I read alot here about different ways to pop out the LCA bushing sleeves. Thing is that I never hear about people mentioning reuse. After getting those sleeves out can I just use the ES bushings on their own?
I plan on using an air chisel to get the sleeves out since I have a compressor and air hammer. Read one member using this method with good results.
Any information would be appreciated since I plan on doing the bushings tomorrow or monday. I have the ES master kit.
Also how long on average does it take to do the whole deal in your own garage with the tools needed?
When I did my LSS back in 2002 I think we did it in about a day. The trailing arm bushings take the longest because you have to reuse the damn inner part…but that isn’t included in the master kit.
I think this is obvious, but if you need your car by Tuesday though, I would say take either just the front or rear off, see how long that takes and figure out if you have time to do the others…
I did not do the steering rack bushings (seemed like a lot of work for little return and the steering response was great in that car anyway) or any of the ‘boots’ (couldn’t see the point).
We just used a normal vice and whatever socket fit to press out most of them. I did have to get a couple pressed out at a machine shop though because we couldn’t get them to budge. I think that was the shock mount in the front lower arms? Been a long time.
We didn’t have access to any decent air tools when I did mine, so we didn’t even bother with anything other than trying to get it to loosen up with a torch (which didn’t work).
I will say this; when I do my new GS-R in a few months, I’m just going to drop all the arms off at the machine shop and not fuck with it. I’m not suggesting you do it that way though, it totally builds character.
Oh, one last tip. The little tiny 10 (or 8?) mm socketed bolt that holds the shifter stabilizer to the transmission is fucking flimsy! I bolted things up and it just didn’t seem as tight as I wanted it to be and so I tried to tighten that bolt up more (hard to tell how tight something is when you are sideways under a car) and it snapped off in the transmission. That was some added time lying there drilling a hole in that bolt so I could use an extractor on it…
Thanks for the info and the heads up on that bolt. I’m pretty quick when I get into the flow of things. I’m sure my compressor and tools will make things go pretty fast, all in all.
I’m on leave(vacation) till friday and have the wifes car if I need to run and grab something so no worries there. Just wanted to get it all done and to the alignment shop in a day or two. Tomorrow I need to get the wifes care to get aligned so after that I’ll start getting into tearing down the Teg.
Now I just need to get everything lined up tool wise in the garage so I don’t have to keep going to the tool box to grab whatever.
Very simple procedure and no you do not reuse the sleeve if you’re going to put in ES bushings.
Either drill out or burn out the rubber then with a handsaw, cut two slits right through the sleeve trying not to cut into your lca, and then use a flathead screwdriver or chisel and just tap it out with a hammer.
The ES bushings presses right in with your hands… good luck.
Did the front and rear control arm bushings. Also the rear sway bar bushings. Decided to go to the autoport on base and do it there since alot more room then my garage. Big mistake. Waited for a long time just for the control arm bushings to be pressed out. At least that’s done. I’ll finish it all off when I get the shocks and springs in.
Decided I’m not going to be going all out on suspension with this car. Daily driver/commuter car so a decent strut/spring setup will be fine enough. only looking for about a 2" drop so that the wheels are a finger to the wells.
Oh and still getting squeaking. I think it’s in the strut/spring section since it’s stock suspension and so old. I’ll find out when I get it all done in a couple of months. Damn it sucks coming out of financial hell.
