Im in the process of replacing the the LCA bushings on my 93 SC400. Only 99k miles and they were shot! Anyways, I purchased the Prothane kit from Jegs, comes with the steel inserts to be used with the inner factory units. However, the shop that pressed out the old ones pretty much destroyed the factory plastic ones. Does anyone know if Lexus / Toyota carries these or did you use something different?

Thanks in advance!

 

No replacement for the outer shells on the control arms. I just did them on my 94 SC300 over the weekend. I burned out the old bushings then cleaned them up with a drill and wire brush.
If the outer sleves are damaged you may need new control arms. I saw a post on here where someone used some sort of exhaust tubing the same diameter of the control arm as a replacement for the damaged sleeves. good luck.

 

Called Toyota yesterday, the plastic itserts are not available. In fact, he wanted to know where I was able to find the replacement bushings. Took a ride to the machine shop that built the engines for my Cuda and Supra. They will be picking up hardened plastic dowels and mill out the center to the specs of the LCA bolts.

Just in case anyone else was needing to do this?

 

I do not recall any plastic inserts in the front LCA when I did mine. I had to reuse the middle metal sleeve and leave the outer metal shell intact. I did not replace the uppers, but those came with their own inner metal sleeves in the kit. Are you talking about the front upper control arms?

 

Nope, the lower control arms. The middle sleeves were the ones destroyed by the shop pressing out the old. Going to replace them with the hardened plastic units being milled by my machine shop. The outer shells were saved.

 

Guys: A member here steered me to a set of aluminum custom inserts made just for our cars. These are high quality, and priced very fair!! Search that on-line auction site we all use or PM me and I will get you in touch with him. Again....highly recommended!

 

I've done the LCA replacement for a 1995 Lexus SC400. It was a friend of mines. I've done both sides of it. Along with the Upper Control Arm bushings as well. The Upper Control Arm bushings is fairly easy, press it out and press the new ones in.

As far as the LCA, you will need to press it out first. While it's out, you will have to torch the crap out of it until you get to the aluminum sleeve. Once you torch it enough, you can pick it up with a plier and put it on a wheel grinder to get rid of the excess rubber on it. Grind all of the excess rubber off then grease the aluminum sleeve and insert it into the LCA bushing. Press it back into the LCA and you are good to go. Same procedures for either sides of the LCA.

 

You can get kits that replace the outer as well.

 

So they can be pressed out and then burned off outside of the actual LCA? That would be ideal and a lot easier I would think.

 

Yes, the bushings can be pressed out. I ended up taking both LCA to a shop to have done. Although a bit pricey (charged me 1 hour of labor each), they did a nice job and also blasted them so they were ready to paint .

Just an update and FYI: If I had to do this all over again, I would just buy the new arms. This whole process was a PIA, and I am decent home mencanic. I did have to cut 1 ecentric bolt off the left side. Other than that, the old arms came out easy enough, only beacuse everything was previously loosened by having an alignment done. But had a problem getting the right side back in due to a slightly bent housing. My ball joints were ok, but not new, if yours are questionable....just buy the new arms. If you are going to attempt, get the inserts as I previously mentioned, seller is a member here and was thankful he contacted me. Glad this project is done, but with me only home on weekends, it took longer than I cared. With a fresh alignment, the car is back on the road.

 

Thanks to Flygfsh for getting me in touch with the gentleman that makes these sleeves.

For future search information (since the gentleman is not a member of CL and DOES NOT sell on these forums and thus can't violate TOU ) he can be found on ebay under the username 'lvglvangundy'

This guy just saved my behind. I figured I would spend an afternoon swapping my OEM bushings for Prothane. If it's anything like 350z's or Mustangs, this should be tedious but really a simple upgrade.

WRONG.

Both my rear LCA sleeves have permanently (yes, permanently) joined my camber bolts and will not be removed. After several sawzall blades and two drill bits, I got the bolts out without damaging the control arms themselves but the sleeves are now absolutely demolished.

The sleeves are on order and I will give some feedback when they get here. They appear to be aluminum (like the front LCA sleeves are) so these should never seize.

 

The thread showing the new aluminum sleeves
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...de-w-pics.html

the parts i ordered to rebuild my lca's and uca's

2x Energy Suspension 9-13130G Ball Joint Boots (these come in pairs, replaces ball joints)
1x Prothane 18207 Front Control Arm Bushings (kit for upper/lower of both sides minus ball joints)
1x Aluminum LCA inner sleeves

Link about the ball joint boots:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...hat-works.html

 

where can i buy the Sleeves?

 

this is what i did. I made inner and outer sleeves out of scrap. works good.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...to-a-sc-2.html