[Jazzbass]

Making some progress. I got the subframe completely disassembled:



After a degreasing and a power washer session (on Sunday when it actually got above 70), it was time to start pulling the bushings. I mentioned in the tool thread that my original, I've-put-almost-no-thought-into-this plan was to use my hydraulic press to press the old bushings out. I mean, threaded pullers are for suckers that don't have a lift and didn't disassemble everything, right? Turns out threaded pullers are also for people that aren't idiots and don't spend 1/2 hour trying to wrestle a subframe into just the right position to push out the bearings on a press, only to have it slip as soon as pressure is put on it and for all to fall to shit.

So... I hit Harbor Freight today and bought their "front bearing removal kit". It's an oddly specific name for what are really just a bunch of different size plates, receivers, and a threaded rod. Not just a bearing kit, but a FRONT bearing kit. How does it know? At any rate, not only did I use it on the rear of the car and not the front, I used it on bushings not bearings. I know, I know... rebel. F*ck the man, I always say. Or at least I used to, before I got old and kind of became "the man". Whatever, I digress.

So of the seven bushings on the subframe, the main rear differential bushing is the biggest pain. This is the only one of the seven that has a metal casing on the outside; all the others have rubber casings. Turns out, a metal casing + metal subframe + 17 yrs = rust. Lots of it in fact. And while the HF bearing kits is nice, one minor flaw is that the smaller receivers - the size I need to use for this bushing - is a tad thin. It MIGHT have worked, but I wasn't taking any chances. It was going to take some pressure to get that bearing out, so I wanted to get a receiver that could handle it. The electrical section had the perfect thing - a 2.5" conduit coupler ($10). You can see the coupler (red arrow) acting as the receiver for the main dif bushing with the HF plates on either end and a length of 1/2" all thread in between:



The bolt that comes with the HF kit is 16mm thick, so it was too thick to use with some of the bushings. In this picture you can also see the receiver from the HF kit being used on one of the rear subframe bushings (blue arrow). I hit the bushing holder with a propane torch for about a minute or two until I heard the rubber sizzling. Then I just started tightening. After the intial break through on the rust, the bushing came right out:



In this picture you can also see the HF puller on the left rear subframe bushing (the subframe is upside down in these pictures). I wasn't quite sure how the bushing was made, so I used a smaller puller on it. The bushing itself is about 70mm wide, and I used a 55mm puller plate. Hit the bushing holder with the torch, and crank. Turns out the rear bushings have an outer metal casing right under the rubber, and the smaller puller pulled the center out and left the casing. Hit the casing with a torch, use a 70mm puller plate and it came out like butter. In this pic L-R you see the old bushing outer casing, the old bushing inner bit, and the new replacement bushing for reference.



Since I now knew about the outer casing, on the right rear bushing I skipped pulling the inner bit and pulled the whole thing at once. This HF bearing puller tool is awesome, BTW.



The front bushings were a little weird because the inner bit sits way lower than the outer ring. So I thought I'd do what I did on the left rear and pull the inner bit first, then the outer casing. Turns out they came out in one piece, so there was no need. Hit it with the torch, pull, and voila:



Now the front dif bushings are too small (about 50mm) to use the HF bearing puller kit on, so I had to use a homebrew puller I made for something - 911 trailing arm bushings I think. It's just a small section of 2" galvanized pipe with a cap on the end and a 1/2" hole drilled into the cap. For the puller plates I just used a couple of sockets that were the right size. Again, a little heat on the bushing surround and they popped out like buttah:



And done! Here's a family photo of all of them:



Visual inspection, both rear subframe bushings were starting to separate from their inner metal core. The main rear dif bushing was totally shot, cracked around 270 degrees of the inner section. One of the front dif bushings was cracked, and the other looked OK. Finally, need to do something about that subframe. A little wire wheel, some brake clean to degrease and some POR-15 and it's looking a lot better:



That's it for now. Reinforcement plates should be here tomorrow, so that's the next project.