This weekend I replaced the front and rear bushings on the front control arms. I don't have a press and two shops quoted me $135 - 150 to replace the bushing (I supply the parts), so needless to say I did it myself without a press and here's how. The rear bushings were easy to hammer out, but the front ones required that I drill out the rubber and then hacksaw a slot lengthwise down the outer sleeve to remove it. To install, I heated the rear bushing holder in the oven @ 300F for 15 minutes while the bushing sat in the freezer. I made up a bushing driver out of a piece of pine that I cut out a moon shaped section on the end so only the outer sleeve of the bushing was contacted. The rear bushings went right in. I then heated the control arm and used a large socket as a bushing driver for the front bushing. Worked great and no damage to the bushings.

Question: Bentley states that the rear bushings for the drivers and passenger sides are different and shows one having a series of holes drilled through the rubber all around it. The other bushing as a couple of moon shaped slots in the rubber. However, neither the existing bushing looked like these, nor did the Beck-Arnley replacements (which had the same part number for both sides). Considering the abuse these bushing take and their failure rate, even if these holed/slotted bushing were available I don't think I'd use them. Can anyone explain?

Also a question on installing the control arms: Bentley states to leave the bolts that go through the front and rear bushings loose until the weight is on the suspension before tightening. I think this is done because the bushings are designed not to rotate, but to have the inner sleeve pinched, holding it motionless, while the rubber flexes as needed to allow the control arm to move. If the bushing bolts were tightned before weight was placed on the suspension, the rubber would be placed in a continual flex mode when the car was lowered, causing the bushings to fail early. Not a problem for the front bushing as there's plenty of room to get to the bolts, but not so for the rear bushings. First of all, the exhaust pipes and transmission lines make it impossible to get to the right rear bushing nut after it's on the car. Even on the left side, there's no way to get a socket on the nut let alone a torque wrench. I decided to approximate the angle the control arms would be when the weight was on the car and tighten the rear bushing to the torque value before installing it on the car. Anyone run into this problem?

Hi there:
I just got a pair of these A-arm rear bushings for FCP-Groton and as you've mentioned, there are no diffrence between the left and right as Bently states. I've noticed though, that there is a YELLOW DOT on each one. I'm wondering what the significance is of the yellow dot. Orientation? Anybody know? Why am I replacing these bushings (again)? Well, I think they failed prematurely. When I replaced all the front and rear bushings about 6 mos ago, I just guesstimate the orientation of the bushings since I found it impossible to get to the darn thing around all the interference (exhaust pipes and the bushing housing itself). OK, wish me luck this time.
Denny

Interesting idea on heating/freezing to get the bushings in--you must have an understanding wife!

As far as tightening the rear nut, this is indeed a perennial problem. I'm a believer in having the car sitting on its tires before tightening. I did the following to make it easier.

0 Put the tires on some kind of ramp to make it easier to work under the car.

I have a set of 2x12 plank sections that I use as "insurance" when I have the car on jack stands. Each is about 14" long. To do the bushings, I just stack 3 or 4 of these and lower the car tires on them. Gives you room to work.

0 I just tighten the left side nut with a wrench, guesstimating on torque.

0 For the right side, I removed the three-bolt pocket and cut a 1/2" by 1 1/2" horizontal slot in the pocket. This allows me to reach a wrench up inside the pocket when the three bolts are tightened, with the car on its wheels, and tighten the nut. Works great, and hasn't seemed to weaken the pocket.

Just make sure to put the slot in the right place (can't give you exact directions, just eyeball it) and make sure the slot is long enough so you can work the wrench back and forth.

One other thing--this slot could interfere with the add-on lower brackets (not sure, but this is a possibility) so it might not work with such cars.
HTH,

Dschwied

I'll be interested in the replies to this one since I had the same concerns. When I last inspected the rear control are bushings I thought through the following ideas. First, put the rear bushing on only slightly snug and do the same with the three bolts holding the bushing mount. Then have a ramp under that wheel so you can let the car weight rest on it to position the bushing at its normal angle. Mark the bushing holder and bushing with a paint line in case they move. Then jack up the front to take the weight off the wheel. Pry down on the control arm to give room for a wrench on the bushing nut. If I couldn't get a torque wrench on (starting to fantasize now), I'd planned to tighten the nut as best as I could using blue Locktite. I wonder how the Volvo engineers thought we could do this? I'll bet the same guy(s) designed the heater blower motor setup!

Jim,-- you say "I wonder how the Volvo engineers thought we could do this?" I just figured the factory installs the control arms before the tranny lines and exhaust.
They must have some way of orienting it as you describe.