I'm bushed

I completed the installation of some new poly bushings in the rear suspension, including the inner control arm bushings and and rear sway bar bushings.  One would think that the installation would be pretty straightforward, but I encountered a few challenges that required some creativity to overcome.

Rear Inner Control Arm Bushings

The removal of the existing rear inner control arm bushings was unexpectedly challenging.  The bushings facing the rear of the vehicle were particularly challenging as they were frozen to the shaft.

I used a box knife to cut and shave the old rubber from the inner shell.

I tried using a pipe wrench to remove the shell, but there was apparently a lot of corrosion between it and the shaft.

I finally cut the shell with a Dremel cutting tool, shot some PB Blaster into the cut, and pried the shell off the shaft.  You can see there was a lot of corrosion in there.

Using a wire wheel, I cleaned up the shaft and prepped it for the installation of the new bushings.

The new bushings were prepped with the special goo grease that comes with the kit.  This stuff is sticky!  I coated everything with the stuff: inside, outside, shaft and shell.

The assembly slid easily onto the shaft.

The bushings on the front of the control arm were much easier.  In fact, the bushings slid right off the shafts without having to cut the shells.  After reinstalling the drops, crossmembers, and clamps, the rear was in place.

To install the front crossmember, I had to replace the differential.  The refreshed differential, complete with new isolator mount, was hoisted into position using a transmission jack and secured with the front crossmember.  

Rear Sway Bar 

The rear sway bar installation looked to be straightforward, but looks can be deceiving.  The bar pivot bushings were impossible to install into their housings.  I ended up using a small C-Clamp to push the bushing into the housing.  Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of this, but essentially the clamp was placed on the corner of the housing and the opposite corner of the bushing, then the clamp was closed to push the bushing into place.  The housing was greased up to allow this to happen.

The other challenge was related to the length of the link bolt supplied with the kit: during assembly it sure looked like the bolt was to short.  I again donned a C-Clamp (one much larger) to compress the stack and allow for the nut to be started.