jpg

Now spend the next hour or 2 (depending on using power tools or a ratchet) on the rest of your arms and you'll be done.

Bushings in the rear upright:

Remember how I said the 36mm socket will come in handy later? Yeah this is the spot.

Assemble the tool again, with the 36mm socket as the spacer and wrench it down. Once the bushing comes half way out, you can wiggle it out by hand pretty easily.

Here's it assembled on my upright with the ES poly bushings in place (so ignore the fact that it's obviously the wrong size).
http://thumb.phyrefile.com/t/th/thed...0/IMAG0837.jpg

Once done you end up with this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...DSC0214-31.jpg

Nice thing about this technique is you can sit in front of the TV and watch a movie while doing it. It doesn't leave any residue behind like burning the old ones out and doesn't heat stress the metal either.

My ES poly bushings went in with no more effort than pushing them in with my hands on all the arms I had done with this tool. I had 2 arms that had them burned out and those were a fight.

snapon sells a tool like that its supposedly the bmw bushing install tool or thats atleast how its listed...

Heh. Nice. Much less messy.

I like. I sticky?

I've seen presses used that actually bend control arms, I wonder if more stubborn bushings than yours would allow this tool to do that.

Also…grease the threads…it makes it easier.

Feels sticky to me. Definitely going with this method when I install mine. Thanks for the writeup!

Ha ha brilliant, epically simple. I love redneck engineering.

Definitely sticky worthy, would be cool to have a whole sticky thread full of stuff like this.

Very cool, i was just gunna use my air hammer at the shop...... But i might try this anyways, looks like a great idea!

The bushings in the majority of those pics were from an NB rear lower and they were definitely more resistant than my 90's bushings and I didn't see remotely any flexing. But it's still a possibility.

I forgot to mention...
One of the arms did have the bushing come out with enough force that it took the tool with it about 3 feet away. So use caution when doing this, this may be slow moving but there is still a lot of pressure when cranking down on this thing.

Awesome! This will help many.

I have a hydraulic press in my garage, but I think I may try this method.

very nice. Sticky!!!
this sure beat c-clamp method.

Done. Might even consider doing this myself sometime in the far future.

Are there many other sub 5 post people that get threads stickied? :D

Great post! Sticky this for sure!

^^ That's where you :facepalm: and say doh...

Will definetly remember this when it come time, thanks!

Yep, that little tool would have been much better than the 3-arm puller I used. You could probably use different size washers and do the endlink bushings.

I did that fifteen years ago, but added an impact gun and some spray lube.

I used my thumbs to press the old bushings out. Maybe you queers need to visit the gym for the first time in your pathetic lives.

I've been using this thing on bikes since I was 7 to put in bottom and headset brackets on bikes. I'm couldn't believe how many people hadn't known about this simple tool when I whipped it out at Techday.

I am gonna do this on all my front suspension. I did all the back of my car the old way with a torch but this looks much better.

You just saved me 75 bucks man, I JUST pulled my spare arms out of the shed to put my poly bushings in. The only tough ones that I have besides this now are the steering rack and the diff carrier :D

If I ever meet you I owe you a beer.

Confirmed, yeah this tool and a press will both do that. I got a few out but bent my passenger rear lower control arm, got a nice wrinkle in it too. I have a spare but it was surprising. I suggest propping something between the two sides of the wishbone (I used a 22mm craftsman wrench) to keep it from moving. I'll be using heat after that though.

/\ ;) Glad to see it stickied! Yep, presses can and will bend the control arms if not careful.
Will be using this method next time for sure.

Awesome, did my '97 with fire and it was a fun time. But, this looks like I'll be doing my '99 this way. Was dreading the mess till now

thats a killer idea ill have to use that when i do my bushings

That's the best $5 you could spend on tools. Snap On's kit is sooo overpriced.

Got my bushing install this week :D Hopefully this makes life easier.

Might try throwing some heat on the control arms first. Make the bushings a little softer, and expand the steel a bit.

I ended up using 7/16th thread for all but the rear uppers. Also used a butane lighter to aid in the removal. These bushings were not budging. They all eventually came out though.

This tool is very likely to bend your control arms. Plus, it cannot be used to remove the bushings from rear knuckles. I ponied up for the harbor freight tool and it worked way better. Just use a pipe join for some of the control arms since the included pieces are too big for some bushings.

https://www.miataturbo.net/showpost....4&postcount=52
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329193206

Price, just for reference?

Harbor freight tool is $70. You can get a "20% off any item" coupon pretty easily, which knocks down the price to less than $60 after taxes and all.

I already used it to do my diff bushings and you can probably use it to press in new wheel studs (949 says they MUST be pressed in). So, it's not a single-use tool.

I don't remember the pipe join diameter but I'm guessing it s 2" diameter

How can you tell if the suspension is no longer tight?

Bumpage:

I no longer have a garage and asked a buddy to use his briefly. I'm just doing the rear control arm bushings with the Harbor Freight BJ tool. Anyone have a time estimate I can give him; as far as the time frame goes to remove CA's, press out bushings, then in, and reinstall CA's? Don't wanna be in his garage for too long.
5-6 hours for one guy on jack stands is what I'm guessing, but I've never done the job.

Bumpage:

I no longer have a garage and asked a buddy to use his briefly. I'm just doing the rear control arm bushings with the Harbor Freight BJ tool. Anyone have a time estimate I can give him; as far as the time frame goes to remove CA's, press out bushings, then in, and reinstall CA's? Don't wanna be in his garage for too long.
5-6 hours for one guy on jack stands is what I'm guessing, but I've never done the job.

Just did all control arm bushings on my car including zerk fittings with some help with my dad. Took me ~15-20 hours

What helps the most I think is to use a tool like in this thread, hit the CA with a little heat, then use an impact to turn the threaded rod/bolt head/nut. makes quick work of the bushings

A badly corroded rear lower outer bolt could take 3 hours to remove, by itself. :vash:
If you know you're going to be limited by time, I might have spares ready in case it needs cut out.

Lol. If it even looks rusty just buy a lower control arm and spindle from treasure coast miata now, its cheap enough.

EO2K came by today and we swapped the bushings in my control arms.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400392749

No chance of bending the control arm this way. It's a 1.5" diameter pipe nipple with a stack of(4) fender washers on the pipe nipple side and some regular washers on the bushing side. With my harbor freight electric impact wrench it took 20 seconds or less to push out each bushing once the tool was set up. We found that spraying a little kroil under the lip of the rubber bushing helped them to come out easier.

Honestly this was an easy job to do this way and not being afraid of bending the control arms is a win!

I used the harbor freight ball joint tool and a ratchet with no vice and was able to remove all of my bushings, including the NB steering rack. I also used a 3-jaw puller (from the HF four three jaw puller set), two of the HF ball joint tool pieces, and a ratchet to remove the OEM diff bushings, and to remove poly bushings. Worked great.

I would've never believed that it was that easy.
No power tools, less than 5 minutes per bushing. Although, it'd prolly be better to use a sleeve and just thread the rod through only 1 bushing at a time.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1405460998
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1405460998

What washer is that? I bent the shit out of the washers I used.

Oh. That.
That's the one I used when we aligned my car at your place, don't you remember? (Perhaps not, 'cause you share like a miser!)

Seriously, dude, do you sit at the computer all day? You've just joined both this and m.net, and already you have some 5,000+ posts. What do you do?

one learn something new everyday... I usually use a circular saw and a drill, cut through the rubber like butter, then wire brush the residuals.

Thanks for the share!

Nice! Very helpful!

I'm considering doing this with the I.L. stiffer rubber bushings. However, I would like to powder coat the control arms before installing the new bushings.

The autozone by me loans out the harbor freight style C-tool for a $120 deposit. (maybe less).

It is weird because they gave me $20 in bonus bucks for the deposit even though I got that money back when I returned the tool. So, they paid me $20 to borrow it. What a deal.

Same idea as gesso, plastic pipe worked for me, although I was sort of staying out of the line of fire if it broke. Nice thing about plastic pipe is that you don't have to extract the old bushings, and they did get stuck. You can just toss the bushing and piece of pipe in the trash.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1456376191

Just did mine with a 2 jaw puller from Autozone. No fire. No wd40. No hub pulling. Super easy.

I'm hoping it shouldn't be too difficult to swap out 19 year old original bushings for the new IL Motosports rubber bushings using this tool at home.

I used a couple of 3 jaw pullers from HF. No drama, no fire needed. One of the pullers lasted about 3/4 of the job before the threads seized, so plan on tossing it . Buy the kit so you have two. Used threaded rod and washers to pull the steel liner into the bush on the rear upper outer (top of the knuckle). On the rear did one arm at a time, so didn’t have to remove the knuckle or the axle shaft at all. A regular c clamp, or a big pair of channel locks, to push the steel bushings in the rest with the arm in the bench vice.

Thanks for this tip! Haven’t seen this before ever so that’s pretty cool thought I was gonna have to take my arms to a shop to get them out :)

A bearing puller works great too!