The machine shop guy screws up your A arm and wont pay???
Sounds like this guys not very reputable to begin with.
The technique he used was kinda odd for a professional machine shop....He
used a deepwell socket??
I aint no rocket scientist, but physics tell me that a deep well socket and
heavy duty hydraulic presses dont mix.
At 10:56 AM 1/22/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Well I thought I would bring ya'll up to date on the bushing saga.
>More like nightmare.
>As some of you might remember I was in search of a ball stud remover
>to get my control arms off so I could get at my bushings. I ordered
>one from Miller custom tools, there listed in the back of the shop
>manuel, for $21. Its a very simple tool, but works very well.
>So Saturday I started again with the driver side, I got both control
>arms off the truck in under an hour, second times a charm. I try to
>press the old bushings out of the lower control arm using a socket on
>one side and a reciever pipe on the other and pressing them together
>with my dads vise. I end up breaking the vise, after getting the
>first bushing about half way out. They obviously don't want to come
>out. So I go into the house and look up Machine shops, and there
>just happens to be one close and the guy is still there. The guy
>puts the whole control arm up on a hydrolic press and proceeds to
>crank on it. Of course it starts bending the whole thing, so he
>stops, cuts a piece of bar to support the arm and starts cranking on
>it again. This time it seems to be working, but the head of the
>press is too big to go into the bushing hole. So he backs off goes
>and gets a deep well socket, puts that in the whole and starts again.
> He has a tremendous amout of force on it when the socket slips and
>rips through the steel sleeve and cracks the control arm. SHIT !!!
>After I ask him if he is going to get me a new one he tells me he is
>not responsible for damage, but assures me that he will do the others
>for free. Yea right. Well the project for Saturday comes to a
>screeching halt.
>Monday I call the dealer to order a new one and find out it costs
>$255, ouch. Since I could not find an aftermarket one from any of the
>vendors listed in my Sport truck magazine or on the web I go ahead
>and place the order and fork over my hard earned cash.
>The part comes in the next day, and suprisingly has a new ball joint
>and factory bushings already installed. I check with the service
>manager about getting the dealer to just press out the factory ones
>and put in my urethane ones. No dice. Since the urethane ones don't
>come with their own steel sleeves he can't or won't do it.
>I go to super shops to see what they recommend I do, and why Energy
>Suspensions does not supply steel sleeves with their product. When I
>get there I notice dozens of pakages hanging of the wall of Energy
>Suspension bushing, all with steel sleeves. When I ask why the hell
>all of them have sleeves except mine. They check and find out that
>for some applications, including the Dakota, Energy Suspensions does
>not supply sleeves. They refer me to a Firestone dealer down the
>street who might be able to help.
>The Firestone guy says the only thing he can do is burn them out, so
>reluctantly I agree. It makes a mess but at least it gets rid of the
>bushings.
>Last night I spent about a half hour cleaning up the 2 control arms
>then put the new bushings in. The bottom ones go right in, but the
>top ones are a little more of a challange. Tonight I plan on
>reinstalling them on the truck and taking the other side off. I'm
>going to try using my little propane torch to burn those out myself.
>Hopfully I am over the hump on this mod from hell. I am still
>waiting for my other 2 sets to come in. The sway bar and leaf spring
>bushings have yet to be sent (directly from Energy Suspension). I
>ordered them 4 weeks ago. If anyone is considering getting urethane
>bushings I would recomend checking with other manufactures. If only
>mine had come with sleeves it would have saved me alot of headache
>and at least $255.
>
>Alan...
>
>
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