upper control arm bushing help needed

Okay so I'm replacing my control arm bushings.
My upper bushings are severely worn.
The machine shop where I took them said that if I replaced bushings the UCA's may not fit back in, due to them potentially bending out of shape from the excessive play. Is this true?

I'm now torn on buying new OEM UCA's since their around $200 on McGeorge Toyota.
Another option is I buy Toyota OEM bushings for a 3rd gen 4runner for $35 each (part #48632-35080), which another member said would fit 1st gen tacoma pre runner, and then have those pressed into my existing UCA's for about $80

The Energy suspension bushings are not an option as the metals sleeves on mine are pretty rusted.

Any advice appreicated

 

@Superdave1.0

 

I highly doubt you bent the Upper control arms due to bad bushings. They should go back in just fine.

That being said, replacing just the oem rubber bushings is more labor intensive than simply replacing the whole arms with new bushings already installed, which is what I would do.

OE UCAs are fairly inexpensive

 

would swapping for the moogs be a bad idea? I don't do any offroading really.

 

Those should be totally fine, plus they'll come with new upper ball joints which are a good idea to replace too

 

I've replaced the upper ball joints with 555 from low range. The moogs I'm looking at are the UCAs only, no ball joint.

 

and so this would be a better option than using the 4runner bushings on my existing UCAs and then having a shop press the new ones in?

 

I think it would be cheaper labor wise, maybe not much but couldn't hurt to see what their quote for both would be and compare cost

Arms themselves are just arms, nothing special about them really. The bushings and ball joints are what's important. Burning out your old bushings and pressing new ones in will be more labor than just installing new arms with the bushings already included

 

OEM new. Or aftermarket UCA like JBA.

Moog will be ok, won't last as long as OEM.

Last option would be to press in new bushings. I don't see how this could cause any issues if pressed out/in correctly.

 

yeah ill add up the totals and see. I don't mind coming back later to do the energies.

 

and would that bushing part number for the 4runner I listed work for tacoma? I don't see how they are different and another member said they'd fit.

 

Cannot confirm, sorry.

 

I'm in the middle of doing my UCA bushings. I ordered the 4runner bushings (48632-35080).

My original plan was to extract the old ones using the bottle jack method, but I ended up taking them to a shop after the realizing my bottle jack was too tall to fit between the sides of the arm. I wasn't happy with the shop's work (read about that here), so now I'm re-doing it myself using Timmah's bearing splitter method (here).

Based on my experience:

• The 4runner bushings ought to work fine. I don't have them on my truck yet, but they look identical to the originals and I've seen several other reports of people using them.
• The Moog arms will probably be just fine, but the Moog bushings installed in them might not be as good as Toyota OE. Lots of opinions and not much evidence on whether Moog is good. I subscribe to the "my factory parts lasted 200k, why mess with success?" line of thinking.
• Make sure you trust the shop to do good work. These arms are tricky to set up in a press because the bushings have to press outward and there isn't much surface area to press against. If I went to a shop again, I'd bring the arms in for the tech to look at and talk to them about the press setup before committing to the work.
• The press method in Timmah's video has not been as easy for me as he made it look. I had a hard time bending the flange on the old bushing to get the bearing splitter seated.

Between OE bushings, OE ball joints, re-work, and tools, I'm probably around $400 into this project. If I did it all again, I'd strongly consider aftermarket UCAs. For about $450 (less taxes and shipping) you could get JBA arms (although, they're high caster arms designed for listed trucks). For about $620 you could get SPC/Light Racing (adjustable, so you can keep factory alignment if not lifted). For maybe $400-450 (the price changes occasionally) you could get the Mevotech adjustable arms from RockAuto, which seem to be rebranded SPC (make sure you look for the adjustable arms; RockAuto also sells an OE-style Mevotech arm that's probably comparable to Moog). JBA, SPC, and Mevotech adjustable arms all include new ball joints.

 

This is why I think it's better to just buy a set of new arms with the bushings installed, assuming we're just talking about stock arms (or Moog arms). Pressing out/in bushings is way more labor intensive than just tossing the old bushings with the old arms and installing new arms with new bushings already pressed in. OE style arms are pretty inexpensive all in all.

With my SPC arms, the poly bushings had to be pressed in and getting them out when it was time to change them required cutting them out with a sawzall blade, they don't want to come out easy. Getting the new ones in we had to use a press

 

I just finished removing my old bushings tonight. The first one (which I did yesterday) was a huge pain because I hadn't figured out the technique yet. The remaining three went smoothly with the knowledge gained from the first.

I followed Timmah's method, with a slight modification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lZbAd1_EUM

His suggestion of chiseling the flange on the old bushing (to make space for the bearing splitter) didn't work for me. I think the problem was that my vise didn't hold the arm securely enough, so the hammering energy dissipated as movement rather than bending the flange.

My solution was to notch the flange with a hacksaw and bend it with vise grips. I used a box cutter to get some of the rubber out of the way first. It only took ~10 minutes of sawing and bending per bushing. Just be mindful of your cut--you don't want to cut into the arm itself. If you have really good vise grips (with a sharp edge on the tip of the jaws), you might be able to bend the flange without even making the relief notches.

As long as you've got access to a shop press and bearing splitter, the rest of the removal is pretty easy. I haven't pressed the new ones in yet, but I expect that to be pretty straightforward.

If you don't have a press... just buy new arms

 

Has your truck been a CA truck it's whole life? Hopefully not by the beach?

I bought upper and lower control arms to rebuild from members here and the bushings were so frozen in the arms the bottle jack method was going to bend them out of shape (even when they were secured with a strap)

Timmah's video didn't work even when I applied the little hack saw trick described above. All of these ideas are great and legit things to try (they've worked for me in the past on other rigs) there's always a chance it might not work and you've got to get creative.

I ended up using a hole saw to cut out the rubber, then an torch to burn out the sleeve. I had already bought Sonoran bushings so I was committed to followed through with rebuilding stock arms!






Looking back I wish I would bought aftermarket arms cause I still haven't finished rebuilding these

 

Ooof. I tried the hole saw. I thought I was being clever. I gave because I couldn't modulate my drill speed well enough to keep everything from turning into a hot gummy mess.

 

Go JBA I did and it’s amazing

 

Are those prices for a set containing both UCAs?

 

Yes, the prices are for a pair of UCA with new bushings and ball joints.