Rear Control Arm Bushing Part # ?????

I am having a heck of a time getting the top front control arm bolts out. The nut is in a location that is almost impossible to get to with the mufflers/exhaust on the car. I did get one side but the other is proving even more challenging. DO I need to remove the exhaust to get in there?

I also seem to recall someone mentioning that you should NOT tighten the bolts when reinstalling until you have full weight on the suspension. How in the world can I do that when I can barely get at the bolts with the car on stands?

I was hoping this project would be a bit more straight forward but the location and access to the bolts is proving to be a challenge. Granted, the car was undercoated so everything has a nice layer of coating to hold the bolts and nuts in place, as well as making it difficult to get the socket/wrenches on them.

Any advice? I am sorta stuck but I'll crawl under the car and have another go at it this morning....

 

Did you drop the exhaust hangers? You should get enough clearance by doing that.

Fortunately, you do have undercoating to minimize the rust. You should be able to chip away the undercoating to get at the bolts more clean.

As for tightening under weight, you could probably get away with tightening the top two in the air, and the rest when under weight.

 

Or you could place ramps under the rear tires while still in the air and lower the car onto the ramps. The reason for having the weight of the car on the suspension is that if you tighten the bolts first and then lower, your bushings could separate internally which would ruin them.

 

I was thinking about doing exactly what you suggested. That seemed like a great solution. I'm heading out to remove the exhaust hangar and see if I can get the last bolt out....

Then get the arms blasted and powdercoated. Then start the reinstall process.

Thanks!

 

I've got the entire read out of the car. I used the HR Parts tool to remove the bushings from the rear-end ears and it worked GREAT. Now my trouble is using the same HR Parts tool to remove the bushings from the control arms.

So, how exactly do I use the same tool on the control arms? The bushings are flush in the CA and the tool will not fit outside the width of the bushing so that it can PULL the bushing out in the same manner as the rear-end ears.

Please give me some detailed direction on using the HR Parts tool for the Control Arm bushing remove and replace since I do NOT have a press.

Thanks!!

Rob

 

You don't need the tool for the arms.....use a dull air chisel and simple crush the bushings inwards....then use a small hammer and pop them out.....I do this on all my cars and can knock out...pun intended....all 4 arms in less than 1 hour.

 

I finally figured out that you have to put in "Skylark" not GS to find them. Odd,.Anyways I don't see where it says they are 1 or 2 in a pack. For $27.79 I'm hoping 2.


DL