Peter

I'll say off the top of my head, that I don't have pictures
for this writeup, if anyone wants to add some, please put
them somewhere they can be linked, and PM me.

Anyway, here goes:

DISCLAIMER:

I take absolutely no responsibility for you're mistakes or inability
to properly use a torch. BURNS SUCK. Even people experienced with
the use of this VERY DANGEROUS tool, burn themselves occasionally.

I myself, am just healing up from a SECOND DEGREE burn with the
torch. It was a dumb mistake. The burned area is about 2"x3" inches
on my right forearm. It is not life-threatening, but I will be FOREVER
reminded of my momentary lack of attention.

BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL!!!

Using an oxy-acetylene torch requires a face shield or visor with a
SHADE 5 lens. SUNGLASSES ARE NOT A REPLACEMENT! You will BURN
THE RETINA OF YOUR EYES CAUSING IRREPAIRABLE BLINDESS IF
YOU CHOOSE TO IGNORE THIS.



The majority of time spent on ES bushing installation isn't the
installation, but the removal of the old bushings. My preferred
tool for this is HANDS-DOWN, the oxy-acetylene torch.

I would allocate an entire weekend to do the front control arm
bushings if you're not very experienced. I'd recommend doing the
rears on another weekend, just to give myself that comfortable
'sh*t happens' buffer. I would *not* take this job to a mechanic
as it's not complicated, and you will get charged an EXORBITANT
amount of money for labor. If you don't have a torch, you may
want to have a mechanic remove the bushings if you have one
nearby who will do it reasonably.


Now, onto the fun stuff.


1. Remove the axle nuts from the hubs. The quick explanation is
pull the cotter pin, and put a 32mm(36? I forget ;P) impact
socket on the axle nut, put the impact wrench on it, spin it off.

This will require a good 1/2" impact wrench. If you do not have
air tools, substitute the impact wrench with a 1/2" breaker bar,
and an additional 3' length of pipe appropriately sized to slide
over the handle of the breaker bar. Axle nut torque is supposed
to be 180 ft/lbs. Be sure to leave the car in gear so you can
break the nuts without wheel slippage.

2. Block the rear wheels and jack up the car, put it on jackstands,
starting on the front control arms. Ideally, you want to place the
jackstands on the subframe inside of the control arms so the control
arms are free to be removed.

3. Disconnect the struts from the hubs. You should at this point
be able to use leverage to pull the axle from the hubs.

You may have to disconnect the tie rod ends from the hub as well,
to get enough leverage to remove the axles, and have access to
the balljoint nuts. See other how-to's in this section for a detailed
explanation of disconnecting the balljoints and tie rod ends.

4. Disconnect the swaybar endlinks from the control arms. This
should be relatively self explanatory as you're looking at them.

Now you're ready to remove the control arms!

5. To remove them, you need to disconnect the hinge bolt
from front inside of the the car. I used an adjustable wrench, and
a large socket. I don't recall the precise sizes - someone chime in!
You also need to remove the sandwich plate from the rear control arm
bushing. They are 17 or 19mm and it's 2 nuts and 1 bolt, IIRC.
You MAY need to pry on the control arm hinge area with a prybar
to get them to slide out. Working them back and forth as well as
PB Blaster or similiar penetrant also helps immensely.

Now that the control arms are out of the car, the fun begins!

If you have a hydraulic press, you may be able to press the bushing
out using the appropriately size-matched socket. Most likely the
rubber will push out, without the sleeve, as it's typically rust-frozen
in place. If you have a sawsall along with a press, you can press out
the rubber, and slice the sleeve in at least 2 places, if not 3.

An oxy-acetylene torch is the BEST method.

6. To remove them with the torch, first, burn out all the rubber. This
will create a lot of stinky black smoke. Be SAFE. Burns suck - ask
me how I know? Once the rubber is mostly gone, the interior bolt
sleeve will have fallen out. The outer sleeve can be cut very quickly,
if you're careful and skilled, with the torch. Cutting in two places
is more than adequate, because the 1/8" or so gap allows the sleeve
to fall out easily. Don't worry if you *slightly* melt a sliver of the
control arm, You can always weld it if necessary, but a small amount
of missing material will not affect it's function. Same for the sawsall.

Move on to the rear bushing. This will be a PITA without
a torch, but you can get away with a MAP gas torch from any
hardware/plumbing supply if necessary, and a lot of painfull sawsall
work, cutting off as much of the old rubber as possible.

7. Burn the rubber off with the oxy-acetylene torch. Lots
of stinky black smoke, and watch for falling molten rubber. Knock
off molten rubber with a long screwdriver as you're doing it. Getting
the loose stuff off, allows you to concentrate the heat on the stuff
that won't give way yet.

8. Once the metal sleeve is largely exposed, put the heat on it.
Heat it up until it's glowing slightly reddish. In most cases, it will fall off
given a *slight* encouragement, like a light tap with the long-handled
screwdriver on the open end. If not, put the control arm in a vise,
aiming the sleeve down and away from yourself, and anything potentially
hazardous/flammable, like, a concrete floor.

While it's red, (reheat while in vise if necessary), use a cold chisel,
or the long handled screwdriver to tap away from the control arm
on the open end of the sleeve. You shouldn't have to give it very
much encouragement if you've heated it properly, the sleeve expands
as it heats up, and that's most of the encouragement it needs.


Once this has been done to both control arms, stop and congratulate
yourself. You've done 85% of the job! If you take this oppourtunity
to replace the ball joints, you will need a either a hydraulic press, or
even just a balljoint press. It's relatively easy to accomplish while
they are off the car, and nice to put everything back together all
shiny and new. It also saves a bunch of PITA and probably won't
go bad for another 5-10 years.


9. Let the control arms cool off. Maybe while you're cooling off with
a cold beer, soda, or even just going inside for some AC and some water.
Give them enough time to be cool to the touch - 30-45 minutes. You can
check with a little bit of water or sweat, if it doesn't sizzle, they aren't
that hot, and you can doublecheck with a light swipe without burning
yourself.


Now onto installation of the bushings:

10. Beginning with the hinge bushing is the easiest.
Using the grease supplied with the ES master kit, spread a
light, mostly even coat quickly with your fingers inside and
out of the bushing halves. Press them both in with finger
pressure, and push the sleeve through the inside holes.

11. Lubricate the rear pivot bushing inside, but NOT
outside and slide it onto the control arm. Orientation will
become more than obvious as you try to reinstall the control
arm.

12. Reinstall the control arms. Reconnect everything
you disconnected. As a final step, put in new cotter pins after
torqueing the axle nuts to 180 ft/lbs. Make sure you put new
cotter pins in the castle nuts for the ball joints and tie rod ends
if removed.

WHEW!

13. Lower the car after everything's back on block the front wheels.

14. Jack up the rear of the car, place jackstands on the center beam.

15. Disconnect the struts from the hubs.

16. Have fun removing the control arm bolts. I would strongly suggest buying
brand new ones from Nissan prior to attempting the rears, in case
you have to cut them off. Removing the bolt from the rear hub will
be the most difficult part of the job. You need to remove the two
seperate control arms per side, and the trailing link. The rear hub will
be free, anyway.

17.After everything's clear, burn out the bushings with the torch,
following the guidelines from the front control arm section. Follow the
cool down guidelines, leaving much LONGER for the cast iron hubs, as
they will hold heat much longer than the relatively thin steel control
arms and trailing links. The 4 individual rear control arms are basically
the same as the front control arm hinge bushing. Two halves, a sleeve,
and you don't need a press for any of it. The trailing arm bushings are
also basically the same.

18. Put everything back together! Go drive you're tighter, leaner,
meaner NVH machine! Go get a a 4-wheel alignment, especially for the rear,
as it's likely to be all funky due to the fact that the sneaky rear center cam
bolts are what adjusts it, and you've had them 66 ways 'til Sunday.

Okay, there's a stab <>. I'd only mention that all
comments, suggestions, corrections, are EXTREMELY welcome. I know
I got the *bulk* of it. So there .

Peter

__________________
'91 SE-R track slut w/ VE
'02 G20 Sport
'95 Yamaha FZR 600
peter.serwe@gmail.com

 

vladha

Geezus, Peter... that sounds like a nasty burn. Anyway, nice writeup and you're right, there are pictures and similar information to be found. I think there's even... nah, I'm not totally remembering if my idea is right.

I still need to do this and have been dreading it. Way back when, I had ordered the parts from GregV, but got sent the parts for a 240. I never bothered to reorder. I guess about the time I'm doing my koni/hyperco's, I'll to this... yeach!

Peace,
Mark

__________________
"No Daddy.... it tastes like Butt!"

Dan_93SER

What a coincidence. I just did the rear ES bushings on my B13 this past weekend. I did not use a torch at all, and I think I have a pretty good method. It worked well for me at least. I removed all the old rubber bushings in about 3 hours.

For my method, all you need to get the rubber bushings out is:

-a vice
-1 32mm socket (I used a 1/2" drive deep impact socket)
-1 short 9/16" socket (I used a 3/8" drive socket)
-a drill and some bits

Step 1: Pick a drill bit that is long enough to go all the way through the bushing, and thick enough to take out a meaningful amount of rubber. Drill several holes in the rubber (I made about 10 holes in each bushing). You don't have to drill until you can see daylight through the bushing. Just enough so that you can actually see that some rubber is missing.

Step 2: Put the control arm between the two sockets, and place the whole shebang into the jaws of the vice. The idea is to use the small socket to push the bushing and sleeve out of the control arm and into the big 32mm socket.

Step 3: Close the vice. I had to use the handle of my jack as a cheater bar to get the vice to close. It's not terribly hard to do, but certainly requires some elbow grease.

Step 4: Once the small socket has disappeared into the space in the control arm once occupied by the bushing and sleeve, open the jaws. The bushing will now be in the big socket. Poke it out from the other end of the socket with something (I used a broken screwdriver). It makes it easier to get the bushing out if you lube the inside of the socket with WD40 or something beforehand.

That's it. Probably not as fun and exciting as methods that utilize big hammers and blow torches, but it was definitely safer for me, my house, and my control arms. The key to getting the bushings to press out is really the drilling part. I tried to do one without drilling any holes and I must have spent a good 40 minutes fighting it, only getting it out about 2/3rds of the way before I attacked it with the drill. After a couple of holes, I was able to pull it out by hand.

I'm convinced that the bushing removal part could be done in 1 or 2 hours this way. Once I got my technique down, I was spending 5, maybe 10 minutes max on each bushing.

SENTRASER

I used a torch to burn the rubber out, and an air-chisle to persuade the metal sleaves out.. Easy as pie.

__________________
~Ryan
1992 NX2000 Hardtop
1989 B12 AWD wagon
1996 200SX SE-R Slowly geting the boost-treatment.

SENTRASER

Nice writeup, I remember seeing somewhere with pics at some point in my 5 year history with the B13....I'll look for it and post it if I can find it. It should be similar to the CV joint rebuild HOW TO, up to the point of taking the control arms off...blah blah blah..

Peter

Cool man. Other methods, especially for people who either don't own
or aren't competant to use a torch, are great!

The one question I have is, how did you get the sleeves out? I don't
know what the weather's like where you are, but up in the NE, the
sleeves stick to the control arm like it was going out of style.

Also, how does the drill/press method work on the rear pivot bushing?

I'd estimate the bushing removal part with the torch at about 20-30
minutes for all the control arms, front and rear. I don't like having my
car on 4 jackstands though, so I usually do the fronts first, and then
the rears. The rest of the disassembly/reassembly part is the majority
of the time though, and getting the hub bolt out of the hub on the rears
is a MAJOR PITA in the Salt Belt.

I have a hydraulic press, and appropriately sized sockets/arbor plates.

I still prefer the torch! YMMV.



Peter

Peter

A few things:


One, a torch is not dangerous if used correctly.


Two, a torch set, tanks and all, is not a hazard to a house unless the
tanks are stored improperly. Acetylene is a flammable gas, but the tanks
are designed to blow off excess pressure if they heat up. Oxygen is not
a flammable gas, but a wonderful catalyst to combustion, since combustion
is the process of 'rapid oxidation', oxygen is the catalyst that when properly
mixed, makes acetylene hot. It's the very same compound that allows all
forms of forced induction to increase power.

More oxygen+more fuel=bigger burn=more power. In the case of an
oxy-acetylene torch, you're running the acetylene at a lean mixture
to get more heat. Oxy-propane is a cheaper, easier, and very close
to just as hot.


Three, contrary to some people's belief, heating metal does NOT weaken
the metal. It's actually referred to in metal working as 'heat tempering',
and is a common method for strengthening metal.


Lastly, I personally store my torch and tanks outside.

Why?

They are heavy. I run the 120ft*3. oxygen bottle, and the 80ft*3
acetylene bottle. Secondly, in the event of a small fire in my
house, which is very unlikely due to the fact that I just built it
over last 2 years and everything electrical/gas is to building code,
or over-engineered to exceed code, the tanks will not be available
as an accelerant to the structure fire, or more importantly, as a
hazard to firefighting personnel.

I myself, am a fire fighter with my local 'call' department.

My house is also located 1/2-3/4 of a mile from the local station.

In addition to the torch, I have a 275 gallon oil tank, a 120LB
propane tank, and a stick built construction. Sounds dangerous?

It's not. Because everything is spec'd to code. A lot of people
up here like to cheat the code anyway they can get away with

I don't, because the code is there for the purpose of making fires
less likely, easier to put out *SAFELY*, and to not endanger the
lives of firefighters.

The code enforcement officer is also the Fire Chief.

The priority list for firefighting is as follows:

1) Self.

2) Team.

3) Victims.

4) Property.

Why? If you're dead, you can't help your team. If your team is
dead, you can't help the victims. If the victims are in danger,
who cares about the property? If 1, 2, and 3, are good, worry
about damage mitigation. Firefighters should never enter a fully
involved building unless it's for rescue, and even then, if the
danger is too great, the victims will not be rescued.


I digress way beyond the scope of this post, but I can't help myself.



Safety is important!

Peter

Dan_93SER

Don't get me wrong, Peter. I'm not knocking the torch method at all. I used a torch for the front bushings a few years ago, but I just didn't want to use it on the rear arms for various reasons. No matter how competent or correctly a torch is used, there is always an element of danger involved, as you can attest. Also, when I implied that my method was safer for the control arms, I meant as opposed to using more physical methods as with hammers.

My intent was merely to share my experience and provide others with an alternative method, should they not have access to, or experience using, methods that involve heat. Clearly, the torch method is much faster, and less physically demanding. My method may be good for someone who does not own a garage for instance. It requires no special tools, and would raise fewer eyebrows from neighbors.

Dan_93SER

I didn't use the drill/vice method on the fronts. I did that job a few years ago, and for that I did use a torch.

Which one is the rear pivot bushing? The one on the rear hub that connects to the trailing link? If so, it worked fine. The only difference was that I used my floor jack to raise the vice to the correct level, since I didn't feel like taking everything off to get hub free.

Peter

I hear you man. I don't mean to sound like a dink or anything.

What's great about this section in particular, is that there is
a growing wealth of information, and like ANYTHING, about
10 different ways to skin a cat.

Dammit, I still want to know how you got the hub bolts out,
that was the BIGGEST PITA.

Also, I seem to remember something in post #1 about:

Peter

Peter

By rear pivot bushing, I mean the one on the front control arms
that is sandwiched with the plate at the rear of the control arm.

Peter

eric96ser

One thing to add is the control arm bolts need to be torqued with the weight of the car on them. If you torque them with no weight, the bushings will bind up. With the front of the car on jackstands, I put a floor jack under the ball joint, and slowly lift the car. As soon as the corner you are working on, is lifted off the jack stand, stop and torque all the bolts. Slowly lower the car back onto the stand, and repeat to the other side. With the rears, put the jack under the lower bolt under the hub and do the same.

__________________
1996 200SX SE-R VE powered
1991 Sentra SE-R
2004 Subaru Forester turbo
2006 Mitsubishi Evolution IX

The community is here.

Dan_93SER

Rear hub bolts? Sawzall, my friend!

I didn't even bother trying to get that thing out in one piece. Just looking at how exposed it was, I knew I was going to need new ones.

Dan_93SER

It's been a while since I paid attention to the front arms, so I don't remember which is which, but do you mean the one with a metal sleeve? I torched out the rubber, and then carefully hacksawed the sleeve. Then I punched the sleeve out with a hammer and old screwdriver.

If the rear pivot bushing is that monstrous bushing that slips onto the arm, I just put the bushing in the vice, grabbed hold of the arm and twisted that mother off. You can get lots of leverage yanking on the other end of the control arm.

BigB

Peter,
I assume your write up is for the front control arm bushings?

If so, you do not need to take the axle nut off or the tie rod ends.

i just take the wheel off and disconnect the sway bar.

get a 22mm (IIRC) wrench and a smaller wrench. i put the smaller wrench between the hub and balljoint.

then start turning the balljoint nut. eventually the nut will press against the wrench, and the wrench against the hub.

this will act as a press to pop the ball joint out of the hub... bang it pops out and then you take out the pivot bolt and then the two bracket bolts towards the rear.

put big bushing in vice and twist like a mother fu*ker.. comes off...

sleeved bushing i burn with a PROPANE torch to de-bond the bushing from the sleeve. Then i take my custom machined drfit and a BFH and pound out the metal sleeve.

Clean, lube, reinstall.. i use the weight of the car to pop the ball joint back into the control arm...

__________________
1992 SE-R WHT - SOLD
1992 SE-R BLK - R.I.P.
2001 -Mazda MP3 #60 of 1500
1991 Integra LS -

Peter

The writeup is meant to cover the front and rear, but I slacked
hard on detail for the rears after spending 40 minutes writing the
rest.



Nice tips!

My balljoints always spin before the nut comes free, so I had
always taken them apart. I like the double wrench trick, I'll
have to try that one sometime when I need to replace the
ball joint.

When I tried to get the rear pivot bushing off the fronts, using
the twist/vise method, the sleeves were rusted to the control
arm, and I couldn't get enough leverage on the control arm to
get them to break free. Often, in the rust belt, heat is the most
efficient method to get rusted bolts free. The heat causes
expansion, which breaks the rust bond since material expansion
has more leverage than anything else.

By using the weight of the car to press the balljoint back in,
I assume you mean with something solid underneath the balljoint?

If the control arms are off, I prefer to use a press. Of course,
not having to remove the ball joint from the knuckle is a huge
plus, and a lot of time saved.

Peter