Daizen Install Gone Wrong
Long story short, the mechanic didn’t realize that the outer shell of the bushing needed to stay in the LCA and hacked the old bushing out, outer shell and all. He did remove the inter-shell and used that. I now have Daizen bushings installed on the passenger side LCA with the damaged outer shell placed around the bushings. This allowed me to drive the car home.
What are my options now? Do I need to purchase a used LCA with the old bushings still on it? Then remove the old bushing properly and install the new ones.
I had purchased a basic propane torch from Sears, is this good enough to burn the old bushings out?
Thanks in advance,
Rasa
if your going to burn those old bushings out yourself, you shuld be able to install the new arms yourself...goes in the same way you take them out.
....good luck!
Yes, a Sears propane torch is good. The best way to burn them is to hang the arms off the ground (I used a cherry picker) and heat the bushing from top to bottom. It will slowly melt and just slide right out by force of gravity. If you are impatient, you can help it along with a screwdriver scraping away burnt rubber to contantly expose fresh rubber to the flame. The screwdriver will get a hard-to-remove burnt rubber goop on it so make sure it's not one you cherish.

Rememer to read the instructions over and over again. They are clear but there's many different places to put the different bushings and each have a different method. I almost made a huge mistake so read them over and over and make SURE you are doing what they say and on the right bushings.
Good luck!
Thankfully TM Engineering carries just the outer sleeves, so I had them overnighted and then pressed into the control arm. Just test drove the car after finishing the install of the bushings. Awesome results. No clunking when reversing and an all around tightness in the front end.
Oh yeah, while changing the left side bushings I noticed that the torsion bar mount was completely unscrewed on that side. So putting that back on helped a lot.
One of my ball joint boots got ripped. What are my options with that? I packed up up with a bunch of grease, but couldnt find any silicon to patch it up with. I'll have to purchase some.
On the side that the mechanic didnt touch, I didnt pull the ball joint off. Instead I just swiveled the arm enough to burn out and clean the arms. Much easier then pulling the ball joint and possibly screwing up the boot.
Laters,
Rasa





