308 A-arm bushings replacement.

Yes, you heard it right. Another one of those threads.

I decided to tackle another project, the rear bushings. Hey, my buddies "Jwise" and "JimShadow" did it without lifts and everybody else said it's a easy job and on top of that, I have so much free time latetly, why not start a new project.

So I start taking things apart. First the sway bar, that was easy.

Then the a-arms. The front upper and lower bolts are simple enough. Just mark down how all those pieces go back together.

The rear bolts are a little tricky. The lower one has that "u" style bracket that you have to loosen and then tilt the a-arm to remove it.
The upper one is in a tight spot but not that the bolt wont slip out...............well that one didn't work out to good for me. Seems like the bolt has seized itself to the washers. When I try to unscrew the bolt it spins the washers that are attached to the bushings.

That bolt has not budged for 2 straight nights.

I put back all the bolts and torque them down and then tried that one first. But same thing.

I'll try again tonight. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.

Last picture is where I'm at.
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I am just now completing the same project. I don't recall any washers at the bolt or nut ends. If you are talking about the inner parts there are no washers...it's one unit welded in place. There is a thread explaining the whole proceedure...it very good and uses aftermarket bushings that require a sawsall to remove the old bushing ends. Works like a charm.

BTW...soak them good w/PB Blaster overnight and tap the end with a hammer

And yes...I did sand and paint them...the middle picture was a test pressing and then I decided I had better paint them first
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Good luck on your project. It is not that bad. Keep an eye out for cracks in your rear lower A-Arms! mine were cracked and I am still waiting for Bob Norwood to make me some 288 style rear A-Arms in 4130 steel so I can finish my project.

Cheers

Paul

 

Hi Chris,

Good to see your keeping busy...

I've done 30-40 sets of control arm bushings on Dino's, 308's, 328's and BB's. It's a fun job and very rewarding when you're done. The difference is just amazing. Easy; yes...but very time consuming, particularly if you repaint and re-plate, as you go! Drop me a note if you need any help.

Have fun!!!

David

 

Chris,

I recall having to do some fanagaling to get that bolt out of one of my A-Arms. A long screw driver to pry and a couple whacks with a small weighted hammer while wiggling the A-Arm with a small dose of patience did it for me. Wish I were closer, I'd swing by and help!

Good luck and take David (Fastradio) up on his offer. He is a great resource.

JIM

PS, you are going to have the A-Arms painted/powdercoated along with the hardware, correct?

 

had same prob with my car 3 hrs still no go .... got a bit of heat on it.. got it out but the bolt was rat sh#t had to machine new bolt ..... man i love these cars....... good luck bro!!!

 

A little soap & water after you have off & they will clean right up-
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Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice and the support.

Had some visitors last night (doggies) and no work got done. Will try again tonight.



Thanks for the pictures too.

 

Here's a tip that will save a lot of time and maybe money unless you were going to paint them with a spray can ... a good power coater will strip and paint the control arms for $200 (front and rear). Press out all the bushing insides first AND I'd reccomend removing the outer bushings in rears 'cause the powder coater might mess these up when they blast all the paint off. Also be very specific about the areas that you don't want painting. Any other method of refinishing the control arms is 2nd rate compared to powder coat and the labor savings is tremendous.

Of course if you're getting paid by the hour take your time and enjoy .

cheers

edit: last time I did mine I actually stripped 'em with paint stripper before powder coating 'cause I wanted to smoothe all the sharp edges and imperfections ... I had nothing to do I guess .

 

Almost wanted to just hang 'em on the wall .
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Oh yeah I took a ball hone to the i.d. to give the urethane a smoother surface to move against ... you can kinda tell in the pic .... thing is I don't think the urethane rotates relative to this part judging by the wear I observed.

I decided to experiment with "graphite impregnated dry lube". I'd had the urethane bushings on my car for 10+ years and I could see where they were wearing the control arm forks and the lugs on the frame. They were completely dry of grease after that amount of time.

No squeaking and that was last December.

cheers

 

Those are the new "outer housings" that came with my new bushings.

I noticed when you cut out the insert and reuse the factory housing there is a small lip in the "small end" of the factory housing ... easy to remove with a die grinder/dremel just be aware it is there.

 

Those look great...Nice job!

 

Right on Thanks!

Cheers

 

They sure are purdy lucky! Very nice!
Chris

 

Ohhh!! That looks nice!



Few more pictures of my dirty,filty sway bar and end links.

I just need to get the sway bar bushings and end link bushing. What about those sway bar brackets? Replace?
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Yes replace them.

 

quote" Oh yeah I took a ball hone to the i.d. to give the urethane a smoother surface to move against ... you can kinda tell in the pic .... thing is I don't think the urethane rotates relative to this part judging by the wear I observed." unquote.

You are correct, the unethane is not supposed to rotate inside the shell. I confirmed that with the mfr. There is a great write-up somewheres in Fchat about installation urethane bushings (Birdman?). However, there is 1 error in the narrative - you should NOT lub the O.D. of the urethane bushing when installing it into the old shell.

FWIW, my wife and I did the entire stock bushing to urethane bushing job in 8 hours using the aforementioned narrative as a quide.

 

Hey Chris,

Bring those nasty parts over to the house this weekend and we'll toss 'em in the blast cabinet! As you know, I did the front-end last winter... I LOVE the blast cab!!

 

Why replace them? Clean them off and have them powdercoated! They will look as good as new.

FWIW, I had my control arms, sway bars, rotor hats, misc parts, and front and engine grills stripped and powder coated for $200! They looks amazing!

JIM

 

Thanks man, you're the best.

 

Well, i just finished with that damn bolt. Took about 2 hours and i finally gave in and brought out the Sawzall.

This bolt does not look right to me.
Kind of hard to explain. The front and end of that bolt was 19mm, just like the other one i removed, but the middle of the bolt was thicker and it was welded to the ends. (check picture) That's why it wouldn't come out easy.

I hope the other side is not the same.
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Far out!
That central piece is definitely one solid piece, not a collar seized around a shaft?
I can't quite see how they got it in there in the first place.

 

It seized to the inside of the bushing.. thats the center portion of the bushing & the "washer" is the outside of that inner solid bushing sleeve!

No wonder she was fighting you!

Chris

 

That was my first thought when I saw the picture.