Suspension rebuild and disc brake swap...by a noob for noobs
To press a new bushing into the lower control arm, you first press the new bushing onto the pivot shaft, and then press the shaft and bushing into the pivot. Here's the new bushing going on to the shaft:
To press the bushing and shaft into the pivot, you have to apply pressure to the bushing outer shell, because pressing on the shaft will simply push the bushing inner sleeve out of the rubber. Here's how I pressed the shaft and bushing into the pivot:
For the upper arms, a 1 1/4" socket (which I had bought for the pinion nut on the new rear differential) fit perfectly on the flange of the new bushing.
I used Moog's offset bushings oriented to provide maximum caster, meaning the outer end of the control arm is as far aft as possible--so I wanted the front of the arm offset outboard and the rear of the arm offset inboard. The directions that come with the offset bushings assume you want to increase camber (both bushings offset outboard), so if you're going for positive caster you have to ignore the directions. I didn't take a picture of how I oriented the bushings in the arm, but there is a thread or two on FABO discussing how to install them for max caster. Generally you just need to think carefully about what you have to do to move the outer end of the arm aft.
As mentioned earlier, I didn't bother replacing the ring that was on the old rear UCA bushing.
The caps for the new bushings pressed on pretty easily in a vise:
From this angle you can almost see how the cap is offset from the bushing centerline.
Next up: taking a break to cook some Hawaiian kalua pig.
To press a new bushing into the lower control arm, you first press the new bushing onto the pivot shaft, and then press the shaft and bushing into the pivot. Here's the new bushing going on to the shaft:
To press the bushing and shaft into the pivot, you have to apply pressure to the bushing outer shell, because pressing on the shaft will simply push the bushing inner sleeve out of the rubber. Here's how I pressed the shaft and bushing into the pivot:
For the upper arms, a 1 1/4" socket (which I had bought for the pinion nut on the new rear differential) fit perfectly on the flange of the new bushing.
I used Moog's offset bushings oriented to provide maximum caster, meaning the outer end of the control arm is as far aft as possible--so I wanted the front of the arm offset outboard and the rear of the arm offset inboard. The directions that come with the offset bushings assume you want to increase camber (both bushings offset outboard), so if you're going for positive caster you have to ignore the directions. I didn't take a picture of how I oriented the bushings in the arm, but there is a thread or two on FABO discussing how to install them for max caster. Generally you just need to think carefully about what you have to do to move the outer end of the arm aft.
As mentioned earlier, I didn't bother replacing the ring that was on the old rear UCA bushing.
The caps for the new bushings pressed on pretty easily in a vise:
From this angle you can almost see how the cap is offset from the bushing centerline.
Next up: taking a break to cook some Hawaiian kalua pig.