Well I just spent 3 days installing the Daizen bushings... driver side only so far!

I will do the other side this weekend, I expect it to go MUCH faster now that I know a few tricks I had to learn the hard way.

First... DONT, DONT, DONT, DO NOT hammer the ball joint bolts out!!! I did like a big idiot and the castle nuts refused to go back on so I had to spend hours carefully filing away the bolt tips. Still plenty of bolt left so not a major issue, but time consuming. Any suggestions on how to remove the nuckle from the arms without hammering the ball joint bolts? Those suckers were tough!

Second... a simple hand held propane torch is a must-have to get the old bushings out. Heat the inner sleaves up until they can be pushed out. On the remaining rubber, carefully heat the control arms until the rubber starts to sizzle. MMMM smells great! I kept turning off the torch too soon and the rubber would not budge. So listen for the sizzle! CAREFULLY prying the rubber out with a flathead works well.

Third... back to those #@!# ball joints. They turn when you try to put the castle nut back on which really makes things fun. I finally figured out the solution to this is, after re-assembling everything, jack the lower control arm up a little to put some tension on the assembly. Now the ball joint bolts will not turn as easily and the castle nuts can be tightened. Is this a hillbilly solution or the real deal? I don't know.

I hand tightened the control arm bolts and drove the car up on ramps so that the suspension would be sitting right and then I tightened everything to spec. Before starting this project, be sure to mark the bolts before removing them so the allignment will at least be roughly the same as before.

The final results? Well it's kinda interesting having one side with the new bushings and the other original. I replaced both the upper and lower control arm bushings and I can already tell the car is handling much better, no bump steer and no weird drifting/tracking. (the driver side bushings seem to have been much worse than passenger side based on tire wear)

But I think I may purcase a set of factory upper control arms and use those instead of the Daizen bushings because the upper OEM bushings are not as prone to wearing out (mine looked kinda ok) as the lower and I am told this will somewhat reduce the harshness because the upper arms are not as isolated as the lower arms which are on a seperate sub-frame. Can anyone verify this? I am going to go ahead and install the passenger side upper control arm bushings for now since they were included with the kit and see if the performance outweighs the slightly teeth jarring effect when going over those little reflector bumps.

So far... bottom line is that if you can handle the increased feedback, the enhanced performance seems to be well worh it. Not quite a Lexus-like ride... but now the handling isn't Lexus-like either, it is better! And this is a sport coupe afterall right? BTW, there doesn't seem to be any additional road noise... which WOULD bother me.

But this is one heck of a DIY job. I am sore all over!!! And keep in mind, this is just my experience. I am not a mechanic so please reply with any corrections, suggestions, tips, tricks or questions.

 

95SC400,
Good job on the DIY. Couple points :
Rent a ball joint seperator, pickle fork, or use two large hammers.
Best is the ball joint seperator but it could be hard to find at your local auto parts store
Pickle fork usually works, be careful not to damage the ball joint boot if you use this
Two hammers. One on the CONTROL ARM, swing the other on top of the one on the control arm. The vibration should knock the ball joint lose ( After you have loosened the castle nut ) do not hammer the joint itself.

Did you check the condition of your ball joints while you had the arm off? I hate to say it, but if it was spinning while you were trying to tighten the castlenut down, your ball joint is probably worn.
The service manual lists the procedure and it should handle a certain amount of torque on the nut before it starts spinning.

Regards

 

Nick T, Thanks for the info on the ball joints! It is really appreciated. Fortunately, the ball joints were fairly tight and only gave way after the castle nuts were about half way down. At that point, both the bottom and top nuts got kinda tight. So hopefully the ball joints will last me a while.

Again... thanks! I will see what kind of reaction I get when I go to AutoZone and ask for a pickle fork.

 

Ok this has been posted before, but here goes..

This will work

To start you of course need some type of pressure on the arms trying to pull the ball joint out. For a home job, you can use a stock scissor type jack or something between the upper and lower arms. Get that in there, stack in some 2x4s with it, whatever. You just need pressure. If you have some way to do it, put something that can lift on the upper arm (screw or bottle jack or something), if you still have the shock attached it will automatically put pressure on the lower joint. The main thing is to have pressure so when the joint pops loose it will come out of the spindle.

Leave the nut on like 4-5 turns, basically with 1/4" space or so off of the arm.

Get a heavy hammer like 4-5-6 lbs somewhere around there and smack the SPINDLE right NEXT to where the ball joint passes through. Keep hitting it and it will pop out. Maybe 10 hits, maybe 50 but it WILL come out. Don't hit the boot or the stud, as you don't want to damage those. You may have to beat the living crap out of it, but it will come out. Best to turn the wheel to one side to do this.

Same deal with the upper, just make sure you have some way to get some type of pressure on the arm to let it pop off the spindle once it comes loose.