Broken Suspension Tools from American Muscle

[daves66valiant]

I got the kit sold by ESPO (same as the one from Just suspension) made by American Muscle I believe.

Well I managed to break the upper control arm bushing remover/installer and I also broke the lower control arm pivot shaft remover. The tools seemed to be heavy duty.

The first lower control arm pivot came off flawlessly. Granted it took a breaker bar to turn the nuts and get the shaft out. When I tried to spin the nuts off they were seized onto the threaded rods. I tried heat, penetrating oil, wd40, I even had lube on the threads beforehand. Total seized up. I used a pipe wrench to clamp onto the rod and tried to spin the nut free but the threads got ate up and the 7/8 nut went no where.:mumum:

I managed to get the other pivot shaft out by using the other threaded rod from the upper bushing remover. Thank God I got that far on the lower arms.

Now onto the upper bushings. I managed to get one bushing out with relative ease. On the next bushing I ended up snapping the threaded steel rod. So I still have three more bushings to remove and have two broken tools. $115.00 down the drain. :angry7:

These bushing have all been on the car since 1966 which is part of the problem. I soaked everything down with penetrating oil for a good 1/2 hour or so. I remember in the past I had one set of upper control arm bushings that where fused from rust (that a-arm was a dead soldier). These are not rusty.

I bought these tools so I would not have to take them to a shop and I could do it myself. The tools seemed to work great but I didn't even get the job finished. WTF. I know I can head down the hardware store and get new threaded rods and nuts, but now it looks like I will have to take the upper arms to the shop anyways, unless I bust out the muscle and the air hammer. This blows.

Any of you guys had problems with these kits? I'm not sure about the warranty on this product? Any other tricks to get the upper control arm bushings out?

 

[pauly v.100]

i used 'em on my dart a couple years back and don't remember having to use that much force to get any of those bushings out. they worked fine for me on entire front end rebuild.
-pauly

 

[Johnny Dart]

Hey Dave,
Well now we will get a chance to see what kind of company ESPO is.
Sorry to hear of the frustration.

I tried to do as much as I could with the tools I had,and let the local machine shop do the rest.

 

[daves66valiant]

It took alot of force to get them out. I know I used the tool correctly because a couple of them came out easy. They had never been changed in over 41 years. I found it easy just to torch out all the rubber out and then air hammer/chisel the sleeves out. Went quicker but the smell of burning rubber was not so nice. Would rather be burning wheel rubber. :burnout: Everything is out and off to the powder coater tomorrow.

Which Strut rods did you get again John?

Hopefully ESPO will back up the product.

 

[nicoles]

I know you have already got the bushings out but when I did mine on the 66 cuda I used a port-a-power and some blocking that i made up on the weilding table. and they still were a pain in the tail pipe to get out. If you plan to do a lot of powder coating you should look into the kit from Eastwood's It was $130 or mybe $150 but I know I saved about 2 grand in the last couple of years. They wanted $150 to do the intake and that was after I cleaned it! Cole's Dad

 

[daredevil]

If powdercoating is as easy as it looks i agree with nicole, awful lot of powdercoaters popping up

 

[Johnny Dart]

Which Strut rods did you get again John?

They are aluminum,I think I got them at just suspension?
It has been awhile.

They have adjustable ones(which I didnt get)that help big time when it comes to front end adjustmants.You might want to look into those.

 

[abodybill]

Dave,
I had the same problem as you.

That threaded rod left burn marks in my hand but it didn't take long for me to drop it.

Anyway I emailed American Muscle direct and told them of my problem with there tools and she told me that this was new to her anyway she set me all the bad parts I needed to make it all like new.

I have done 2 other cars with the new rods/parts and have not had any more trouble with there tools.

I know they stood behind my problems with there tools and all this was about this time last year.

Hope this helps you out.

Thanks,

 

[daves66valiant]

Dave,
I had the same problem as you.

That threaded rod left burn marks in my hand but it didn't take long for me to drop it.

Anyway I emailed American Muscle direct and told them of my problem with there tools and she told me that this was new to her anyway she set me all the bad parts I needed to make it all like new.

I have done 2 other cars with the new rods/parts and have not had any more trouble with there tools.

I know they stood behind my problems with there tools and all this was about this time last year.

Hope this helps you out.

Thanks,

That helps alot. I'll give them a call tomorrow

I know you have already got the bushings out but when I did mine on the 66 cuda I used a port-a-power and some blocking that i made up on the weilding table. and they still were a pain in the tail pipe to get out. If you plan to do a lot of powder coating you should look into the kit from Eastwood's It was $130 or mybe $150 but I know I saved about 2 grand in the last couple of years. They wanted $150 to do the intake and that was after I cleaned it! Cole's Dad

I've been eyeballing the Eastwood kits for a year actually. I'm having the K-frame done which is way too big for a home job. I may eventually get one though. My quote was $300-400 for everything...K-frame, lowers, uppers, spindles, master cylinder and other little bits.

 

[redfastback]

did your uca bushings have the sleeve on the inner side? those need to come off first. not all cars got them.

 

[69383gts4spd]

Which Strut rods did you get again John?

They are aluminum,I think I got them at just suspension?
It has been awhile.

They have adjustable ones(which I didnt get)that help big time when it comes to front end adjustmants.You might want to look into those.

I put aluminum strut rods on my dart. got them for $91 with shipping off ebay. the guys ebay user name is sodcj . I just checked & he has more listed. I think this was the best price I found on the aluminum ones. (cheaper than steel. As far a the adjustables go, I don't think a you really need them unless you are all out racing. I have used those & also the moog offset upper control arm bushings. The bushings are much easier to dela with as far as aligning the car goes. I have bought the americam muscle tools also & have really good luck with them so far. I lube them up really good with moly grease before each use & I thing that helps.

 

[69383gts4spd]

did your uca bushings have the sleeve on the inner side? those need to come off first. not all cars got them.

I have found that genarally big block & 340 cars come with the sleeves that you are talking about. I'v been starting to check junkyard cars & that's what I've come up with so far. New sleeves are kind of a riup at $25 a pair+ shipping

 

[Aaron]

I soaked my UCA bushings in Kroil, they came out with ease with the tools from American Muscle. Although, now that I look back, I should have just saved the trouble and bought tubular upper control arms.

 

[daves66valiant]

did your uca bushings have the sleeve on the inner side? those need to come off first. not all cars got them.

No way. They did have the sleeves on the inside of the UCA. DOH!!! The ones from my parts car did not have them. I couldn't tell it was a sleeve until I had the things out. Oh well. It's done now. Thanks for the insight. I guess the inner side sleeves made it tougher. I'm sure things will easy from here on out knowing that.

 

[nicoles]

Hey Dave I have the Eastwood powder coating kit and I use a oven I pick off the side road. when I want to do some thing a bit larger I leave the oven door open and have a box made out of aluminum sheet that I put on the open door.this gets oil pans and other long things done .It's easy that why you see so many coaters poping up. a good bang for the buck!
cole's Dad Don