So the Prothane directions state our stock vertical bushing is encased in a metal sleeve, & they show the arm without that sleeve in it for the new ones. Also saying it must be removed or their bushings will not work. Yet that sleeve on the arms does not seem to be seperate from the arm at all. Also searching through all the posts, no one makes any mention of removing it, just drilling out the rubber. Tried to beat that sleeve out of the arm, but the damn thng does not move & actually appears to be part of the arm. So, anyone actually take that metal sleeve off as they state in the directions or what?

Yes, the sleeve must come off too. You might be able to use a punch and hammer to dent it inward, then remove with some pliers or a few more taps with the hammer. Just watch out for your fingers

lol alright, so long as it must come out, then I'll make it come out. Thanks for the clarification though that it does actually come out though.

hacksaw

Nah the punch & hammer method worked just fine. My problem was I didnt realize that sleeve was not a part of the arm. Already had the arms painted & it really helped make the sleeve look like part of the arm. But didnt take more then a few minutes with the hammer & punch.

i just had a shop press my old bushings out for me cost me a whole 13 bucks lol

you must either punch it out of the sleeve yourself, with a hammer and screwdriver like mentioned above. or have a shop press the bushing out and put the new one in which wont cost much.

personally i would just have the shop press it out and do the rest yourself.



- Cameron (CaliforniaCavalier)
- www.csc-motorsports.com (my new NOR-CAL car club site!)

I grabbed a screwdriver and turned the centre of the bushing (middle metal part and the rubber itself) sideways, so it broke off the outside ring, and just rolled out. Then I put a hacksaw thru the hole, and cut a slot in the metal sleeve... then it just popped out as well. I've done three sets of control arms now, I think the longest it's taken me was 1 hour when I didn't know what I was doing. It's far from rocket science

Yeah once you realize that sleeve is actually part of the bushing & not the arm it comes out easy with the punch & hammer. As far as paying someone to press the bushings in, that took a whole half hour to do both vertical bushings in a vice. So that was also easy. Install of the arms was also rather easy so long as you have a can of grease & a hammer ready Woot, now maybe all this time they were the cause of my tire wear but at least I can finally get an alignment & stop wearing through $400 in tires a month

Okay, so I bought the prothane control arm bushings a couple of months ago, and I wasn't really clear about how to take the control arms. Is it possible, (if not, please don't flame me ) that some one could type up a step by step instruction on how to remove them. I see that you take out the cotter pin and remove that long bolt closest to the wheel, and then remove the bolts from the motor mount, (i have the rksport mount, is it necassary to remove the whole mount?) Do I need a ball joint seperater? I'm slightly confused and seeking a little help b/c the local auto shop wanted four hundred bucks to put 'em on, and that wasn't including an alignment. Thank you very much.

Jamie

Also (I don't mean to seem annoying) Do the bolts need to be torqued to a certain tightness? When I did my struts I was told to tighten the bolts (lower ones) to 95-100 lbs. so I thought maybe these bolts on the control arms were the same way.

Everything on a car has certain torque requirements. That said, most aren't terribly critical. If it's good and tight, but not breaking the bolt off then it's usually good.

AHHH! Okay, so I got all the bolts out and everything was okay... until I got to the lower ball joint! What do I do? Should I go get a seperator? I'm desperate b/c my car is sitting in my driveway waiting for my TLC. I don't know how to seperate it, and I dont' even know where to begin. THank you CTS for the torque answer BTW.

Jamie


There are families on the road, keep racing on the tracks... or late at night.

Prybar worked for me. I also did it by just hitting the control arm with a rubber mallet, but it took a lot longer.

I borrowed a ball joint seperator (looks like tuning fork) I guess it can work like a pryrod , and I cant figure out what exactly I am trying to seperate. I can see the threaded end of the bolt (the bolt that had the nut w/ the cotter pin) coming through the the knuckle on the bottom of the brake caliper. Under that knuckle is the grease boot. What am I trying to seperate, where should i put the seperator? I'm trying to avoid tearing the grease boot, but I think some grease may have squeezed out when I was attempting to move it to find out what to do. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.


There are families on the road, keep racing on the tracks... or late at night.

Just hit the knuckle above the ball joint. This loosens the ball joint from the steering knuckle.

I loosened the nut on the ball joint (I did NOT remove the nut all the way). Then I just used the prybar by placing it on top of the balljoint nut and pulled up on the prybar. It took some muscle, but worked 4 times now.