Energy suspension lower control arm bushing install 8.3128R

I did the passenger side first and it kicked my ass. After knowing what I was doing the driver side took much less time and effort.

I only did the lower control arm bushings since I have SPC upper control arms with newer bushings.

First thing to do is jack and support the front of the vehicle.
Remove the front tire or tires if you are doing both at the same time.
Remove the lower shock mounting bolt.
Remove the 2 19mm bolts attaching the lower balljoint to the spindle.


Support the spindle/hub assembly with a jack stand. Bring it up high so it's out of the way.


Unbolt and remove the lower control arm eccentrics and remove the lower control arm.



Grind out about "half" of the flange lip so you can pry off the washer. You only want to grind off half because you need some material to reattach it. The metal parts in the old bushings will be reused. Yes, seriously.


Once you've ground off enough twist and pry off the bushing. You only need to do one side on each bushing.



This is the method I used to remove the old bushings. You can use a press or balljoint press tool


Put a little pressure on the rubber and give it some heat. Eventually it will become soft enough to give it some more pressure and pop out.


Here comes the fun part. Torch the hell out of the sleeve/rubber that pops out. You need to get ALL of that rubber off.



Clean all of the rubber off the sleeves as well



Burn, scrape, grind and sand any rubber left on the inside of the shell in the control arm. It's important to get it free and clear of anything because the new bushings will rotate in there.


I strongly urge you to skip this step


Nice and clean. Ready for bushings



Press in the new bushings with a vice, press or mallet. Make sure you grease the hell out of them with the supplied grease in the kit. I suggest gloves for this process because that grease will stick to you until the end of time. The larger bushing was a tighter fit for me.

Press or hammer in the sleeves into the bushings. Make sure to grease the hell out of them with the supplied grease.


Here is the tricky part. You need to get those washers back on the sleeves. I used channel locks and bent the lip inwards which worked out great. After you get the washers back on the sleeves you need to bend the flange back over the washer. I used a ball pein hammer and wacked on it with another hammer. This worked perfectly. Make sure the "teeth" on the washer are facing out the same way they were.





Altogether and ready to reinstall.




Bolt the lower shock mount back in and 2 lower balljoint bolts. Put the tire(s) back on and drop it.


To give you an idea the passenger side kicked my ass and took me a couple hours, but the driver side took closer to an hour after learning what needed to be done.

FYI I washed my hands 37 times to take pictures during this process.

 

Awesome. Thanks for spilling blood for us.

 

After logging some miles on them I can definitely notice a firmer, more positive suspension. I can hear and feel different vibes that I couldn't feel before. I took it on a rip across the desert and it definitely feels better. I must have loosened it up a bit because once I got back on the road the truck seemed to ride much better and tracks like a train. For $66 and a few hours of my time(plus some skin) I'd say it's a worthy upgrade if your bushings are higher mileage like mine, although they still looked to be in great shape.

 

Definitely a great write up! Well documented as well.

I did mine not too long ago and didnt have any references so this should help others. I too noticed the same as you did with the new bushings. I got used to it after a few days.

 

Now that the hard work is done, how about selling them to me

 

If they would have included ALL of the parts necessary to do the install so you don't have to melt, burn, scrape rubber off your old parts then there wouldn't be a "hard" part. I'm still kinda bitter about that.

 

Hell yea. i've been trying to buy these bushing for the past couple of days but no one seems to know what exactly comes in their kit (not even energy suspension) Do you have a link where you purchased? i also just need to replace just the bottoms since i have icon ucas now.

 

Jet has them even cheaper than I got them for.
https://jet.com/product/detail/5fa9...95a34894937f&gclid=CMHE96PXncoCFZOBfgodNyIE_g

For the lowers it only comes with the 4 bushings. You have to reuse washers and sleeves from your old bushings.

 

ok so order 2 sets? ok.

 

?? No, 1 set will do both sides. There are only 2 bushings per lower control arm.

1 kit does BOTH uppers and lowers.

 

Oh ok. Haha that's what I couldn't figure it out or anyone else. So I just need that one kit to do all lower bushings on the UCAs.

 

Good write up. Do you notice and crunch or banging noises?

One pro-tip: use the least amount of flame possible to get those things appart. It's tempting to just burn the shit out of them, but the resulting soot will haunt you to the grave.

I move 3 states awayband still have that black shit in random places....

AE

 

Haven't noticed any noises. I'm a nazi about unwanted noises so I'll be all over it if/when that happens. Do yours make noises?

Even with torching the hell out of the rubber it was still difficult to remove. I probably could have cut a good part of them off first, but I figured I'm going to have to burn them anyways. I've got a pile of burnt rubber in the backyard still

 

I'm not sure if its the energy bushings or something else. I also have aftermarket UCAs, and moog alignment bolts. I think that's where its coming from, as the Moog bolts are a little smaller in diameter than stock.

There is no good answer, other than energy selling a kit with all the hardware, or going to a drelin bushing.

 

Nice write up

 

So do you definitely need the torch? (I don't have one) I am going to attempt this tomorrow along with my lower ball joints.

 

Outstanding writeup for the ES bushings!

I'm gonna do mine real soon, but may try a different brand with the metal bits included.

 

Well done OP. I feel your pain with regards to trying to work and take pictures. Arghhh
Thank you for washing your hands and taking the time to do this, seriously.

I have one important question though, if I use a ball pein hammer to get those washers back on, does the handle need to be made of hickory?

 

I really don't see any other way. That rubber needs to be thoroughly removed from the metal one way or another.

 

I don't think the handle matters at all . I only used it as a "press" to bend the lip back over to grip the washer. It doesn't even need a handle to get the job done.