I need to replace most of the rear control arm bushings but I have trouble doing it. I have a press I bought from harbor freight which should be able to handle the work. Is there a direction that I need to press them in and out in particular? There doesn't seem to be a lip on the current bushings, and the repair manual doesn't specify anything. Also, whenever I rent a kit with the attachments I never seem to have parts with the correct sizes. Is there any magic kit to get?

Thanks for any help.

 

There's no one kit fits all unfort. It's a hodgepodge of several ball joint service kits and sockets to make it all work. The expensive "mitsu" kits you find from OTC and such are all on back order anyway.


Fronts but at about the 4:35 mark you'll see Andy has half a dozen kits laid out. Welcome to DIY garage

 

For the small stuff sockets work, for the larger stuff you can buy hole saws and grind down the teeth. No press required.

 

Has anyone tried using a ball joint press kit to replace the smaller bushing in the front? I have a 10 but that particular bushing is the same across both platforms.

 

Yeah its exactly as Balrok mentioned. Essentially you just need to get creative with whatever resources you have at your disposal. Impact socks work great for a lot of bushings. Those master ball joint service kits usually have some dies that are useful but again youre not going to find a "kit" that has everything you need so this is where getting creative with metal scraps can save your bacon. That big donut bushing is just a hair under 3" so the kits I find while they will press it out end up getting stuck in the LCA. I have a hockey puck chunk of steel that I use now for that bushing.

I did this one fairly recently for a buddy. Again, use whatever you can that works. In my case, I lucked out bigtime and was able to use one of my cones from my wheel balancer as the receiver tube.

 

+1 on impacts, here is how I got that bushing.

 

Thanks for the replies! So to confirm - there isn't any particular direction that these bushings need to be pressed in or out?

 

In my experience if you look closely there is almost always a chamfer on one side so that would be the side to press into as it'll help center the bushing. If not then just go slow and make sure its going in straight. It also generally depends on access. Rear LCAs you have ample access from either side so look for the chamfer. Front LCA like in the picture above you can only press out and in one way.

End of the day this isnt rocket science. Go slow and youll be fine.

 

Pic doesn't work