That's less than half of the problem.

Getting the new superpro toe link bushings IN is a tremendous pita. They're mushroomed on both sides and won't nicely press in.

 

Rich,
I know you aren't going to want to hear it but I am pretty sure you can push those in with the palm of your hand! You make sure you don't have the metal pin in yet of course.
I found that most of the superpro bushings (and the smaller ones in particular) have enough spring to them that the issue is they "squish" and pop out the side way too easy. When using your palm against a flat surface you can feel the bushing as it tries to pop out the side, and adjust your hand's angle. this allows ya to get the some of the smaller ones in much easier and faster.

I've done ~3 sets of superpro bushings, and one of the nylon type material. The stiffer nylon ones are about a hundred times easier to install, but the ride is a bit too racecar for most.

 

Is that what we did with these for mine, Mike? I remember you just pressing a certain set in with the palm of your hand...

 

That would surprise the hell out of me. Not doubting you but I did try that and came up with no dice. The fit on the bushings I had was so tight that they wouldn't budge. Maybe there are loose tolerances between production runs?

 

Did you make sure and remove the thin walled metal sleeve that surrounded the stock bushings? I only ask because if you burned out the old ones it would remain, and make a much tighter fit than the bushings were designed for. In fact that would explain the high level of difficulty you experienced installing them.

Andrew - those were the ones I "modified" with my angle grinder so we could press out the old bushings. Then I pushed them in by hand.

 

Nope, I pressed them out. Who knows, maybe you got a loose batch, or maybe my girly arms didn't give enough Oomph to press them in

 

Nah he must be mistaken.

Every single bushing in the kit I pushed in by hand... except this one.

Unless your real name is Lou Ferigno.

 

I did my toe links last night using the Superpro bushings. Cutting the stock bushing's lip in order to have something to press on was kind of a pain since my vice isnt bolted to anything. It was hard to hold down while hammering the lip of the bushing after cutting it. Doing this to both toe links took me 30-60 mins because of my crazy vice. After that, pressing the old bushings out was a piece of cake.

Now it was time to press the Superpro's in. After reading a few posts by different members, I was prepared to curse all night long and go chasing flying bushings across the room. On the first try, the bushing popped out and took off like the greased up deaf guy on Family Guy. I cleaned it up, greased it again and positioned it back in place on my press. This time, instead of using a socket to press the bushing in, I used a piece of steel that I had my buddy at a machine shop make me to press out some bushings. Its a solid cylinder piece about 1 1/2" tall. I started pressing in the bushing and observed it carefully to see how/why it wanted to pop out. I stopped right before it flew out and repositioned it on the press. Now I knew what the bushing was going to do. I put a little pressure on it with the press and then went into turbo mode pumping the press as fast as I could so the bushing didnt have time to react and run away. This fast pumping along with my special tool got it in in a few seconds. I did the same for the other 3 bushings that were left and was done with the toe links in about 10 minutes. The steel inserts were very easy to install as well.

I think the problem is that you guys may be using a socket to push the bushing in. I tried using a socket on the smaller bushing on the toe link and the bushing popped out just like you guys described. The socket doesnt distribute the force evenly across the whole bushing and it flexes then pops out. The tool I had machined is just a solid steel cylinder. I'll post pictures of it later today along with my setup when I go back to my place.

 

Heres some pictures of the tools I used for the bushings....

Rear upper control arm:




These are the things I had machined to press out/in the bushings. One is 1.64" in diameter and the other is 1.56". These worked wonders on the toe links.


My 6 ton press with battle damage from a stubborn diff mount bushing


Closer look of the damage



This is all I used to do my bushings. Even with the press bent like that, I was still able to finish the job. This cheap press more than paid for itself already. Its done a few odd jobs, some FC bushings and now my FD. It was under $100 from Harbor Freight.

 

I know this thread is ancient but I was having the exact same problems today as you guys were all those years ago. I had spend about 30 minutes trying to keep the bushing from popping out and gave up to do some more research and ended up here. This little bit of advice turns the job into literally 30 seconds of work. Here's how I implemented it:

 

I pressed my bushings in with an arbor press. took about 10 seconds literally. The tough part was getting the old ones out.