Amongst my rebuild work, I'm of course doing the poly bushings up front. Subject here is the front bushing inside the collar, the one that slips over the threaded stud on the gusset.

On the pass side arm I drilled/cut/peeled out the rubber and the inner sleeve and then carefully hacksawed 2 cuts (think matts picture) and air chiseled out the outer sleeve, lightly sanded/cleaned out the collar on the arm and sandwiched in the new poly bushing & sleeve - no problem

Driver side arm bushing wasn't as easy to bust out the rubber since this bushing was still in solid shape, so I figured make life easier and bring it to the shop that I was having press in my front wheel bearings. I go to pick up the completed work and find there's a huge gouge in that collar on the arm. They mustve went at it like a gorilla with the air chisel, so the guy quickly ran some weld in the gouged area, grinded it down and threw paint on it. My question is, how critical is it that this collar be perfectly smooth? I'm going to go at it a bit with a light sanding bit and by hand to smooth it better- right now it's a little lumpy/wavy from the weld. I shouldve just removed the bushing myself like I did the other arm

here's what it looks like

 

I'd just replace the arm, it's not that expensive. My worry is not the smoothness but internal tension/defects in the weld - what if it won't hold when you hit a bump on a hwy one day?

 

What he said. If it were my car, I'd feel safer replacing the arm.

Next time kill it with fire!!

 

Third on the replacement. The bracket for the front tranny mount started to crack at the edge and was welded. Later on....

 

You could have taken it to the local high school shop class and gotten a better weld!

 

thanks for the opinions, i think ill just grab another arm then and remove the bushing myself.

I think i should use washers and sandwich the bushing on the gusset stud (like the parallel links on the rear) - good idea? This will bump the caster up a tad but it shouldnt be much to make a difference...and actually i may not use a washer in front of the bushing since i may run out of thread on the stud after i mount the lower tie brace

 

How hard is it to remove the control arm?? I just got a new one on the passenger side like 3 years ago on ebay, the mechanic charged me $70 to install it, and I didnt even need it, my ABS sensor was acting up. From the time I got it on it started to creak and crack. The old one didnt do that. Now its getting annoying. I dont know how to go about removing the bushings, and installing poly bushings ( are they better than the rubber bushings?) I saw a set in Advance auto parts one day. Recently my steering wheel started to wobble back and fourth after I installed my new ball joint on that same side of the car. Dont know if I left something undone or loose cause I was rushing to put it bak togather because of the coming storm that day or not.

 

It's always possible that something is loose. The only test is to go back and check everything.

 

well turns out one of my ball joint nuts were loose, so I tightned it and then noticed that my tire was going bad. The wire was showing on parts of it, probaly a sign of the bad control arm and lack of an alignment. I may just grab one from the u-pull- a part to pratice on. I have a new bushing for the part in the middle. I dont know how to remove of install control arm bushings.

 

Definitely stick a washer on the back. I've seen too many bushings work loose without them. the front bushing is held captive by the LTB mount (since I just use a washer the same size and weld tube onto it).

 

The control arm is not a big deal, but if you want to replace it and get one from the junk yard, you can always torch out the bushing.

 

Maximan.... slightly OT.. how's your resto going (other than the control arm thing)?

Any pics of your progress? We all like pics

 

IF im not mistaken, there are only 2 bushings in the control arm right?

 

well, one is in the control arm (front), one is on the control arm (rear).
but there are only two.

 

EDIT: Nvm i ordered the ES for 4th gen,


I see that some mention you can use a 2nd gen bushing for this (as the dealer tells me he can only get the enitre arm).
Anyone has a part nr for the 2nd gen busing that can be used?

 

I have a pile of them at the house if you want a couple. (I used to rebuild contorl arms for $$ but quit a few years ago due to lack of demand. I still have 3-4 sets of OEM bushings left and would love to sell them. )
As for the part number, I don't have it right off hand but it's identical to the 3 gen bushing up front. you need the OEM 3 gen bushing for the rear though- and Nissan sells them. I have a bunch of them too if you want 'em.

 

I acutally picked up rear bushings today from my dealer (actually, they could not get bushings only, so I ordered the whole thing..)
They only charged me apx. $480 for those pieces of metal with some rubber inside... nice (and still 1 had not arrived yet, so another $100+ there.. next time, i'll buy them from you guys "over there"

 

I paid about $100 to replace all the bushings in the rear: $60 for ES (parallel arms), $40 for a pair of ebay radius rods.

 

We like it expensive over here

I have bought several items from US before, new shocks, new brake discs+pads x4, replacement antenna, radiator (costs apx $500-700 here) and alot of stuff from Hector to fit in my new project '93 Maxima, when I get the rust done.

Some examples, just for fun:

Gas, apx $8/gallon
My 1990 Maxima cost me $6000 2 years ago, with 180 000 miles on it, and about 0,5 gallon water unerneath the passenger side carpet (that I did not discover until later), and quites some rust.. :/
Ball joint, $130
Brake disc, $130 /piece
If I were to import a '90 Maxima from US, tax wil be added for apx. $11000 just for engine size, then add 25% import VAT..

 

I have one of the bushings already I grabbed from the junkyard from another 3rd gen that was still in the box new! It looks to be the front one, so ill have to check with the dealer and see if they sell the rear bushing by itself. First Ive got to get that oil leak fixed.

 

looks like someone has boogers!!

 

just to give an update - i picked up a control arm from the local junkyard for $50, and got the gusset/mounting plate with it. They probably couldnt and didnt want to deal with removing the arm from the gusset stud since it was frozen on there

So i took it home, power washed it and drilled several times thru the rubber and twisted the arm off, then sawed a few cuts in the outer metal sleeve and worked it around with the air chisel.. this one put up more of a fight than my other arm did, you can see it on the right, it put up a bigger fight coming out



the other bushing on the end i used a big pipe wrench/channel lock pliers and twisted off

Here it is all finished ready to put on the car with the new grade 8 washers and the arm sprayed with rubber undercoating (Bolt and nut are just there to keep the poly bushings sandwiched in till it goes back on the car)

 

Will the bushing fall out without the bolt and nut holding it?

 

Looks like a new control arm almost. I wish I could do all that , but i dont have all those tools to do it with.