Hi all, I'm looking for complete step-by-step info on replacing the bushings in upper AND lower control arms in the 86-95 IFS vehicles and putting in poly replacements (once the arms are off the truck)
I've found various references to it being a PITA and generally having to torch them out, that the metal sleeves have to be conserved b/c they don't come w/ the poly kits, etc. Some suggestions that they can be pressed but it's pretty finicky.

Any good links?

Also, is there an easy way to identify UCAs as coming rom 86-89 vs 90-95 vehicles? I have an extra set of arms here that are in better shape than mine and I don't know what they came from, but have read there are small differences. Want to be sure I get the right bushings.

 

Have you tried the FSM?
http://web.archive.org/web/201204242...30lowersus.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/201204242...31uppersus.pdf
Is the problem that you don't have the SST?

 

Not so much a pita but time consuming. If going polyurethane you will need to keep the outer shells and the inner eyes on all eight. When I did mine, I burned out the old rubber, it is messy. The lower arms were the easiest for me. The uppers are more involved because of the 2 staked nuts on the ends of the cross shaft and if not unstaked properly you will strip the threads on the cross shaft. Also purchase 4 new nuts.

On the second page of this thread https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...96/index2.html I gave some thoughts on how I tackled some of the work.

Cheers

 

Thanks.
And correct, I do not have the SST.

 

if going polyurethane you do not need the sst, as you want to leave the outer shells in place, OEM, yes either sst or press.

 

Bumping a pretty old thread, are the cross shafts in the upper arms the same side to side? I have spares and they have no determining traits as to whether they’re left or right. The parts catalog shows there are left and right assemblies (obviously) but no option to select the cross shaft itself.

 

I am 95% sure they are identical. The bushings are, and the holes are simetrical.

On another note since this old thread reminded me of all the fun that I had dealing with those control arms (this was part of a Blazeland diy LT set up)....

You can buy aftermarket upper control arms for about a hundred bucks. Moog, good quality. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they came with some kind of poly bushing and moved very smoothly in a vice. Somewhere around here I have a video of trying it out.
In my opinion it's just not worth the trouble of torturing or drilling out those bushings unless you are really dead set on putting in the poly performance or something similar.

 

yeah they look identical but I just wanna ask YT because you guys know almost everything about these old yotas.

yeah when I swapped bushings I torched them out (wasn’t that bad of a job tbh) and used energy suspension urethane bushings on the upper arms. I had to cause the arms are LT cut, extended, and boxed oem arms.