fj40ih8mud

Wanted to start a thread on my project to replace the rubber bushings on the rear suspension of my 02 SC430.

I had terrible inside wear on tires. 10k miles to bald on the inner.

Struts were blown, so replacing those at same time.

Read several threads on this, and recommendation was to replace the bushings.

Got it all torn down this morning, ready to start cutting out the old bushings. First question is that the upper arm is aluminum. I have never pressed a bushing into aluminum. Thinking about freezing the fitting and heating up the aluminum so little force is needed.

Anyone have advice?

fj40ih8mud

Honestly, they don't really look terrible. Yes, cracked and used for 130k miles, but not terrible.

After teardown, the part I am debating on replacing is the rear lower knuckle bearing/bushing. After some research this is the fix.....

http://shopfigs.com/v1/index.php?rou...product_id=129

As far as hard to get to, this is a 2 banana job so far. Took about 2 hours to get one side totally torn down, strut out and pieces on floor taking pics, that I forgot to bring with me to upload. -- Oh, had one on my cell.

Also pic of the toe in adjustment that I am upgrading to -- but not the megan brand.

fj40ih8mud

On these bolts, you have to unbolt from the nut side, because there is those ridges to keep them from moving.... Right behind the muffler you have a slot to get to it. Took a little while, but got it loose, then friend was able to undo to unscrew by hand from the side you are showing.

That one had a washer on the nut on that back side, and I am not sure how I am going to be able to get it back. Have a feeling that is going to take two fingers of Jack to figure out.

fj40ih8mud

Why don't you wait to see if I can actually get the new bushings installed.

kuWuPt

iTrader: (13)

very nice!! I want to do the rear knuckle bearing as well along with rear lca and uca inner bushings, rear diff mount and pinion bushings that figs sells. Good luck and please update the thread with pics etc.

rudyH

I wonder if the dealer has a special set of wrenches for this job.

fj40ih8mud

Started with the easy one. lower arm bushing. Because the end ears are not supported, decided to make a shim to hold it apart. found a pipe that was a little bigger. Remember that this is a tapered bushings, so you have to push it out the same way it came in. Cut new pipe to fit, cut in half to get it in position, quick tack weld, then cut the head off the old bushing. Then I found the best thing is to get the center bushing out next. I drill out the rubber 20 or 30 times then use a hole saw to finish it off.

fj40ih8mud

More pics of drilling out the old one.

fj40ih8mud

.Here is where I cut off the head (top) of the pressed bushing. I just use cut off wheels and cut until I can see the metal edge getting thin. a gasket scraper or chisel pops the head off. I found the best way to get bushings out when they typically are rusted in place, is to cut some relief cuts at 10 and 2, that is why I get rid of the center bushing and rubber. Be really careful not to cut all the way through and score the side. 90 percent is enough. I did not show, but I use a sawzall first then put a hacksaw blade to do the rest by hand. Then tap with a hammer and the whole thing will fall out. Clean and press in the new one. DONE. Took about 1 hour, slowing down for pics.

fj40ih8mud

Start of the second harder one. I say harder for two reasons. First I have never pressed into aluminum, second, this one has two bushings that are pressed into the arm from top and bottom. Much like the other one, I get rid of the guts and then cut a relief cut and knock out. Only difference on this one is that you see on the third pic the outside of the bushing has a wide steel washer, so I had to cut that off to be able to holesaw out the rubber. One thing I found out was that the bushings inner steel layer is really thin weak steel. cut REALLY easy. I was using the sawzall and it cut through in just a few strokes. Very glad I was going slow. next time, I will just use hacksaw. This was actually a great thing to find out, because now I am not as scared about pressing in the new bushing. with the weak thin steel it should go in like butter with my heat and freeze technique.

THat is all for today, had to go to work. Picked up the strut compressor to be able to do that swap.

fj40ih8mud

There was a lot of corrosion where the steel touched the aluminum, so cleaned up with scoth brite and some sandpaper on a 21 mm socket.

rudyH

Stellar job! Really impressed with your ingenuity! Thanks for posting this.

kuWuPt

iTrader: (13)

Awesome!!! Thanks for taking the time to document it. Looks like a pain.. but I'm sure it'll be worth the effort.

fj40ih8mud

Mr. Freeze and Mr. Heat worked pretty good. Got it back together. Took the longest to find the right diameter pipe to use on the press.

Starting to get it back together. On that rear upper arm bolt/nut that I was dreading, the washer went on really easy with one of those extended grabber things. Put a little goop on the end of the open end wrench to help hold the nut on and then spun from the opposite side and that went on easy too. 2 minutes!

Pic of the battle version toe in adjuster too. It is heavy duty!!