Suspension rebuild and disc brake swap...by a noob for noobs
With the control arms removed, the next step was to press out the old bushings. I used a loaner kit from Advance Auto:
This kit had most of the cups and things I needed, and the silver C part fit nicely in my small workbench vise. Pressing out the LCA bushings is a three-step process: (1) press the pivot shaft out of the pivot, so that the shaft takes the inner bushing sleeve with it; (2) remove the rubber and outer sleeve of the bushing from the arm; and (3) remove the inner sleeve from the pivot shaft. There are a lot of different ideas how to do the last two steps. I used the loaner kit to press the pivot shaft out. That part was relatively easy. I yanked the rubber out with pliers and screwdriver, which left only the outer sleeve in the control arm. I used a cold chisel to score a line down the inside of the outer sleeve, then hammered a screwdriver down between the outer sleeve and the control arm until there was enough of a gap in there to get pliers in. After that the outer sleeve pretty much fell out. That whole process took about 45 minutes the first time, and about 20 minutes the second time. I'm sure it would have been easier to get one of the specialty tools for the job, such as this one. I made a few little nicks in the control arm, but nothing that would prevent pressing in a new bushing. To get the inner sleeve off the pivot shaft, I first tried using a cold chisel as described here, but I didn't have a good way to hold the shaft in place while chiseling. I gave up and took it to the machinist at my work place, who cut through it with a mill:
On one of them he cut a little too deep and went into the shaft a little bit:
But not so much that a new bushing wouldn't be snug on it.
With the LCA bushing out, I turned to the upper control arm bushings. Those came out using the loaner kit. It took just about all the muscle I could muster, but it sure felt good popping out. The rear bushing had a steel sleeve (about 3/8" wide) around it, that looked like part of the control arm until it fell off when the bushing came out. At first I thought I had broken something, but some research on FABO convinced me those rings aren't necessary.
Now the UCA was ready to wire brush, paint, and press in new bushings, but I still had some work to do on the lower arm. I noticed that the pivot was loose in the arm, as you can see in the video I posted here. Farther down in that thread is a nice video illustrating how to fix that problem. Instead of buying the stiffening plate, I just asked my machinist to cut plates for me. Then, since I was going to be welding anyway, I decided to weld on sway bar tabs in case I decide to add a sway bar later. I wanted tabs that would fit a factory sway bar, and the ones from Hotchkis seemed like the best bet. I'm new at welding, but with some guidance from the guys in the machine shop I was able to add the tab and the plate:
On the first one I didn't leave enough room for the 3/4" socket that is required to turn the ride height adjusting bolt, so I used a grinder to enlarge the cutout in the stiffening plate after it was welded on. I also didn't put the sway bar tab quite as high as I wanted. The picture shows the second one, which has the tab about as high up as it can be. Also, you can see the metal is pretty clean. That's because the machine shop has a sandblaster too.
Another lesson learned: if you're welding sway bar tabs and stiffening plates onto your lower control arm, do the sway bar tabs first unless you can do them without overheating the arm. When I welded the stiffening plate on, the pivot was rotating easily between the two halves of the arm, but after I welded on the sway bar tab, the pivot was tighter than I wanted. I assume the heat from welding affected the fit of the pivot arm. Probably if I were a better welder I could have done the job with less heat.
Once the welding was done, I primed and painted the control arms with Rustoleum Professional in matte black.
I had left the upper ball joint in because it was pretty new and I didn't have the socket to replace it. When painting, I just taped over it.
Next step: pressing in the new bushings.
With the control arms removed, the next step was to press out the old bushings. I used a loaner kit from Advance Auto:
This kit had most of the cups and things I needed, and the silver C part fit nicely in my small workbench vise. Pressing out the LCA bushings is a three-step process: (1) press the pivot shaft out of the pivot, so that the shaft takes the inner bushing sleeve with it; (2) remove the rubber and outer sleeve of the bushing from the arm; and (3) remove the inner sleeve from the pivot shaft. There are a lot of different ideas how to do the last two steps. I used the loaner kit to press the pivot shaft out. That part was relatively easy. I yanked the rubber out with pliers and screwdriver, which left only the outer sleeve in the control arm. I used a cold chisel to score a line down the inside of the outer sleeve, then hammered a screwdriver down between the outer sleeve and the control arm until there was enough of a gap in there to get pliers in. After that the outer sleeve pretty much fell out. That whole process took about 45 minutes the first time, and about 20 minutes the second time. I'm sure it would have been easier to get one of the specialty tools for the job, such as this one. I made a few little nicks in the control arm, but nothing that would prevent pressing in a new bushing. To get the inner sleeve off the pivot shaft, I first tried using a cold chisel as described here, but I didn't have a good way to hold the shaft in place while chiseling. I gave up and took it to the machinist at my work place, who cut through it with a mill:
On one of them he cut a little too deep and went into the shaft a little bit:
But not so much that a new bushing wouldn't be snug on it.
With the LCA bushing out, I turned to the upper control arm bushings. Those came out using the loaner kit. It took just about all the muscle I could muster, but it sure felt good popping out. The rear bushing had a steel sleeve (about 3/8" wide) around it, that looked like part of the control arm until it fell off when the bushing came out. At first I thought I had broken something, but some research on FABO convinced me those rings aren't necessary.
Now the UCA was ready to wire brush, paint, and press in new bushings, but I still had some work to do on the lower arm. I noticed that the pivot was loose in the arm, as you can see in the video I posted here. Farther down in that thread is a nice video illustrating how to fix that problem. Instead of buying the stiffening plate, I just asked my machinist to cut plates for me. Then, since I was going to be welding anyway, I decided to weld on sway bar tabs in case I decide to add a sway bar later. I wanted tabs that would fit a factory sway bar, and the ones from Hotchkis seemed like the best bet. I'm new at welding, but with some guidance from the guys in the machine shop I was able to add the tab and the plate:
On the first one I didn't leave enough room for the 3/4" socket that is required to turn the ride height adjusting bolt, so I used a grinder to enlarge the cutout in the stiffening plate after it was welded on. I also didn't put the sway bar tab quite as high as I wanted. The picture shows the second one, which has the tab about as high up as it can be. Also, you can see the metal is pretty clean. That's because the machine shop has a sandblaster too.
Another lesson learned: if you're welding sway bar tabs and stiffening plates onto your lower control arm, do the sway bar tabs first unless you can do them without overheating the arm. When I welded the stiffening plate on, the pivot was rotating easily between the two halves of the arm, but after I welded on the sway bar tab, the pivot was tighter than I wanted. I assume the heat from welding affected the fit of the pivot arm. Probably if I were a better welder I could have done the job with less heat.
Once the welding was done, I primed and painted the control arms with Rustoleum Professional in matte black.
I had left the upper ball joint in because it was pretty new and I didn't have the socket to replace it. When painting, I just taped over it.
Next step: pressing in the new bushings.