Home Made Upper and Lower Control Arm Bushing Installation Tool

[PatS....]

The upper and lower control arms have to be spread and held 7 inches plus 1/16 of an inch apart while the bushings are installed and torqued down. The manual calls for a special tool, but I had to figure out how to do that without the special tool and without spending alot of money.

I wanted threaded rod, but they would only sell me 4 foot length for $40 bucks, so I bought bolts (gr 8) and welded the heads together.

I also bought nuts and large washers, welded the washers to the nuts so the would stay put when the tool was applying the pressure to keep the control arm spread while the bushing is being installed and torqued.

So, this is what I came up with. Not exactly what I wanted, but close enough I think to accomplish the task. The two bolts are to ensure that the bushing bar is centered between the control arms, and to keep the tool in place. I could have used shorter ones, but these are what I had on hand.

This larger tool is for the lower inner control arm bushing installation which is the same procedure for the upper inners above. The tool is just larger. It's placed in the old bar to position the bolts properly:

So, hopefully these two tools will do the job and I can get the front end back on Walter P. this weekend.

Although I have been in this garage for quite a while and have no reason to think it will change, the fact remains that I am renting month to month and could get 30 days notice anytime, so having this thing with no front end on it makes me real apprehensive.

Mr. Murphy is aware of me,and would love to see me try to move shop about now

From the balmy north country

[greg g]

BRILLIANT, Have a Guiness to celebrate. Mother if invention indeed.

This is a keeper for the tech section.

[PatS....]

Today, I finally got some quality garage time. #1 priority is getting the front suspension reinstalled...properly.

The homemade tool did it's job fairly well I think.

The idea is to keep the control arms spread while torquing down the bushings and keeping the bushing bar centered.

First step is to place the bushing bar into the control arm (right side up) after first placing the rubbers on the bar.

Then, the bar is centered on the arm and the bushings are threaded into the control arm and bushing bar.

Once the bushings are started, I tighten the nuts on the long bolts that go through the bushing bar holes which keep the bar centered as the bushings are tightened up and then torqued.

Then, the large nuts are turned so that the outside measurement of the control arm is 7 1/8 inches.

Then, I torqued the bushings down to 140 ft lbs as per the manual. Then I loosened the big nuts which allowed the control arms to relax 1/16 inch on each side to 7 inches.

The tool worked well, although I had a time centering the bar.

Here is the tool in place and tight ready for the torquing of the bushings:

The little hunks of threaded pipe are simply spacers for the long bolts I used.

All done, with the rubbers covering the threads:

In place to check for movement...seems snug but OK:

Now for the upper outer bushings and then the lowers. Quite the learning curve, I've never done this kind of installation and I want it to be perfect. Taking longer than I thought but better safe than sorry.