upper control arm bushing problem

[Bennydog]

Hello all, well, I went through the painstaking process of removing the upper and lower control arms to replace the bushings and ball joints while doing my drop kit. Well reinstall of the bushings is not going well either. I got the Summit Racing SUM-776012 bushing kit, got the bushing shells in fine but the polyurethane bushings just push out after being pressed in, they will niot seat all the way. I tried to tighten down the nuts as far as they will go and still have a 3/8 or larger gap. The nuts wouldnt go any further even with a impact, checked the torque @ 115 as stated and they were torqued at least that much. still will not come close to seating properly. I checked the size and length against the bushings that i removed and they are identical. Any suggestions ?

[cadillac_al]

I have been avoiding this job for a month now. It looks like it's time for the press.

[Bennydog]

I used a press, They just pop back out when the press is released

[Jaysonb]

I'm pretty sure that you pressed the shells in to far. The upper bushings are not pressed in flush.

[Jaysonb]

You can see what I mean in this pic.

[Bennydog]

So the shoulder on the shell is supposed to be outside of the bore of the control arm?

[SkinnyG]

Yes.

[Bennydog]

tech support at energy suspension says the shoulder should be totally pressed in flush against the control arm

[Bennydog]

sounds like the energy suspension guy was wrong, looked through my photos and the shoulder of the shell does not enter the bore of the arm...

[SkinnyG]

Originally Posted by Bennydog

tech support at energy suspension says the shoulder should be totally pressed in flush against the control arm

Against, yes. But not into