My passenger side LCA bushing is shot and im wondering if anyone has a how to for replacement.
Can I just undo the large nut on the LCA and burn the bushing out or will it require the removal of more parts? Whats the best way to remove the remaining steel sleeve? Also, what is the size of the socket required for the LCA nut?
If this is a DIY job, I will attempt it before I take it to shop to install.

 

i used my impact wrench and a two-jaw puller and it was a breeze. first take off the gusset and the three nuts that hold the ball joint to the lca. then put the center point of the puller on the bolt that goes through the bushingand the jaws on the outside and use the impact wrench. it was off in less than a minute. some guys say to use a torch and stuff like that but if you have an impact wrench this is definately easier because everything will come off at once (the bushing the sleeve ect.) i just replaced the whole lca from internetautomart for like 62 bucks because it comes with new ball joint and bushings already mounted.

 

I already bought a OEM bushing, since its only the rubber that went bad from the PS fluid. I dont intend on changing the whole LCA out.

 

the nut is 28mm, i believe. if you have a set of inch type wrenches, the 1 1/16 inch wrench fits fine. i have to do mine also for the same reason as well as replace the bushings on my sway bar.

 

it's 27mm.

read the FAQs. I've done writeups and posted it on at least half a dozen sites.

 

Thanks matt, after a little digging I found your FAQ's.

I have an additional question. Is it necessary to unbolt the other stuff, or can just take off the main LCA nut, push the rubber out and press the frozen busing in there . The reason I ask is it seems like taking off the whole LCA facilitates an easy removal of the bushing, but in my case the bushing is really worn and theres a lot of movement in there. I could probably easily push the remains of it out. I just dont want the suspension unloading or falling apart if just taking out the nut will cause that.

 

bump! anyone know? i wanna try doing it this weekend.

 

you may have a lot of movement in the old bushing, but the outer metal shell is probably still tight in the lca. i would imagine taking the lca off will make things a lot easier. that's what i plan on doing this weekend, so if you hear some faint swearing, its me.

 

Well i was hoping i could cut the 2 notches with the saw while the LCA is still on the car. But i dont know if thats gonna work. Does the LCA move enough so that the bolt clears the saw blade?

 

i've never changed one on a nissan before, so i really don't know what to expect. i intend to take the lca off because i'm getting too old and stiff to work in tight places. i was suffering the next couple of days after washing all the power steering oil off from the under side.

 

Mine were destroyed by the PS fluid leak also.

There's no way you can remove the one steel sleeved bushing while it's on the car. Unless one has some type of glutton for punishment

I had an extra set of LCAs from my parts car. I removed the stocks and installed the energy bushings in these. Then just replaced the LCAs. Much faster. Although removing the bushings won't add TOO much time. You get the hang of using the propane torch after the 1st one. haha. I used a sawzall to cut the steell liner out. But be damned carefull you don't cut too far. One should stop just short of going all the way though and pry it up to split the bushing.

I also used a table saw to cut the large rear energy bushing to the correct 3 gen size. That makes things alot easier

 

What Jeffy said.

 

I guess ill have to take the whole LCA off then...

 

BTW Is the nut really 27mm? I was just looking at matts howto (http://www.mattblehm.com/faq/control...placement.html) and the largest socket it lists is a 24mm. If so then does anyone know where i go to get one? The largest i have is like a 24mm.

 

yeah I'm pretty sure it's a 27mm. It's big as hell.

 

sears is a good place to get large sockets

 

THanks! I was looking at all the other stores like kragen and autozone, harborfreight. I dont know why sears didnt come to mind.

 

Replaced mine today, wasn't as bad as i was expecting it to be. i thought it was real easy to take the lca off the car. only thing that concerned me was how loose all the bolts were under there. the bolts for the gusset that holds the front of the lca were only hand tight and the bolts for the bracket for the rear bushing weren't much tighter. that concerns me.

 

just make sure you get it torqued back down properly (i.e. pound the crap out of it with an impact wrench like I do), and it won't be an issue.

 

And clean the threads plus use locktite

 

thanks for the suggestions. i threw all the parts in cleaner (including the lca) and and scrubbed them off. after i had the car together, i put the wheel on and took it off the jackstands, then put a breaker bar on the bolts and pushed them with my foot. that's probably plenty tight. later today im going to check the other side of the car.