I have tried and tried to get those damn front control arm bushings in and cannot do it? They will not press in they just want to smash down out from under the control arm when trying to press them in there? Im taking them to a machine shop tomorrow and let them deal with them. What a pain in the ass these things are.

the front control arms? the bushing facing the front of the car needs to be pressed. the rear one can be lubed and easily twisted on. i didnt know this at the time and payed a shop 80 bucks for 4 bushings when i could have done two of them myself and have them do the other two.

come to think of it...you could probably press the bushings in yourself by using a vise and two pieces of wood

Originally posted by slipper
come to think of it...you could probably press the bushings in yourself by using a vise and two pieces of wood

I found getting the old ones out to be much more difficult, and I was able to force the new one in using just a screwdriver and hammer! (without damaging the bushing of course).

In case anyone was wondering, the easiest way to get these front bushings out (the ones that have to be pressed in, not the other one), is to heat the outside of the bushing on the control arm just enough until the rubber starts to melt. Then find a socket or other round piece of metal that exactly sits on the inner metal ring (just inside the control arm hole), then a couple of good whacks with a hammer on the socket and it'll pop right out.

I made the mistake of trying to burn one of the bushings out, it only made a huge smokey gooey black rubber mess on everything.

Aaron

You do not need to take them to a machine shop. All you need is a vise, or even a cheapo c-clamp will work. Most of the bushings I actually could put in with my bare hands (Insert bad "strong hands" joke here ;)) My bet is your trying to put in the bushing where you have to remove the outer metal sleeve, but you havn't done this yet. You need to do this before you can put in the ES bushing. See this thread (http://www.sr20deforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26650) for some neato pictures and an explanation for this. Sawzalls fix everything, but a hacksaw will work in a pinch. Once you cut it, it helps to release the pressure. At that point you can pretty much get it out with just an old screw driver and a hammer, just be careful not to nick the control arm itself.

Good luck, its really not that bad.

I have tried and tried to get those damn front control arm bushings in and cannot do it? They will not press in they just want to smash down out from under the control arm when trying to press them in there? Im taking them to a machine shop tomorrow and let them deal with them. What a pain in the ass these things are.

Hey ringgold, hold up for a second. You can and should easily be able to press the front (cylinder shaped halves) into the control arm once you have the old ones out. You should be able to press them by hand actually. Something's telling me that maybe you haven't removed the 'outter' bushing casing from the cylinder. The factory bushings have two sleeves, one on the inside, obviously, and on the outside which is what is actually pressed on the inside of the control arm cylinder itself. Once you get the rubber out you need to get the sleeve out. it will free up another 1/8 inch of room. Then the ES bushings will practically fall into the clyinder. Try that,(if you haven't already).

Ben

bmoses posted something that I didn't prompt him to look at!!! I can't believe it!!! You must be getting REAL bored at night. If you are that bored you can come over and arrainge my garage if you want :D ;)

HAHA! Hell yeah. :) I wondered if I would get "caught" by you. I've been doing pretty good lately. I should get mad props and big ups :)

I have come to grips with the fact that SE-R's are alot harder to work on than my Honda was! Parts are expensive for them to! Im taking tomorrow my control arms to a machine shop again to get out that stupid metal whatever it is out of my control arm. Those stupid fucking bushings would barely even burn out on my control arms. I would heat them up nice and hot and try to press them out but to no avail !!! And I found out something else nice since my ES bushings are trashed I tried to get some factory replacements at a NAPA but they were only 125 buks a peice for the bushings? So I had to order the ES front control arm set for my car even though I already had the master set? Im almost beginning to hate this car. I should have none what I was getting myself into when i bought this thing from my brother. Since I have bought it in April I have replaced it seems basically everything but the engine. That must be the only thing that holds up in these cars?

Uh-oh, you just cursed yourself to a spun bearing! *duck*

Seriously, that metal sleeve isn't that hard to get out. Do you have a hack saw, a hammer and a big screw driver? Take the blade off the hack saw, put it through the sleeve, then re-attach the blade to the hack saw so its threaded inside the sleeve. Then just cut the sleeve. Once its cut, put the screw driver on the split, then beat the living crap out of it. One good thwak and it'll probably move. Once it starts moving just stick the handle of the hammer in there and poke it the rest of the way out. Once yer done you'll feel all manly too. :p

Take the blade off the hack saw, put it through the sleeve, then re-attach the blade to the hack saw so its threaded inside the sleeve. Then just cut the sleeve. Once its cut, put the screw driver on the split, then beat the living crap out of it.

Yes yes, this is exactly right. It's not hard and once you've done it once, it only takes minutes to do it again. I did two control arms earlier this year and it only took about an hour per or less. Another, much better way of getting the bushing out is using a drill and drilling through the rubber between the inner and outter sleeves. This way is MUUUUCH easier. Just find a bit that barely fits between the two sleeves and go to town. Fairly quickly you'll get to the point where the bushing is weak enough to tear out using a vice and a socket or something. Then do the hacksaw trick. One note about hacksawing, be very careful not to saw too far. I did just this and actually sawed a groove in the cylinder of the control arm! OOPS. Exactly one year later the arm snapped clean at that groove at 60mph. I almost lost control of the car crashed. It was not fun. Luckily nothing else was damaged, but it did pull the halfshaft halfway out of the tranny and spilled the gear oil all over the road. So be careful about that.