Has anyone changed there lower control arm bushes before?

[benny_mac]

What i have in my yard is an au1 ex taxi which i'm fixing for a guy at work, it had a squeak and a knock, upon further inspection i found all lower control arm bushes were worn both ball joints, sway bar link and swaybar bushes were rooted too. With the press at work semi-rooted i went done to peddars and asked if i supply the control armes and bushes how much for them to press them out and back in, there reply was $120 or we could do the control arm bushes for you drive in drive out for $500. I thought that was really steep so i said thank you very much and walked out but thinking thats probably a good figure to charge to do everything above including parts. So i set about getting the bushes and ball joints out of the lower control arm, the ball joints were fairly easy as they were just splined like a wheel stud but those bushes were just........ AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!. I managed to them out after about 3 hours with a porta power and an air chiseil but what a time consuming and messy job that i will never ever do again....... EVER! But to add to that, Outer lower control arm bushes - $77ea, inner control arm bushes - $50ea, sway bar link bushes - $30, 28mm sway bar bushes - $22 for both and ball joints were $17 each. so theres roughly $340 in parts, i've charged $500 to do the whole lot which means for $160 i'm doing about 6 - 7 hours of labour and also a minor service to this car : Ahh well my fault for not reserching the job first but on a lighter side to put them back in i just chucked the bushes in the freezer for a day and the arms in front of the heater and with plenty of never-cease they practically fell in thank god.

Sorry for the long post but i just had to tell someone about how crap of a job that was and that next time i will happily pay peddars to press them out and in again.

Benny Mac

[stavros68]

Yep done it on my fairlane converted from series 1 to sereis 2,tried to take the bushes out failed, so went to pedders got quoted $80 to change them labour only, a few hours later picked them up, guy from pedders said he should have charged $100+, and yep it's a F@$#%^* of a job

[Jastel]

Like everything they are easier with practise
I change them at around 250000km on my taxis so do several each year
The first ones are usually rusted in a bit but the second set I always grease them when I put them in and when the second set needs to be changed they push out quite easily with a large thread special tool I made.

Don't attempt a BA diff rubber if you think these are hard

[Mechan1k]

I had them done by a suspension shop ... good thing I didn't try and do it myself ... it is a right PITA job ... you do need the right tools for it ... mine had to be burnt out and then air-chiselled out.

I replaced mine with Super-Pro polyurethane items ... much nicer and made a huge difference in handling/braking.

[benny_mac]

mine had to be burnt out and then air-chiselled out.

That is exactly what i had to do to get them out, but only as my last resort, its a messy trick of the trade.
And i just couldn't believe how expensive the bushes were on there own.

[InfernoSR]

My father and I replaced 95% of the bushes throughout the car... thats oveer $3.5k worth of parts alone... so we saved a massive amouont of $$ for not paying for labour... even made our own tools to make the job heaps easier... we are now setup with a mechanic to do bushes for him at a good price... the tools have already paid for themselves...

[ronwest]

So for you guys who have bought the Ford bushes does the ebay AU F and R Nolathane kit comprising of

Front Lower Inner Control Arm

Front Upper Control Arm Adjustable kit

Front Shocker Upper and Lower Bushes

Sway Bar link Front And Rear

Rear Shock Upper Bushes

Rear Lower and Upper Control Arm Bushes

Rear Watts link full kit

(they'll swap rear bits to suit IRS)

$595

represent good value?

[InfernoSR]

Thats about the same price i paid for the same kit... i cant stand the Ford rubber ones... :P

[whiteELXR6]

Not to sure about on the AU's but I have an EF and i didn't even consider botheringb to waste my time changing bushes when for $120 I just replaced both complete control arms. much easier in my opinion.

[blueoval]

I had my lower control arm bushes as well as my d bushes and a wheel alignment replaced on my AU about 3 months ago with pedders. It cost me $600 then, and Im glad i got it done professionally. In saying that, if I had the time, the tools and knowledge to do it myself I would have done so. I noticed after it was all done, the car steered/handled heaps better.

Everyone has different ideas on who/how and when to replace things like this, but for my circumstance, Im happy with the outcome, and I didnt get dirty. :P