How to Replace Control Arm inner bush - Superpro

[greenacc]

Finally got round to replacing the bushes in the front of my VS. Radius rod and control arm inner pivot bush.
I followed some other great HOW To's on here that covered the Z bar bushes but couldn't find one on the inner pivot bush so I took a few pics while I was at it. This bush is best done on the bench IMO, so the control arm needs to be taken off the car. The steps are -
Drive your car up on ramps. Crack all the bolts that will need to come off - Zbar front and rear , pivot bolt, ball joint clinch bolt and calliper mount bolts while your at it.
Then back it off the ramps and jack it up and throw some stands under it. Remove the wheel, calliper, rotor, Z bar nuts, pivot bolt, and clinch bolt. swing the arm down and slide the Zbar out. If the ball joint pin is tight wedge the clamp open or use some C clip pliers to open it until the pin slides out. Remove the arm. ( now search Dannyboy_DS thread for Zbar bushes )

For the pivot bush, drill through the rubber all around the steel tube until it is loose and knock it out with a hammer. Attachment 57564
Now to get the steel shell out. Use a good punch and maybe a chisel and bend the lip on the bush up and fold it inwards to collapse it. Attachment 57565Do the same on the back end of the bush so the shell becomes loose in the arm. Now bash the **** out of it with a big punch from the back and the shell will slide out.Attachment 57566
Clean up the housing in the arm with some wet n dry to get it smooth. Attachment 57567
Grease up the bush and the housing with the supplied grease. Note one end of the bush is narrower, as is the arm. Push the narrow end of the bush in the big end of the arm ... I used a threaded bar and packers ro push in the new bush. This worked great and takes about 2 minutes.Attachment 57570. The Radius rod bush is in 2 halfs, and just pushes in by hand.Attachment 57569.
When its in the new blue pivot bush looks like this >Attachment 57571
Last of all push the steel inserts into the bushes and put the arm back in your car !! A few days later go get a wheel alignment ...
OMG , I never felt oversteer in my VS before.

[hako]

Great write-up greenacc

[DannyboyDS]

You used nolethaine bushes though, threaded rod will not work for a stock bush replacment, I thinks its about 22 tonnes to get the steel sleeved Stock rubber bush in.

Otherwise thats a top effort and I'm glad you took the time and effort to post it up, I used to live out of the HOWTO section, if something looked interesting i'd go do it anyway.

Vote one for a move to the HOWTO section.

[immortality]

not bad, the threaded rod does work quiet well. another trick that works well when removing steel outer shells is to run a couple of welds inside em. as the welds cool they contract and they shrink the shell enough to loosen it also. works great on needle bearing shells where fitted in blind holes

[greenacc]

You used nolethaine bushes though, threaded rod will not work for a stock bush replacment, I thinks its about 22 tonnes to get the steel sleeved Stock rubber bush in.

Vote one for a move to the HOWTO section.

Absolutely, I got lucky with these Superpro bushes as they are quite straight forward to fit. Still, if you need to replace your rubber pivot bush this is an easy DIY option. The poly bush does sacrifice some comfort, but the steering response has improved out of sight, even before getting a wheel alignment.
I've fitted steel cased bushes in the trailing arms of my old torana before. Just pushes them in with a big vise, and from memory a big hammer. Just tightened up the vise till it stopped, bashes it with the hammer, and wound a bit more. Not good for the vise, but did the job.
Thanks for the Vote Dannyboy.