Ok guys, past weekend decided to change out my inner/outer tie rods, on my 68 skylark, did sway bar/end links last week, tie rods this week. (Building on a budget). Well after all the fun a getting the car to the alignment shop, i find out the my upper control arm bushings are "shot".. Now, is there an easier way to replaceing them ? I mean am i really gonna have to pull the front end down ? How about pulling tire off, jack under lower control arm, supporting conrtrol arm and spring load. un-do upper and remove. Not positive but pretty sure upper spring is in a perch under upper control arm. Is this possible or am i dreaming ?
If your uppers are shot.......don't waste your energy and time......do both uppers and lowers w/new ball joints....not hard to do....just a lil time consuming. If you do just the uppers.....you will do the lowers and have to start over again when you do them. Use a dull air chisel bit and you can easily "walk out" the bushings....just take your time and don't apply too much pressure to the bushings...the chisel will quickly walk them out......then use a sharp chisel bit and cut off the factory rivets holding the upper ball joint in place.
George is talking about ball joints. You will need a upper control arm bushing press. It looks like a ball joint press, but the tooling to push the bushings in and out are different. Be very careful not to distort the arms when doing this. It may be a good idea to have a machine shop do them for you if you don't have the tools.
No easy way out on this job. Control arm bushings are a real SOB if you've never done them. In fact, I've done many over the years and they are still my least favorite job. As mentioned you may want to also do the lower control arm bushings while you are at it. I recall some old posts where there were some good tips mentioned to do this job so you may want to search for those. May the force be with youray:
Yea, I've come to the conclusion that it'll be best for me, just take it to the shop, and let them do it. Performance shop gave me an estimate of around $300 for both sides, so i think i'ma just wait to after the Holidays, get that and front disk brake setup all done at once. Thanks guys.
Around 300 is what my shop charged to do upper and lower ball joints and bushings. Money well spent! Car drives Soooooo much better!
Take control arms out and re-install all the parts your self. Just have the shop remove/replace the bushings. That will save you most cash and aggravation. George is correct in using air chisel if you insist on doing yourself. Driving new ones is tricky. You can collapse the ears. As said above. One of my least favorite jobs as well. I did some sets without power tools. Not fun.
I dropped off my lower and upper control arms at my shop and got new bushings and ball-joints for $400 installed. That included sandblasting so I could paint them up nice.:TU:
