Control Arm Bushings - Step By Step - Keep It Tight

Moving on to the upper control arms, note that some versions come with a washer on one end of the cross-shaft (arrow). The bushing on this side must be pressed out first. The proper method is with an arbor press. The control-arm flange is supported by the press, avoiding any bending or distortion.

The arbor press is also the best way to install the new bearing shells. In most cases, the cross-shaft must be in place when the shells are installed, since there won't be clearance to install it afterward.

If you're going to attempt to install the upper control-arm bushing shells with something other than an arbor press, the control-arm flanges must be supported be other means. A spacer tube like this one, cut to match the inside width of the flanges, is idea for this purpose.

In our case, the diameter of the bushing openings in our upper control arms was large enough to allow cross-shaft installation after both bushing shells were pressed in. Check this carefully before proceeding; most applications will require that the cross-shaft be installed before the bushing shells.

At this point, Harrill installed the bushings, followed by the inner bushing sleeves, all liberally greased. All that remained was to clean these arms up, install a new set of Energy's suspension stops, and reinstall these rehabbed control arms on our waiting Caprice.