LCA Bushings: OEM, Energy Suspension, Whiteline

We're biting the bullet on this one boys. Buying OEM replacements. Considering all the money I've saved doing other jobs myself, I think I'm still well in the green.

 

Seems like a lateral move for those of use whose truck won't align already

 

Totally understandable. Do yourself a solid and toss a little anti-seize on the new set for good measure. Can't hurt!

 

Yota Jim's has a big bin of them for $5 a pop.

 

Gonna post this here hoping it helps someone in the future - not sure if a similar how-to has been posted elsewhere... Open to feedback and comments on how this can be improved.

I've been working on my UCA's while I wait on my replacement parts for the LCA's.
For Energy Suspension, you need to recycle the outer sleeve of the original bushing. ES supplies a new inner sleeve for UCA's alongside the new bushing.

From what I've seen in other threads, many people make it sound like a headache to remove these things.
Here's my hack to get the rubber and inner sleeve out of your UCA very cleanly - with little cleanup required afterwards. You also avoid a lot of fumes from the burning rubber. Each bushing took me maybe 5-10 minutes tops. You might be able to apply this to LCA's with some tweaking.

Here's what I used to complete the job:
Ball joint press
Propane torch
Bench vice (to hold UCA)
1/2" drive socket wrench (my ball joint press works with a 22mm bit)
Optional - breaker bar
Steel wire circular brush for power drill
Emory cloth
Optional - Dremel

1) Line up and tighten the balljoint press onto the inner sleeve. No receiving cups, no press bits - nothing. We're going raw baby. You should have it set up so that you push the bushing towards the other bushing. Picture for reference. With the outer sleeve's design, you won't risk removing it along with everything else this way.


2) Now start cranking. Do this while the bushing is still COLD ! I did this by hand with a normal 1/2" drive wrench until I couldn't I couldn't turn it anymore. For added measure, I gave a couple turns using a breaker bar as well. When you get to this point, you should have something that looks like this (see below). Note: There's normally a rubber lip of the bushing that sits over the metal lip here. Most of mine happened to just crumble and crack off , so the majority of it is removed here. At this point the inner sleeve should be making its way out the other side. You get some pretty amazing lateral travel thanks to the rubber.


3) Now it's time for heat. Bust out that propane torch and get cooking. Even coverage of heat is key here. Here's where the "hack" comes in. Because you're only heating up the outside of the UCA, the layer of the rubber bushing that's fused with the outer sleeve will heat up first. Pair this with the fact that the rubber is already stretched out. It wants to revert to its normal shape. Once that layer of rubber melts free of the outer sleeve, the bushing is basically pulling itself off trying to return to its normal shape. You're going to start here cracking and popping as parts of the bushing start snapping free.

4) After aboot a minute of cooking - jump back on that balljoint press and keep tightening. You should find the tension has eased off and you can keep driving it in with very minor resistance. Eventually, you'll "feel" the bushing pop out the backside and everything will get very wobbly. Loosen the balljoint press.

5)At this point, you're probably looking at the rubber bushing wedged into receiving end of the balljoint press. What a mess! Swap out the UCA with the balljoint press in the bench vice. Be sure to wear thick gloves when doing this. You're UCA is going to be very hot.

6) Start driving in the balljoint's thread again and push the bushing out the back of the receiving end. It should come out with a satisfying "POP!" and go flying!

7) The inside of your UCA's should look hopefully something like this. Mine were left with a very thin layer of rubber on the inside. Maybe less that 1mm? Almost looks like a dusting of rubber. You can kind of see the metal underneath. I did a quick pass with a very small circular metal wire brush on my drill and they came out sparkling. (1inch diameter, but I had to grind and wear it down against a rock for it to fit inside). I'm sure the same can be achieved by hand/dremel with some Emory Cloth/sandpaper, it will just take a little more time.

 

The inner sleeve?! She must have been pretty loose!

 

lol
I would agree. To be honest, I've just got itchy fingers and I need an excuse to work on something. The UCA bushings came bundled with my LCA ones, so I figured ehhhh why the hell not.

 

I just wanted to post an update since I had originally flagged the Whitelines as possibly slipping or clicking:

I traced the suspension clicks to a bad upper uniball joint and loose uca bolts (total chaos) just last week. Now, I do not believe the Whitelines have ever moved. I've had them looked at by the original alignment tech and he also says they haven't moved.

Furthermore I am now four years into this mod without any squeaking of the poly bushings following the teardown, cleaning, and regrease I describe above.

 

Did my own brakes with some help, still gotta do the rear, but there is life in those shoes. Went in for the alignment and they said both sides need bushings and lower ball joints, even though the passenger side LCA was replaced a few...sh!t, 5 years back. They want a grand to do it, I'd rather put that kind of money into long travel, So I'm going to have to decide between swapping the joints and bushings myself as a noob, or buying two intact lower control arms from rock auto to shave some time and headache off the job. I can't afford to pay a control arm and a control leg at shop prices and still keep a roof over my head.

 

Just had an alignment completed myself. Definitely straightened everything out and she handles real nice - for now lol.

Mind you, I haven't got around to replacing the LCA bushings just yet. But what's interesting was I didn't hear one comment from the shop on how torn up my LCA bushings are. Saw first-hand (just the day before) that 1 bushing per side has ripped itself apart.

A word of advice (perhaps): Just because the shop doesn't say anything, does it mean everything is hunky dory.

 

For sure.

I got an alignment, rotation and balance done the other day with a "Courtesy inspection" on the stealership ticket. They missed the transmission pan leak...

 

how are you guys cutting out the cam bolts if they are seized in?

 

Recip, grinder w/cutting wheel, swearing.

 

I recall watching one of Timmah!'s videos. He had to cut his out with a reciprocating saw.

I think he recommended using carbide blades? Diablo brand?

Also - sounds like there's not a whole lot of margin for error. You need to be careful not to cut the frame while you're cutting out the cam bolts.

I imagine grinder would be quicker, but the fireworks you're probably going to create might make it more difficult to see what you're cutting.

 

Coming back to this thread and the time has almost come for me to replace my LCA's!

Hoping someone can chime in to save me a potential disaster.

I ordered some Mevotech LCA's off RockAuto, but I'm not sure if they're 100% OEM spec and therefore compatible with the Energy Suspension LCA bushings?
Can anyone confirm whether the Energy Suspension bushings work with the Mevotech bushing sleeves?


When I line up the bushing, it looks like the center-sleeve is too thin? Wondering if I should just abandon the idea of replacing the bushings and just use the new rubber ones that come already installed in the new LCA's?

Using a digital calliper, it looks like these ES bushings are about 45mm diameter (OD). Best reading I could get on the new Mevotech LCA's was 42mm inside diameter of the outer-sleeve. So, it would be quite the squeeze to get the ES bushings in - which makes me think it might shrink the inside diameter of the ES bushings to fit on the center-sleeves.

Hope that makes sense.

 

It should be the same as what it replaces

I cannot confirm though but i can confirm the energy bushings are a bit if an interferance fit

 

I'm going to order a spare Mevotech bushing off RockAuto as a sacrifice/experiment just to be safe.
I'd rather burn 30-40 bucks (Canadian) to save myself from potentially ruining these $$$ LCA's

Shipping estimates say it should arrive at the end of the week, giving me the weekend to tear it apart and try the Energy Suspension bushing.

I'll post my findings when I have an answer!

For reference should anyone else find themselves going the same route:

The bushing part number I'm ordering is MS86407
I have the Mevotech Lower Control Arms CMS86183 and CMS86184

 

So, I'm back with a minor update!

I did the swap on one bushing and I'm not 100% satisfied with the results...

For reference, this is what I found when I popped the metal plate off one side of the Mevotech bushing.

Did not realize these Mevotech bushings were partially hollow. Wondering if OEM are the same?
Seems like a weak point by allowing flexing inside the bushing, or a great place for water and mud to be trapped and cause our infamous reputation of frozen cam-bolts?

A bit if propane and the bushing came out easily enough.

After removing all the rubber, I test fitted the centre sleeve with the ES bushing. Definitely not a snug fit, but I decided I'd see what happened after I squeezed the ES bushing into the Outer-sleeve.

@Running Board Man was correct. ES Bushing was an interference fit with the Mevotech LCA. Was a bit of a fight to squeeze it in, but nothing unreasonable.

Center sleeve felt more snug when I installed it at this point, but nothing compared to installing the ES bushing into the outer-sleeve. After putting everything back together, I have a very small amount of play/flex...

It's not wobbly and jiggles around, but I am able to get some travel when I stick a screwdriver down the center and work it back and forth. I should also add that it's slow - if that makes sense? It takes a second or two to move from one side to the other.

Sorry for the long post here guys.

 

Sounds like you could use the mevotec lca and your original inner sleeve if not happy with the results

Edit... the factory bushing is solid rubber

 

That's IF I can salvage them, but yes I think you're right.
Pretty certain they've rust-welded to the cam-bolts.

Probably more trouble than it's worth and I don't like the idea of putting something rusty back into my truck.