Lower control arm bushings. Help.

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Mopar92

Mopar92

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Chrysler got it wrong on this design. I think I may take a nice Duster, roll it outside... set fire to it and buy a Chevy. For the love of God this is a pain in the ***. Ruined a perfectly good bushing pushing on the first one. I cleaned the snot out of the lower before pushing in the bushing. I lubed it. I found a piece of pipe that fit perfect onto the flange. I’m 3/4 the way in and it’s stopping. Now it’s bent the damn bushing. Is there a place online I can buy lowers already bushed? This is stupid. I would like to beat the hell out of the stupid engineer who thought this was a great design. Sheesh. I would have taken it to a shop and let them do it... but they ruined my spare lower. What a pain in the ***. Deciding now how much gas will make it a nice YouTube video of “ Duster set on fire because of a stupid engineer “.
 
The stupid engineer in me wants to know if you removed the stock outer sleeve, and what bushings (stock, poly, etc) you're installing.
 
Of course I did. As an engineer myself... this is the dumbest design of the entire Mopar era of torsion bars. Yeah I removed the sleeve... pushing the bushing into the lower is what stopped 3/4 way down for no reason. No pushing it back out at this point. At this point these lowers go in the garbage can and I buy nice ones.
 
I feel your pain. I am in the process of doing mine and I got the first one completely out and new one pressed in but it took like an hour. Just working on the second one now and man is it a pita.
 
Removing the stock lower bushings is the hard part, although with a large tap and a press it's really not that bad. Installing them is just a simple press fit if everything is lined up straight and free of burrs.

Are you doing this in a press? Or? Pictures or an explanation of how you're doing this would go a long way...
 
Mopar using chinsy stamped steel lowers like this is the equivalent of Caddy putting the starter under the intake manifold on the Northstar. Every auto manufacturer is required by federal law to do something so stupid it’s painful. I’ve done this job many years ago and didn’t have this much trouble. How did you push your bushings in? You use a pipe that pushed on the flange? That’s the only way I know how to do it. It was pushing in great and just stopped. After carefully trying different setups.... I finally said screw it. After 2 hours I used brute force. Sometimes it works. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Perhaps I’ll throw these lowers in the dumpster and buy tubular.
 
Getting them out is the easy part for me. Weld a washer and push right out. Yeah a press. That’s the only way I know how to do them besides buy them already done. Or go with the tubular QA1’s.
72bluNblu said:
Removing the stock lower bushings is the hard part, although with a large tap and a press it's really not that bad. Installing them is just a simple press fit if everything is lined up straight and free of burrs.

Are you doing this in a press? Or? Pictures or an explanation of how you're doing this would go a long way...
Click to expand...
 
The next set I do I will grind the **** out of the inside of the control arm where it’s a .002” fit. Not a 1/4” press fit. The thing that gets me is that I cleaned up the lower very well. There were no burs or anything. Slick as glass. Then I lubed the bushing. It was just destined to be ruined I guess.
 
This is why the next time I rebuild my front end, which is hopefully a long ways away, I will be getting those nice QA1 lower control arms!
 
I use a 1-1/4" socket and put the flat side to the bushing. The problem with using a pipe is that the ends aren't likely to be perfectly square, and if you're not pressing in a straight line the bushing can bind up.

It's all about properly supporting the LCA and keeping everything lined up.
 
I've worked on mopars for 40 + years and probably done 50 sets of lower bushings and never had a problem, your doing something wrong for sure. As far as Northstar starters I can do one in about 10 to 15 minutes, big piece of cake. I also worked for Cadillac for 10 + years.
 
kiss said:
This is why the next time I rebuild my front end, which is hopefully a long ways away, I will be getting those nice QA1 lower control arms!
Click to expand...

Actually the last time I changed out bushings was on a set of QA1 tubular arms. Can't believe they put stock style rubber bushings in a brand new tubular LCA. I swapped mine out for the Delrin ones from Bergman AutoCraft.

And yes, I also gusseted a brand new set of tubular LCA's.
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72bluNblu said:
I use a 1-1/4" socket and put the flat side to the bushing. The problem with using a pipe is that the ends aren't likely to be perfectly square, and if you're not pressing in a straight line the bushing can bind up.

It's all about properly supporting the LCA and keeping everything lined up.
Click to expand...

You must be using a 3/4” drive socket to go over the pin huh?
 
brian6pac said:
I've worked on mopars for 40 + years and probably done 50 sets of lower bushings and never had a problem, your doing something wrong for sure. As far as Northstar starters I can do one in about 10 to 15 minutes, big piece of cake. I also worked for Cadillac for 10 + years.
Click to expand...

Of course you can. How many hours do you have logged in the space shuttle too?
 
Mopar92 said:
You must be using a 3/4” drive socket to go over the pin huh?
Click to expand...

You could. You can also just install the bushing without the pin into the LCA first. Then use a short extension to support the inner shell through the torsion bar socket when you install the LCA pin.
 
72bluNblu said:
You could. You can also just install the bushing without the pin into the LCA first. Then use a short extension to support the inner shell through the torsion bar socket when you install the LCA pin.
Click to expand...
I’ve done it that way too. I always has better luck with a pipe and a flange welded on it to keep it straight. Not sure why I have it but it’s over by the press. If I recall I did it this way because I’ve had the rubber push out when pushing the pin in afterwards. I’ll get another bushing and start over tomorrow. 15 hours in the shop working on all kinds of projects today... at some point it’s time to quit. Spent too much time on the race car today. Had to play some mopars for a while and wipe that Chevy off my hands !

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72bluNblu said:
Actually the last time I changed out bushings was on a set of QA1 tubular arms. Can't believe they put stock style rubber bushings in a brand new tubular LCA. I swapped mine out for the Delrin ones from Bergman AutoCraft.

And yes, I also gusseted a brand new set of tubular LCA's.
Click to expand...
I can't believe QA1 puts rubber bushings in those. That is just dumb. I thought they'd at least have an option for poly bushings.

BTW whats the verdict on poly vs delrin LCA bushings?
 
Mopar92 said:
Of course you can. How many hours do you have logged in the space shuttle too?
Click to expand...


For mopar 92, all you have to do to do a northstar starter is disconnect the battery pop the top cover, 10 6mm bolts that hold the intake down, 1 6mm bolt that hold down the fuel line down, front plug wires, don't disconnect anything else pry up the intake from the front (belt side) I used a old small ball peen hammer to prop it up 2 bolts on starter, 2 wires it's out
 
kiss said:
I can't believe QA1 puts rubber bushings in those. That is just dumb. I thought they'd at least have an option for poly bushings.

BTW whats the verdict on poly vs delrin LCA bushings?
Click to expand...

I believe Delrin has a graphite impregnated in it so it's more slippery.
 
Bought the bushings, the tools and I still chickened out and bought a rebuilt set from hemi71x. Will tackle it some day on my terms. Sometimes you gotta know when to

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kiss said:
I can't believe QA1 puts rubber bushings in those. That is just dumb. I thought they'd at least have an option for poly bushings.

BTW whats the verdict on poly vs delrin LCA bushings?
Click to expand...

The delrin bushings are working great! No squeaks, nice firm, accurate handling and no binding.

But I’m not going to BS you and say they make a noticeable “seat of your pants” difference compared to the polyurethane bushings I was running before though. Now, that has a lot to do with the fact that I was already running greasable LCA pins, adjustable strut rods, and had everything lubed and tuned with no binding. So, my poly bushings didn’t squeak and the suspension already moved freely.

The delrin is definitely stiffer than the polyurethane, and it doesn’t require frequent lubrication like the poly will. Plus the delrin bushings get rid of the outer shells, so none of the old bushing parts are needed if you use them with aftermarket LCA pins that don’t have have the step for that inner shell. You do have to make sure the LCA pin fits well, I re-used my Firm Feel greasable pins as they were a great fit to the Delrin bushings, even though I don’t need to use the “greasable” feature anymore. I had bought a set of non-greasable pins that were for use without an inner shell, but I wasn’t happy with the fit.
 
Never had a problem getting the new bushings in, even on the first set that I did many years ago when I didn't have a press...
 
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