Unexpected trouble removing front Lower Control Arm Bushings.
 

so is it worth the effort to repair LCA's or should one just purchase them?

i usually just burn the bushings out with a homemade propane torch or a oxy cetlen torch, much faster. It smells but it gets the job done quickly:)

they are still useable.

This is my first time changing them. Also I was OK with threading the inside and putting the bolt in and beating it out from the opossite side as I the Tap is part of my tool collection and the bolt was left over from anothe project so I did not have to buy them.
From what I have read on the this Forum it is not normal for there to be that much trouble removing them. I believe mine has an unusual amout of rust inside (the car came from the East coast some where).

I am not saying it is not worth the effort and you should just buy a new ones.
Others on this Forum have not had so much trouble getting the bushings out. I think that in my case they are extremely rusted and there has to be metal missing from the bore that that turned into the rust that I removed.

You should pull the arms off; pull the bushings out and decide from there if you need new ones.

I always buy arms with bushings. I'd recommend the same when you get back from your trip, etc.

I will be reusing the arms. Ounce they are installed as long as they are working OK I will leave them there. No sense to pull them if they are working.
I bought a complete front suspension kit thinking that I would have worn ball joints and ect. But they are all tight. I think I will leave the old one on there also.
I will pull the upper control arms off today; but if they are good I will also re-use them.
I am begining to think the the prior owner had some suspension parts replaced but did not change the Control Arm Bushings; maybe because they were afraid to mess with the adjustment on the bolt.

Mine had a slight coating of rust in them too. I cleaned them up and hit them with a zinc spray to prevent future rust.

More heavy rust found on tip of Sway Bar.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f.../zMVC-336F.jpg

On the Upper Control Arm the Ball Joint is tight and the rubber is OK so I will reuse it.

At 11:43 AM here in Californa we had a pretty decent Earthquake that lasted a longer then they normal. At least my car stayed on the Jack Stand.

Wow, I never thought of the peril of being in an earthquake under a car!!!

Glad it stayed upright. I hope you are putting together a series of these pics for a pictorial after you finish.

:)

Except for the excessive rust in those 2 areas (and marking the aligment adjustment on the Lower Control Arm Bolt before taking this off in hopes it will be ok when you are done) everything I am doing is straight forward and there are several threads already so I did not plan to take pictures.

The only problem I have had is I am using a generic spring compressor (has hooks that hook from the outside). When the spring was compressed I decided to grab on of the compressors any yank the spring out.
This was a bad idea (I should have known better). It pulled the comressor 45 degrees from where it was supposed to be and the spring tension bent the threaded rod on the compressor.
I decided that I would just buy a new set but 2 Harbor Freight stores were out of stock. So I replaced the threaded rod on both compressors. I will be using it by the end of the day but will be more careful.

I just did these procedures and am working on a pictorial. All the info is already on this board, but it would be nice to have it all in one spot.

Yikes. I recommend the correct type, it worked like a charm.

Yes, it is nice to have the correct tools to do a job. The gernic compressor would have worked fine If I had not pulled on it.
With my fixed generic spring compressor I have the one side done except for connecting the tie rod.
Tomarrow will finish up on that side and start on the other.

Picture's worth 1000 words

Not my pictures