A-arm Bushings

[chevyCowboy]

it seems that the bushings on my upper A-arms are worn badly. has any one gone with urathane bushings for these, i think i may replace both the uppers and the lowers.

do you have to remove the torsion bars to replace the lower bushings?

 

[Big T]

Just did this last October, but I only did the uppers as I was already in there replacing upper and lower ball joints. Both uppers and lowers were fine, so this was precautionary. Though I bought the lowers, I did not install them as I did not want to deal with the torsion bars.

My advice is to remove the arms and take them into a shop to press out the old and press in the new bushings. I removed the old myself incorporating input from here and it was a mess. I then took them in to have the new bushings pressed. It was money well spent.

 

[Burning oil]

I'd stay away from urathane they squeek loudly. Some can be greased but will still squweek. Graphite impregnated urathane would be better, I personaly would go with heavy duty moog parts.

 

[bk95td]

I completely rebuilt the front suspension on my 95 k2500ld. I used all energy suspension polyurethane bushings. Supposedly the black ones are graphite impregnated. That's what I used. I have no squeeks. Very tight steering now. The mistake I made was not doing the rear leaf spring bushings at the same time:mad2::mad2:. It feels like I have a low tire in the rear because it is sloppy compared to the very tight front.
You don't want the old bushings pressed out if you use poly bushings. The poly bushings don't come with the steel shell that the rubber bushing is in. The shell must be reused:WTF: I cut the old bushings out with hole saws[pia]. I didn't remove the torsion bars because they wouldn't come out of the lower A-arms so I did them while the a-arms were hanging from the torsion bars. It is a very large job to remove the entire front suspension and as I said the rear should be done at the same time.
Summit racing sells the complete poly bushing kits for the suspension. Nor cal [site sponser]may sell the same kits.

 

[chevyCowboy]

i did every other part on the front end in may of 09 so it really only had about a years worth of driving on all that. the pass side feels tight yet no noticable wear on the ball joints or tierod ends.

then for a temparary fix would i be best off to just replace the driver side upper bushings (the ones that are worn) and then at a latter date when i have time for the truck to be down replace them all.

so are they pressed into the a arms or not?

 

[bk95td]

If you are replacing with stock style rubber bushings the steel shell can be pressed out. The new bushings come with a new shell. I actually ended up buying new rubber bushings to get the shells. Mine were very rusty. My local NAPA store stocked the upper bushings.

 

[Big T]

Here's the originals as I was preparing to remove them:

Here's the new Moogs installed (grease is from a blowout on the new CV boot):

Of course, once they're installed you'll need to have the alignment done.

 

[SmithvilleD]

If you don't have easy access to a press, another method of getting the old bushings out is to drill thru the old bushing's rubber until you've swiss-cheesed it. Then you can either sawzall out the inner metal sleeve or sometimes just drive it out with a hammer/punch.

If you don't need to reuse the outer sleeves, they can typically be peeled inward with a hammer/chisel after you've removed the inner sleeve & rubber.

Some folks use a torch to burn/melt out the rubber, but that method is a rather smokey/smelly mess.

 

[tanman_2006]

I have MOOG Uppers on my Z71 and they feel nice and tight. Now if only the rest of my truck was in as good of shape.... lol

 

[Crankme69]

I have replaced all the worn ones on the Tahoe, but the steering wheel or gearbox has slop play. Is there something that can be done about it? Anyone ever tried to adjust the gearbox nut? Both my Tahoe & my 1500 have the slop in the wheel...and I would love to tighten that up. Hope ya don't mind me jumping in on this here post to ask...?

 

[SmithvilleD]

Search "adjusting a steering box". The Ferminator did a good writeup on that subject.

 

[Crankme69]

Thanks!

 

[Matt Bachand]

I would love to have fresh bushings, mine are beat to hell.

What type of shoppe would do this? Autobody? Mechanic? I wonder how much in labor to have it done??

 

[Crankme69]

Any good front end alignment shop...

I have a place that will do em, labor is about $75 hr & iirc they charge about 1.5 hrs labor to do both upper & lower.

 

[Big T]

I would love to have fresh bushings, mine are beat to hell.

What type of shoppe would do this? Autobody? Mechanic? I wonder how much in labor to have it done??

Cost me $60 to have them pressed in on both upper A-arms. I delivered the A-arms, bushings removed, to NAPA and they sent it out for me. I cut out the bushings myself, but that was a lot of effort and would have represented just an additional step for whomever pressed in the new ones. Having whomever do the entire job would have saved me plenty of time. As I travel every week, returning on weekends, time is something I do not have a lot of.

 

[GM Guy]

so would you guys recommend going with a full energy suspension kit, then rebuilding the rest of the front end down the road, or would one get maximum life doing it all at once? I have a bad upper a-arm busing on the 99 and am debating weather to do a full set of bushings, or to just buy a new OEM style to get by, and then replace all the busings, balljoints, tie rods, etc in one fail swoop.

( I am continuing this thread since it was quite revelant, rather than go starting a new thread)

 

[chevytrucksonly]

Same here

Rebuilt front end on my 94 with all new Moog poly-it's the best choice as far as I'm concerned.

 

[SmithvilleD]

so would you guys recommend going with a full energy suspension kit, then rebuilding the rest of the front end down the road, or would one get maximum life doing it all at once? I have a bad upper a-arm busing on the 99 and am debating weather to do a full set of bushings, or to just buy a new OEM style to get by, and then replace all the busings, balljoints, tie rods, etc in one fail swoop.

( I am continuing this thread since it was quite revelant, rather than go starting a new thread)

If you intend to install the entire ES bushing kit, I'd buy the entire kit. Then if time or $ constraints limit going thru the whole suspension in one fell swoop, just install the bushings you must replace now & you'll have the rest of the kit waiting until you can do the rest of the work.

FWIW - if your situation allows for taking the truck down a little longer & doing everything at once, it will certainly save some effort & time spent R/R-ing things that will need to be taken apart again to complete the remaining work.

It's common to find a few of the OEM bushing's inner sleeve well corroded to the thru-bolt, so the bolt is difficult to drive out. Driving them out is also confounded by the rubber in the bushing absorbing some of each hammer blow. I often find they'll drive out an inch or so, then no more. So I wind up torching the head off the bolt & driving the remainder of the bolt back the other way - and they typically come out that way.

The older I get, the more often I just go completely thru the system I'm working on & make everything like/or better than new. At completion, there's some peace of mind in knowing that system is good for a long time into the future. Course this approach is only logical if you're "all in" intending to keep/drive the truck long-term.

 

[GM Guy]

oh, I might be buried in the damn thing, so it isnt leaving anytime soon! I try to buy for keeps, that way, you will never say "I wish I would have never sold that truck" but then I have to tag them all, so you you see the problem in that plan!

I think I will go quick and cheap for now, and save up and get the energy kit, and balljoints, tierods, and the like. better do it all at once, and hope it lasts forever. hell I might even grab the a-arm off the junker front frame clip so I dont even have to buy that! This pay check needs to go towards finishing my oil project anyways, mag-hytec for the differential, and a gear tech heavy duty deep sump finned PTO cover for one side, and a QK1000 filtering kit from quad4x4.com for the other PTO cover, and amsoil in. I was going to do a flush, but figure on changing it 20-30K down the road anyways.

The whole suspension plan is Energy Susp. poly bushing kit, Bilsteins,maybe some sulastic shackles out back, Nor Cal steering braces (if they fit 2wd, have a question into nick about that) and probably the best moog or Delco stuff I can buy for balljoints, tie rods, etc. and replace everything at once, and hope it lasts for another 150K or so. If the OEM is starting to crap out at 125K, I hope the above list will make it past 150K.