Rear control arms (1 Viewer)

[ColoradoFJ40]

I'm getting the motivation to replace all of the rear lower and upper control arm bushings. I do not have a press and plan on taking the new bushings and control arms to a machine shop for the pressing portion. My question is will I have problems realigning all my control arms if I remove all of them ar once vs doing them one at a time? I dont want to have to make multiple trips to the machine shop but I dont want to fight getting bolts back in holes.

Flashbacks of putting my 40 hardtop on in pieces comes back to me.

If the positions are pretty fixed without movement I would love to take them all out at once and all back in at once.

Of course if I dont run I to seized bolts or bushings.

Thank you
Mark

 

[cvenom96]

My opinion is do them one at a time. Less likely for things to shift but I suppose not impossible to do them all at once. I ended up just buying some straight used ones off ebay for like $80 and replaced the bushingsin those.

 

[Monty231]

You could throw some ratchet straps on it, from the front and rear. It shouldn't move to much if any, if it does you can use a jack under the pinion or a drift to line everything back up. I did this on the front when replacing the bushings, it worked great.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Put the axles on stands, and the chassis on stands.
Maybe strap the axle so it doesn't rotate on the stands
I'd do them all at once so you're locked in, and can't lose motivation half way through

don't forget the Panhard bushes

 

[ColoradoBoy]

Put the axles on stands, and the chassis on stands.
Maybe strap the axle so it doesn't rotate on the stands
I'd do them all at once so you're locked in, and can't lose motivation half way through

don't forget the Panhard bushes

+2

That is what I did with my rig recently. Bought a press @ Harbor Freight for $200- easily got my money's worth & I know I'll be using it again for my other rigs. After doing all the bushings in my wife's 80, I'm sold on new bushings before most other mechanical when baselining...
BIG shout out to Wits End for the bushing press kit!

 

[cvenom96]

Totally agree on the bushings as part of a baseline. I knew mine was handling sloppy but jeez did it make a huge difference. No longer white-knuckling it down the highway. The originals made it to 298k miles so not too bad I guess.

I too bought a HF press (20 ton) and it easily popped the old ones out. I know I'll use it again and being able to do the bushings on my time justified the expense.

 

[LandLocked93]

I did my lowers one at a time and still needed ratchet straps to get even close hole alignment. They barely did the trick.

 

[junior80]

start soaking the nuts and bolts in penetrating fluid now.

 

[ColoradoFJ40]

First one came out easy peezy other than I had to fight the shock to get the bolt out the last little bit. I'm going to do them one at a time for now but that might change after the first one. Thanks for everyone's help.