2ndGearRubber
Well-known member
I don't like doing trailing arm bushings, due to tooling and the condition of the vehicles. However it seems to becoming more common
Normally I cannot fully remove the arm from the vehicle. It simply is not practical due to the condition of the vehicle, I'd be replacing every single control arm attached to the arm. So I will typically be working with the arm drooped down from the suspension, either suspended on bungee/straps or hanging from a shock/control arm. For removal, 498 air hammer, easy. On the older hondas with the deeply tapered arm I would just beat them back in with the 498 hammer. The outer shell of the bushings were thick enough to survive this, and removing anything else was typically not an option. Didn't look that pretty, but I gave a pretty big discount to use the technique and people got their bushings changed.
With the bushing above I cobbled together my C-frame socket press, ball joint adapters, and adapters from my bushing press kit. Very messy, very wobbly, took 4 hands which weren't always available, and needed 4+ attempts per bushing to get things straight. A ball joint press didn't have the throat required to fit around the arm to get things started. I have a normal Astro/otc sized one, and the Astro Goliath which is taller but with no additional throat. A normal sized ball joint press with more throat would not have worked, I need both the throat depth and the total height to be larger to deal with these bushings.
Is there a better method or more universal tool? I try not to blow people out of the water replacing these things, but to make things easy by fully removing the arm you're risking brake lines, hoses, control arms, other bushings, frozen hardware, subframe damage, etc. Things get pretty risky unless I go through and just blow everything apart with the torch. Which is nice, but $$$, so not my preferred method.
Mostly hondas, fords, subaru - would be my guess of primary usage. I'd hate to buy individual tools, probably wouldnt be cost effective.
Normally I cannot fully remove the arm from the vehicle. It simply is not practical due to the condition of the vehicle, I'd be replacing every single control arm attached to the arm. So I will typically be working with the arm drooped down from the suspension, either suspended on bungee/straps or hanging from a shock/control arm. For removal, 498 air hammer, easy. On the older hondas with the deeply tapered arm I would just beat them back in with the 498 hammer. The outer shell of the bushings were thick enough to survive this, and removing anything else was typically not an option. Didn't look that pretty, but I gave a pretty big discount to use the technique and people got their bushings changed.
With the bushing above I cobbled together my C-frame socket press, ball joint adapters, and adapters from my bushing press kit. Very messy, very wobbly, took 4 hands which weren't always available, and needed 4+ attempts per bushing to get things straight. A ball joint press didn't have the throat required to fit around the arm to get things started. I have a normal Astro/otc sized one, and the Astro Goliath which is taller but with no additional throat. A normal sized ball joint press with more throat would not have worked, I need both the throat depth and the total height to be larger to deal with these bushings.
Is there a better method or more universal tool? I try not to blow people out of the water replacing these things, but to make things easy by fully removing the arm you're risking brake lines, hoses, control arms, other bushings, frozen hardware, subframe damage, etc. Things get pretty risky unless I go through and just blow everything apart with the torch. Which is nice, but $$$, so not my preferred method.
Mostly hondas, fords, subaru - would be my guess of primary usage. I'd hate to buy individual tools, probably wouldnt be cost effective.
