hilgeg

Just looking for advice from anyone that has replaced upper and lower control arm bushings? Did you us poly, rubber, graphite impregnated poly, or OEM? What were the positives and negatives that helped your decisions?

Thanks

hilgeg

This is not a daily driver - but does see more pavement then dirt. The idea of a firmer bushing since it is a lifted truck is appealing, but a constant squeak is not. Thanks

aztoyman

I've tried Poly control arm bushings on several cars but never my truck. No matter what I did they eventually squeaked again.

Drove me nuts and went back to OEM. Never tried the graphite ones.

hilgeg

aztoy - was there any noticeable increase in stiffness from the poly? More precise steering or anything?
Reason I ask is if the poly makes a big enough difference I'll just tap my control arms and add a zerk fitting for grease (or is this a bad idea??)

aztoyman

Yeah, it was a better performing bushing. I tried the "Correct" grease, roughed up the contact surfaces, tried different grease, every tip I could find.

It would go maybe a week and start squeaking again. Got tired of it. This was on classic Mustangs if that matters.

Maybe your plan to add a grease zerk will help. I have "heard" the graphite ones will squeak too but, I never tried them personally.

hilgeg

I had a 1966 Mustang as my first car - that thing always had a squeak no matter what I did.
I think I may just go OEM. The first set of bushing lasted 150K miles. I'll do poly on my steering rack, but I'm sure that new rubber upper and lower will drive a lot better then the cracked, soft ones I currently have.

Greg_Canada

FWIW my 89 with poly upper bushings does not squeak.
I would buy Light Racing UCA's with the oversized balljoint and new bushings already installed. then i'd buy new LCA's from rockauto with bushings already installed. Or you can swap the poly ones into yours if they are in decent shape...

hilgeg

Upper and lower control arms are all in good shape and I just did the ball-joints so I'm thinking bushings only for now. When I swap out my spacer lift kit for an OME kit I'll look at Light Racing arms, but for now I need to put my money towards armor. Thanks Greg_Canada

Other note - I can't even find a company that makes the graphite impregnated poly for the 97 4runner.

Greg_Canada

Ah gotcha, figured you were looking for a full front end rebuild. I have the energy bushings, they work just fine. Just know they are a pain to install.

wii_tarded

I put poly bushings in my 91 a couple of years back. They squeak, but it's not too bad for me...

They were considerably less expensive than OEM, and that was the deciding factor. I got mine from energy suspensions.

hilgeg

Since replacing these bushings is such a PITA I think I'll go with poly just for the sake they last longer.
What makes the Energy poly that much harder to install? I already plan on buying a press - and I've seen the bottle jack trick to get them out, but is there more?

Greg_Canada

The poly bushings are just the bushing itself. OEM bushings you press out of the arms, then press in new bushings. The poly ones you need to leave the bushing shell in the arm, remove the "metal ends/washers" of the bushing, burn out the rubber, clean all the rubber off the bushing shell and sleeve, then install the poly bushing, then put the sleeve and "metal ends/washers" onto the new rubber bushing. You are basically re-using all the metal parts. If you were to buy new bushings from rockauto, all you do is press out the old bushings, and press in the new bushings.
Honestly, the stock style bushings will last a solid 10-15 years, do you plan to keep your truck longer than that?

hilgeg

If I get my way (wife willing) this 4Runner will be around a long time and just become a toy. Solid axle swap, OME set up, armor and all. Realistically - no. I'm sure that I'll eventually want the space or get tired of feeding it $4/gal premium at a rate of 15mpg.
I'm liking the idea of replacing the whole bushing casing and all. Easy and clean. The longevity of OEM style would be fine - only thing that was making me consider poly was the firmness issue since I'm running 285's. I'll check out rockauto.

hilgeg

Raybestos Silentbloc is looking appealing. Anyone have any experience?

Greg_Canada

I'm sure they will be fine. I bought the mevotechs and they were the cheapest, they were fine. Their tie rods were crap tho, literally threw them out... Not sure many people have used them, but you could always return them if you don't like the look of them. I find you can easily judge quality of car parts by feeling / looking at them... ex. the mevotech TRE's looked cheap and fragile, while the TRW / sankei 555 i got to replace them look and feel like a quality piece of metal... i'm sure the ray's will be fine. And if you do SAS it in 6 years, you will be cutting them off anyways...

hilgeg

So I'm going to bring this post back just as an update. If you are thinking of doing your upper control arm bushings yourself.....DON'T! Lowers - no problem. I've spent the last 13 hours trying to press the bushing out of my UCA's and have failed at everything but bending my control arm. I tried the bottle jack trick that worked so well on the UCA's and here is the result. These two UCA's should be the same width.
So I ordered two Ikon uni-ball UCA's....darn.

chadsy

use a torch!

hilgeg

I'll know next time to have a torch on hand. At this point I'm not sure if I bend them back if I've compromised the structural integrity of the arm or not?

hilgeg

All I can say is thank goodness my 97 is not my daily driver. 2 new upper control arms, one new tie-rod, new lower control arm bushings, 2 new OEM lower ball joints, one new upper ball joint and my truck is now on a tow-truck headed for the shop because I can't figure out why the damn tires are toed in! I've used up all the adjustment on my tie-rod ends and the stupid thing still isn't drive-able.
So if you plan to do your control arm bushings yourself - beware. You will need to remove your steering rack to get the cam out of the lower control arms which opens up a whole new host of problems. What a PITA. At this point I've doubled my expected costs and quadrupled my expected time.

danthemanx07

It is too late now, but for future reference, adjusting the cam bolts will affect toe. I had the same problem after getting one side of my front end rebuild done. I just jacked up the tire a hair off the ground and adjusted the cam bolts until the toe was good enough to get me to the alignment shop.

Yeah, working on the front end sucks...