Welp, I’m a f’kin moron.

Well, kiddos. Lessons learned:

1. Be careful about what YouTube advice you take
2. Never do important work in a hurry if you can help it
3. Absolutely never EVER take YouTube advice when you are in a too much of a hurry to think it through.

Ended up bending the dogshit out of my control arms while taking a “shortcut” I learned on YouTube, rushing to press out my old bushings and replace with Whitelines. Had I not been in a hurry, I’d have acknowledged it was a stupidly sketchy idea to begin with.


Fack. This one’s all on me.

 

Damn, not much worse a feeling when you realize that you’ve crossed that line in a project.

 

Pics please.

 

Nothing wrong with admitting your faults.
I don’t care to admit when I do stupid stuff too.
If it helps one person NOT do what I did, it is worth it.

 

Saw the vid of dude using a bottle jack between the mounting points on the control arms to press the old bushings out. It looked super simple and easy.

If I sat and thought it though, I should have realized that’s an immense stress to put on the parts, in ways that they weren’t meant to stress. I didn’t realize how much they flexed till I went to re-mount them.

theres about $600 down the drain.

 

YouTube can be a great source of information but when something seems too good to be true, take it with a grain of salt and be cautious.

Good on you OP for posting this. We have all been there before.

 

I’m sure you can fine a set at a salvage yard for less then 600 bucks

 

I spent 45 minutes troubleshooting a light this morning that wouldn’t come on. 3 bulbs, a new ballast, and a new emergency ballast later… I realized there was a light switch for it that was off. Sometimes we all do stupid stuff.

 

@risethewake you might be able to find some OEM ones from someone who upgraded. I had a pair that ended up in the scrap yard after I got mine replaced.

I don't think the video advice was bad though. Judging by the rust and knowing how tough those can be to remove you they may have been too seized up to save. Even cutting them out would have risked other damage. Don't beat yourself up too bad. The cost savings of DIY sometimes leads this way it's still cheaper to but new ones than to pay someone else most of the time.

 

I was just explaining this to my son, he was taking YouTube instructions on how to do something with his new gaming computer.

 

Thanks for posting this up, sure I would have watched the same video and made the same mistake.

 

Perhaps a chance to install sweet aftermarket UCAs along with the corresponding 3 inch lift and bigger tires?

 

I’m sure I can. But if I’m going through the trouble of refreshing my suspension, I’d rather not get junkyard parts. it’s probably gonna be about 500 for a new set of OEM arms, plus the set of bushings I wasted on the process.

 

Been there, done that and still charged the customer

 

I just did UCAs with the 3” lift I also just did! Lol. The lift went in flawlessly, the nightmare only started when I went to align it and found broken cams and bent tabs

 

YouTube is a great resource. But you really need to watch several videos in order to do something right. Often times people do little things differently but the main things the same. The key is to learn what those main things are and go from there. Without that you're not able to see the full picture (i.e. why they are doing said little thing different)

 

Those old bushings must have been pretty bad if they had to come out *right now*

 

Well props to you for recognizing it and owning it...getting rarer in the "it's everyone else's fault but mine" world we live in these days.

While there is a lot of great info on YouTube, there's also a lot of hacks on there pumping out DIY videos. Adding to the smooth brain factor are the equally ignorant folks commenting & liking the videos, "BRO! Sick video!...This is great stuff!..."

 

Beat them back the other way. They are already broke how much more broke can they get? Make a YT video doing it and pay for your new ones.

 

If he’s like most kids (including me).
He’ll do it anyways, because you don’t know anything Dad