Well... since I'm impatient, I am going to rebuild the factory control arms since the aftermarket ones are being replaced under warranty. Had to drill out the rubber bushings on the big one and had to press out the small one with a ball joint press. Then just used a saw to break the outer press ring. Realized that a sawzall is quicker. Once that was all done. I had to sand it down.
Ended up getting a wire wheel and roto sander disc. Knocked all the rust down as best I could. Then hit it with naval jelly. Followed that up with Isopropyl and finally with brake cleaner. Then I used Rust Reformer from Mendards on one side. That's where I'm at right now.
Ugh... bad news. I think I cut too far into the actual control arm. Not sure I can trust these. Probably no worse than rust. But... ugh..
I might stick a MIG welder in there and grind out the mess. At least hit the outer edges. Center looks ok.
Is it like that all the way across? Or just that edge? I was wondering when I saw that pic of the sawzall being used, just how accurate you are with it. They are tough to be accurate with.
This was a thought I also had... Maybe just blob some more on the outside and fill the cut with JB Weld.
New bushings showed up today. Same ones I had on the 08 WRX. Loved them. Also got a new bushing press kit. Has every friggen size ring. Should work great.
With the weather being warm this weekend, I might pull the ones that are on the car and decide if I want to swap the front rear lower bushing or rebuild the factory ones. Leaning towards rebuilding the ones on the car. Especially since I have the tooling and the spare parts now. This will allow me to sell the spare parts or rebuild the factory ones and throw them on the shelf (just in case).
Definitely going to be a nice weekend for working on something! Even if it’s just your tan. Haha That kit looks like it also has the kaboodle.
Well... that took a bit longer than I thought it would. At least all the bolts came out easy. The kit with all the kaboodle came in handy when pressing out the big bushing. However, it wasn't super stable going back in. I found an old projector mount plate and that worked perfectly. Everything back in. Got the sway bar bushings done at the same time. I ended up just using the arms that were in there. Little bit of rust, but really nothing. Yellow is Whiteline ball joints, red is Perrin front/lower/front control arm bushing, black is Tomioka front/lower/rear control arm bushing, blue is Super Pro sway bar bushings. Also has Moog sway bar end links that we put on a little bit ago while testing. Just taking a break before putting the wheels back on the car and dropping it. It's actually really warm outside and the sun is sharp.
Just got back from a test drive. Smooth as butter. No more clunking. Pretty sure it was the rear bushing. I'll probably just throw the old painted control arms on the shelf with the Super Pro front bushing. If I ever need anything else, I can just buy and swap. I'll be selling the Super Pro ones that were warrantee replaced since they'll be brand new.
The vertical bushing in the front control arm is just evil... I replaced the ones on my '05 Outback years ago. After cleaning up the control arms like you did and pressing in new bushings, I noticed after I put some mileage on them that the bushing were slipping out of the eyelet in one of the control arms. Press fit wasn't strong enough. I had to press it back in and put some little MIG welds between the bushing shell and the control arm. No more movement after that. These were OEM parts vs. Tomioka for what it's worth.
So I was thinking about that. I think drilling a small hole and inserting a tiny bolt and then tack welding it in place would really keep it from moving. However, the Tomioka bushings I had in the old WRX were perfect for years and years and years.
And they still are! I think I was just unlucky with mine. If the replaced bushings are still right where you left them in a couple weeks, I'm sure it's fine to just leave them alone.
