LCA Question

Damn right! I had to call 4 dealerships before I found one that had the parts, I was starting to get nervous. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the process since Boyd's thread got all messed up when he did the sailor dive off the ship and tried dividing by 0

 

I still have all the pics...just been to lazy to fix the LCA bushing thread or post them in a DIY.

 

I'm in balls deep now. Truck is torn down and on jack stands. I supported the spindles using ratchet straps so they're not just hanging and everything that would come off is off and once I have the other parts in my hands, I'll start cutting (Fiance is making a parts run at 7:30 tomorrow morning )

 

Nice!!!

 

New bushings in!

For anyone considering this, think long and hard about it. It was a royal pain in the ass. Here's some tips I came away with:
1) Milwaulkee metal blades SUCK! I fried 2 of them getting half way through the first cut. Switched to Lenox Gold blades, finished the first cut as well as all the others.

2) Screw drilling the rubber and attempting to cut it out that way, it's very tough to cut because if it builds up heat, it gets gummy. We torched them out. The rubber doesn't just melt and let go of the center metal sleeve though, it takes a lot of heat and a lot of working with a screwdriver and a center punch with a hammer to finally knock the centers out. Plus it really stinks when you torch the rubber so do it outside and stand upwind. When it's hot, use a screwdriver and scrape out as much of the remaining rubber as you can, it makes it easier to make your cuts later.

3) After you get the centers are out and you've cleaned the rubber out, cut the outter bushing in 2 spots, about 1/8 of the way around away from each other. Then cut the bushing outter ring with a dremel where you made the inside cuts and use a pry bar to knock that piece out. Even after you do that, you might have a hard time knocking the outter ring out anyways. Mine were rusted in good and took a hell of a time getting out.

4) Having some good help makes the world of difference. HUGE thank you to John and Rob for helping out! It made the job go much smoother than it would have had I gone at it alone.

For the record, I started at 8:30, finished around 5:00 with 2 people helping most of the time and the wheels were off and LCA's unbolted from the front shocks and spindles the night before. I was able to re-use a lot of the bolts and cam washers to save some money. In hind sight, I'm not sure I'd have just replaced the bushings vs. buying the control arm new and getting new bushings and ball joints all in one. I did end up saving a decent amount of money but it's not a quick/easy job.

 

WOOT!


I cut the bushing rubber with a jig saw. You didn't try it by hand did you?

Did you swap the BJ's or just the bushings?

 

Hand saw ... Then we torched the other 3 out . Bushings only

 

Yep, we cut one out with a hand saw, tried cutting the rear one with the sawzall but it wouldn't make a turn in the rubber and the higher speed seemed to make the rubber gum up. The torch was actually really effective and we think the heat might have helped loosen the outter bushing ring against the LCA.

I think if you're going to do BJ's along with both sets of bushings, you're much better off just buying a new arm and swapping them in. The cost differential wouldn't be overly substantial and you'd save a HELL of a lot of time and effort.

 

I need to go back and look at what I paid. I remember it being much cheaper to fix them then go new, but I could be wrong. I thought I saved almost $500

 

It depends on what needs to be replaced. If you need new bushings, cam nuts, bolts and that cam sleeve, it's $350 in parts + whatever the ball joints cost and misc. tools/disposables (blades, wire brushes, paint, etc figure around $30 - $50). The bushings themselves only cost $120, the rest is the bolts, cam washers and sleeves. You can get the whole LCA, bushings and ball joints installed and ready to go for $260/ea. I'm not sure what the ball joints cost but I'd assume they're at least $50 for the pair so you're looking at a little over $400 - $450 and a day of labor vs. $650ish and a simple swap. I also bought most of my stuff through Camelback Toyota and used their 5% off deal. Had I gone through my local stealership, parts would have been at least 40% higher (I wish that was an exaggeration, but I priced everything out local and through Camelback and was floored by the cost differential). I got lucky, I was able to reuse a lot of my bolts, cam washers and nuts. Overall, this project only cost me $160 - $175 in parts since most of what I bought will be returned.

What really burned my ass about this whole thing was the bushings weren't bad, they had a lot of life left and were silent. The only thing wrong was the metal sleeves seized inside the bushings making it impossible to align. Again, way to drop the ball on the suspension Toyota... There's this silver crap called Never Seize that should have been applied at the factory that does wonders for corrosion prevention, you look into it.

I got my new alignment numbers this morning:
Caster 2.0 - 1.8
Camber .5 - .5
Toe .08 - .08

The tech said he tried to get more caster but he pushed it as far as he could without affecting camber too much. Overall, it drives a LOT better and actually tracks in a straight line. Still follows ruts in the pavement somewhat but I believe this is an attribute of the tires and it's not nearly as bad as it was pre-alignment.

 

WHERE DOES ONE GET THE LCA COMPLETE FOR $260?

AND THEM #'S ARE

 

those are stock height numbers

 

LCA's for $260 here free shipping over $60 and for the month of May, they're offering an additional 5% off so it's closer to $250.

I hope you mean as in not as in

I'm +1.5" over stock (Eibach coils up front, Icon AAL in the rear).

 

Your lifted more then me

 

And the only reason I'm lifted at all is because it was cheaper to stiffen the suspension by adding lift that it was to beef it up and stay stock height

 

You're
than

 

eat me asshole...

I'm going to make a WC trip to kanistukian to shove a English book up you're ass

 

Bring it

 

with no lube

you cheeky bastard