petrock

I'm gearing up to replace the front & rear suspension bushings (control arm & sway bar bushings etc) on my wifey's '98 Mustang. It seems pretty straight forward. The only question I have (at the moment) is how to get the bushings out on the top of the rear differential. I was planning on renting a bushing press (a giant C-clamp) from my local autoparts stores and pressing them out with it but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit it in there with the cup adapters etc up next to the diff housing etc. I'm just wondering if anyone has any insight into this or any tips to making the job go smoother.

I searched around, but couldn't find any answers to the clearance question.

I'm replacing the stock, cracked & worn out bushings with Energy Suspension's poly bushings. I have read that some people have binding issues with poly bushings in the rear upper control arm when hard cornering/racing, but this car is a daily driver so I'm not too worried about that. I installed ES bushings on my Durango a couple months ago and love them.

Probably going to also do the lower ball joints, inner & outer tie rods, and shock tower bushings while I have it all apart. Do a (almost) complete suspension rebuild.

Thanks in advance.

petrock

bump bump

belairbrian

If you have an autozone go there for the tools. They will loan them to you without any charges. They will charge them to a credit card then refund the charge when you return them.

I know they have the ball joint press as I used it to do mine a few months ago.

When I get home I'll see if the FSM says anything about the Differential bushings.

Verox

What do you mean by the bushings on the top of your differential? The solid axle does not have differential bushings. Are you referring to the rear upper control arm bushings? I've never done those because of the binding issues you mentioned.

When doing the front control arm bushings you might need to take a drill and remove as much of the bushing rubber with a small 1/4" drill bit. Then you can press it out and clean out the bore. Replacing the front control arm bushings with poly made a huge difference in steering response for me! I would also recommend installing a set of aluminum steering rack bushings.

petrock

Yeah, I love the rental programs AutoZone, pepboys and o'rielly have. Very handy.


Yes, it is that huge C-clamp style ball joint press available for rent. I used it when rebuilding the suspension on my Durango.


Any insight from the Service Manual? Mine lists a special purpose tool for removing these bushings (effectively a tube with a bolt and a plate to force the bushing out into the tube). I couldn't find any other helpful info, especially on the front end bushings. But they look fairly straight forward.


The rear upper control arms attach to the top of the differential pumpkin. Its those bushings that I'm referring to.


Thanks for the tips.

petrock

I finally got the job done. The front bushings I did while I had the motor out to fix a bunch of leaks. I just finished doing the rear control arm bushings this past weekend and took a video of my experience and posted it up on YouTube. Hope it helps someone else out…