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I have some nice new poly bushings for the #1 control arms. I am also very lazy, and I want to do the minimum amount of disassembly required to install them.
While I let everything soak in penetrating lube, does anyone know what the least amount of things I need to remove to swap the FLCA bushings is?
Maybe if I can talk myself into thinking this will be easy, I'll actually get it done this week.
I put my big boy pants on and just disassembled everything. It was really not a big deal in hindsight, and well worth it.
But now I'm stuck. Or rather, the LCA bolts are stuck. The last piece of the puzzle is pushing the bolts out and I'm absolutely stumped, and my day is ruined.
Is there a trick to getting the LCA bolts out, or do I just need a big hammer? The nuts came off no problem.
edit: I'm buying an air hammer after work tomorrow
I put my big boy pants on and just disassembled everything. It was really not a big deal in hindsight, and well worth it.
But now I'm stuck. Or rather, the LCA bolts are stuck. The last piece of the puzzle is pushing the bolts out and I'm absolutely stumped, and my day is ruined.
Is there a trick to getting the LCA bolts out, or do I just need a big hammer? The nuts came off no problem.
edit: I'm buying an air hammer after work tomorrow
What bolts are you specifically having trouble with? The big cam bolt that goes through the main bushing? Or the two that attach the ball joint from the bottom? Or the big 19mm nut on the bottom and just behind the brake disc? The 2 ball joint bolts are going to have loctite and some serious torque holding them in place, so get your strongest “1/2 breaker bar, and consider using a pipe to get enough leverage and they should break loose, hit ‘em with your torch if you can’t get em to break loose, sometimes loctite requires heat to let go. Next, the 19mm castle nut has a cotter pin and once it’s removed, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Once you have everything outta the way, you should have enough access to remove the main bolt, I believe one side is a 21mm and the other is a 19, but it’s been a while since I dealt with mine, once I got the nut off, and the cam plate, you should be able to rotate the 21mm nut that is built into the other cam plate, rotate it until there was no pressure on it, it should turn one direction much easier than the other. Once there is no pressure on it, you should be able to push it right out and then the LCA#1 will be ready to remove without any issues.
I have complete confidence that you can get it done without any issues, still, good luck Boss
The cam bolts are seized in the bushing sleeves. Turning the cam bolt just twists the bushing. Not surprising considering they are probably original to the car, which has 260,000km and saw many winters.
I think you called it best in your OP, it’s just a battle waiting to be fought. I am confident you can figure out how to win. Sawzal, prybars, air hammer, and whatever swear words that come to mind, you’ll figure out the right combination. Torching the bushing is always the option of last resort, until you have the LCA separate from the rest of the vehicle anyway. but I am sure there have been people who torched it early, hoping to improve their situation.
I should have named this thread "max effort and expense" but I figured that after all that, I could at least post some good news.
After removing the arms, I had them sandblasted, I coated them with Steel-It, had the old bushings pressed out (that was an ordeal of its own), and had my SerialNine 80a bushings pressed in. These are their old "Street" version, before they switched to the new 87a "OEM+" style. I have those for the rear, but we'll get to that later.
These really stung to have to buy. I ended up paying $90CAD for the two bolts, shipped. The local dealer wanted even more than that.
have you got this back together and aligned and everything? Was there a specific issue you were trying to address? Or had you already replaced everything else in the front suspension and you did this just to ensure you wouldn't have to worry about any issues? I have recently replaced everything in my front suspension except the bushings on the #1 lower control arm. And everything seems to be great, but I frequently wonder if it would be worth replacing these bushings with a nice of Poly bushings from SuperPro? The bushings aremt that expensive and the work wouldn't be that difficult, but I can plenty of other things to do my car? So I am just curious what the verdict is after you do have done some driving?
have you got this back together and aligned and everything? Was there a specific issue you were trying to address? Or had you already replaced everything else in the front suspension and you did this just to ensure you wouldn't have to worry about any issues? I have recently replaced everything in my front suspension except the bushings on the #1 lower control arm. And everything seems to be great, but I frequently wonder if it would be worth replacing these bushings with a nice of Poly bushings from SuperPro? The bushings aremt that expensive and the work wouldn't be that difficult, but I can plenty of other things to do my car? So I am just curious what the verdict is after you do have done some driving?
I've finished re-installing the suspension parts but I haven't gone for an alignment yet because I've been working on the IS350 front brake swap and replacing my brake lines. So, I will probably get the car aligned next week if the shop has an opening.
But yes, I've now replaced every front suspension joint and bushing at least once. I'm replacing with poly to work in conjunction with the stiffer coilover setup. I'm hoping that having poly in both lower control arms (I have SuperPro #2 LCA bushings) will reduce deflection under braking, and give more direct feel.
05-05-24, 07:21 PM
FLCA Bushings - Max Laziness
