Holy cow its a ghost thread resurrection! Actually, I'm just working on this car again. Yes, its been sitting in my garage untouched for about a year now! Life gets busy sometimes. But, I hope to have the engine back in this thing and have it nearly ready to drive by the end of the long weekend.
Last night I started working on things again. My main hang up was the front control arm bushings are shot and need replacing. So, I attempted to take out the rather large bolts, but the front ones were seized to the bushing's steel tube... not good. I tried a few things, but even my impacts wouldn't take them out. It was so stuck it was starting to bend the subframe metal. So, I didn't want to do it, but I went ahead and went at it with the map gas torch. That freed it up and I was able to get them out. Stinky rubber isn't fun though.
The next step was to remove the bushing so I can replace it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just replace the whole control arm (new bushing included) or go with polyurethane. The poly bushing kit is cheaper than a whole new control arm, but I didn't know how much of a pain it would be to press out the old bushings. It turns out it wasn't that hard thankfully.
I drilled the rubber out with a hole saw to get the steel bushing out.
Then, I took a sawzall and cut through the bushing's metal outer ring. With that cut, it was very easy to tap the bushing out of the control arm as it is typically press fit.
So, I ordered my poly bushing kit last night. My question for those who have done it (I know Darcane has), is how did you do the rear control arm bushing? I'm thinking I'm just going to leave it as it looks really hard to get out and it really isn't deteriorated like the front one was. But, if there is a good way to get it out (without a press), I'm all ears.
After getting the control arms out and bushings out, I worked on the driver's door lock. I had fixed the lock itself, but it was time to reassemble it. This was interesting trying to remember how everything went after a year of not working on the car! However, with the help of google and some diagrams I was able to get everything put back in place. Yay, now you can unlock the car with the key again!
