Hydraulic Press

[hguerrero]

Hi. I'm in the process of rebuilding the front end suspension on my 65 Chevelle. I bought new, ball joints and bushings for the upper and lower control arms.
Just learned you have to press the bushings in. Here's the rub (no pun intended) I don't own a hydraulic press.

You think a shop would be willing to do it for me for a nominal fee?

Any ideas on how else I could get this done?

Henry

 

[toxicz28]

You think a shop would be willing to do it for me for a nominal fee?

Yes, just don't go to my ex mechanic. He'll charge you book time like they were in the car. He tried charging me 7hrs (@$85 hr) to ASSEMBLE (bare housing and boxes of new parts) my 12 bolt.

me: "Did I mention it was a bare housing out of the car?"
him: "Yeah, it's going to take 7 hrs to put it back together again."

 

[Glen]

You can buy an inexpensive 12 ton press from Harborfreight.com for under $100. It's not the highest quality but it will get the job done easily.

Here's an example: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=1667

 

[GearHead_1]

I would think that any reputable front end shop would be happy to help you. I know I would have done it in a heart beat back in the day.

 

[jimvannoy]

I have lost count of the number of front end rebuild I have done. Never used a press. A big vice, big hammer, and big punch will remove them. You can also use a air chisel on strubborn ones. A big hammer and the right size socket will install them. Just got done doing the front end of a 77 TA with no problems. I did use a ball joint tool to press in the lower ball joints.

 

[PAToyota]

Walk into the local shop towards the end of the day with a sixpack and ask if you could trade it to have the bushings pressed in.

 

[Runum]

hguerrero what part of Texas are you in? I am in Joshua just south of Ft. Worth. If you are close enough you can use my press.

Greg

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The cheap presses that use bottle jacks are difficult to use. The have alot of wobble and are not very smooth to operate. Real presses have a screw down arbor that allows you to get the nose in contact with the work with a minimum of pumping.

This one on Ebay is an off brand, but is of a decent design. The cylinder is rigid on the top frame and the pump is right at hand on the side.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-T...tegoryZ63700QQihZ006QQitemZ160057446920QQrdZ1

Here is another one on Ebay, very similar to the above one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/20-Ton-Hydrauli...9QQihZ017QQcategoryZ41506QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Note that neither of these have the screw down arbor, but at least wont have the wobbles.

Not alot of presses on Ebay right now.

Charles

 

[Ign]

I did use a ball joint tool to press in the lower ball joints.

Yeah, are you not trying to maybe swat a fly w a sledgehammer here? Any reason a ball joint press won't do the job??

If you're dealing w stubborn rubber bushings, drill out the rubber (lots of little holes around the circumference), then cut the steel sleeve 180 apart w a sawzall or even a hacksaw (you can even disassemble hacksaw, run blade thru the circular sleeve and reassemble). Just don't cut past the sleeve much. It'll then knock out w a punch.

 

[jimvannoy]

Yeah, are you not trying to maybe swat a fly w a sledgehammer here? Any reason a ball joint press won't do the job??

It will if you take the time to dig it out, get it set up, and hook up the impact. I can pop a bushing in with 1 or two raps and be done with both sides faster than it takes to do 1 side with the ball joint press.

 

[screwTheMan]

There's a lot of plans floating around on making your own bottle jack style one. Of course, the price of raw materials it might be worth looking at HF.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I have never had a problem getting a local shop to press them in off the car for very little money, I seem to remember the 10-20 dollar neighborhood.

 

[74-77Camaro]

Hi. I'm in the process of rebuilding the front end suspension on my 65 Chevelle. I bought new, ball joints and bushings for the upper and lower control arms.
Just learned you have to press the bushings in. Here's the rub (no pun intended) I don't own a hydraulic press.

You think a shop would be willing to do it for me for a nominal fee?

Any ideas on how else I could get this done?

Henry

Here's how I did it:

http://www.74-77camaro.com/75camaro/Suspension/suspension.htm

You can do it with hand tools, but a press is always a handy thing to have around.

Scott

 

[wreckerboy]

There's a neat tool from HF that I have that works like a charm for this - it makes the job so easy that my wife was able to press out the bushings on the racecar: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=38335

 

[hguerrero]

Thanks for the offer Greg. I might take you up on it. I dissassembled the entire front end and I'm painting, sandblasting and getting my hands dirty.

I'm just north of you in Fort Worth.

Henry

hguerrero what part of Texas are you in? I am in Joshua just south of Ft. Worth. If you are close enough you can use my press.

Greg