Lower control arm bushing replacement

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Hi all

Been awhile since my last post. I'm about ready to replace the worn bushings in my front LCAs. Have been quoted $800+ for the privilege for basically pulling the current arms out and putting replacement arms in. Nobody wants to touch the bushings themselves.

Always keen to save a buck (or a few hundred), I've found the SuperPro bushing kit for $210. I'm fairly confident I can get the LCA out myself. I've never done anything like that on the Prado but have done plenty of work on the motorbike so I guess it's just a step up, eh?

Then getting the bushings out apparently can be done with a press, a hacksaw, an oxy or all three. Fine, I have the latter two. Getting the new bushings in, you basically freeze em, heat the LCA with an oxy, apply plenty of dish soap to the bushing and press it in, am I right? Especially with SuperPro which aren't directional, it sounds pretty easy...

So am I missing something here? The only tool I'm missing is a press (on the bike you just find some PVC and a hammer to drive stuff in), which I've wanted for ages so I'm happy to spend $300 on a 20-tonne press. The only thing is, if I do, what do I press the new bushings in with? If I have to burn the old ones out then I can't use the old bush as the driver. And at ~50mm there's no socket I can use to do this :P What have others used?

Thanks in advance!

Brett

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey,

Superpro bushes tend to give a pretty hard ride when you use them in the lower control arms. I would be replacing the worn bushes with genuine Toyota rubber. I think you're looking at around $400 all up for genuine Toyota bushes.

If your cam bolts are siezed, then you may have to do a bit of cutting to drop the arms down, but after that it's an easy do at home job. You can press the bushes out with a $20 bottle jack, it fits in nicely in the gap between each end of the arms.

Same deal to press them back in, no need to heat the arms or freeze the bushes, just do it all at room temperature.

You can definitely save yourself a lot of bucks doing this at home!

...there's also a thread somewhere here on PP that has a couple of photos of a member pressing out bushes with his bottle jack, I'll see if I can find it!

Best

Mark

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey,

Here ya go, post #34 shows what kevdebbi did at home;

http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...-fleeced/page3

They did mention pressing the replacement bushes back in with a press, but I don't see why you couldn't use the same jack.

Best

Mark

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

...ps, don't forget to grease up your cam bolts with anti-sieze when you put the arms back in!

Best

Mark

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Thanks for the comments, Mark! Glad to know I'm not out of my mind for attempting this at home. I think I'd still rather do it with a press even if you can jimmy-rig a jack. I want to know 100% that the bushing is going in square and level and want some level of confidence in the press

Taking your comments on board re SuperPro. I've heard both good and bad about it. From what I can tell, most people that put it in say "it's not that bad" but everyone still seems to think it's average. I've also heard that Whiteline are good and not much dearer than SuperPro, any thoughts on them? They seem to be some middle-ground between poly and rubber. Worst case I'll pay Toyota but my gut says it's going to be well over $400!

Thanks again

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey,

Yep the cost always has a habit of creeping up and never down! Hopefully you can salvage your cam bolts. I also have a sticky driver side arm which I need to pull out, and I'm hoping I don't have to cut the bolts out. It's just time consuming and annoying more than anything else!

I think most of the problem occurs because Toyota don't grease or anti-sieze the cam bolts when the Prado is put together.

Regarding the bushes....the worst thing that can happen is you try the Superpro or Whiteline and you then don't like them and wanna put rubber back in, then you've wasted $200 odd.

Maybe there's somebody in Sydney who has polyurethane in the front arms that you can go for a ride with and see how they feel?

I found some old prices for Toyota bushes...bit more than I thought, $98+gst/bush for fronts, $119+gst/bush for rears, so $477.40 for bushes, and cam bolts are $36 each, so another $144 if all your bolts are buggered. Those prices are probably a couple years old, and knowing Toyota they're even more expensive by now.

Guess the Superpro ain't looking so bad now?

Best

Mark

[brissy Member Find all posts View Profile Close brissy]

I done my LCA bushes at home , it's not that hard, I done them after the alignment shop told me they were shot and one side was Seized so they could not do a full alignment! The we're not siezed but I did put lots of anti sieze on reassembly, Brett I put them in a vise, drilled the rubber out, a bit just smaller than the rubber thickness works great, once the inner sleeve comes out hacksaw a thin strip out -go square and finish slowly to not damage the LCA , once cleaned up the new bushes went in rather easy I used a homemade press with a 6 ton jack , a 50mm scaffold tube was the perfect size to support the LCA fully and allow the new bush to pass through, just make sure the bushes are the right orientation before pressing in

[zutta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zutta]

Try Amayama.com for Genuine parts mate, if you can wait afew weeks you will save a heap

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Thanks all for the thoughts. Decided to go with the Whiteline bushes for now. $200 delivered. Also have a 20 ton press at my disposal now too. Tonight managed to get the first lower control arm off, easy just a bit of elbow grease. Sawed the large washer off the large bushing, then tried putting the oxy on the rubber for 20-30 minutes and got virtually nowhere. Plenty of smoke and flame but it would take hours at this rate. Tomorrow's a new day, may try brissy's idea or even this one which looks genius:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ5BMfkuHlM

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey pilgrim,

I would avoid heating if you can, you will weaken the bush ring eye housing.

Try and do everything at room temperature.

Best

Mark

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Thanks Mark, good advice!

Brett

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Ok old bushes are out of first control arm (used the jack from inside with a little heat and hammering method). Now, if anyone has seen the whiteline bushings, they have rubber protruding from both sides of the bush with only about 1-2mm of steel around it. I presume it's not a good idea to press the rubber? What would most people use to press this in? The diameter of the steel tube around the rubber bushing is 47mm. I have solid bushing press pieces but obviously they're going to push on the rubber.

Brett

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

I should mention that's the smaller bush. The larger has a outside diameter of 56mm.

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey,

Maybe try a piece of rubber sheet in between the bush and the steel tube, something that will give a little so the bush doesn't get damaged.

Best

Mark

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Ended up grinding the big washer off the end of all 4 old bushings, melting the rubber around the old sleeve just enough to get the sleeve out then melting the rubber around the outside of the old bushing (by heating up the bushing ring itself) to break the seal and peal it out. Now I have some perfectly sized pushers/receivers! Wouldn't have worked if I used a destructive method to get bushes out of control arms like using a hacksaw, hammer and chisel as I've seen some do. Will probably press the new bushings in tomorrow at this rate. Even if you're an expert, I'd still say this is a tedious and very time consuming job. No wonder no one wanted to just replace the bushings for me when I was calling around!

Brett