dave1123

My WJ just hit 200K miles and just last night started wagging it's tail a little unexpectedly. I crawled under it and found the lower control arm rear bushings in terrible shape. One side the rubber is 1/2 gone and the other the outer case is rusted away. The frame ends look solid. The upper arm bushings look suspiciously worn also but the ball joint is okay. Right now, money's a little tight so can I get away with just replacing the two bushings that are bad, keeping in mind doing everything, front and rear later?

I hate to piece-meal a repair, but I can't afford to have the jeep down long enough to fix it right. I guess I should replace both lower control arms as complete units. It's probably quicker that way. It's kinda scary to drive the way it is now. I need to have it back on the road by 11 PM Monday.

SteveMongr

I'm still new to the WJ but I have looked at the control arms. It seems like the bushings would not be easy to replace without damaging the control arm. That is the case with XJ arms.
I have seen on e-bay upper and lower arms with bushings for $168 shipped. Not sure of quality however.

dave1123

With a U-shaped channel, all you need is a spacer between the flanges so you don't crush it. No big deal. I can get Moog heavy-duty lowers for $54 each complete with bushings from rockauto but it'll cost me $$$ for overnight shipping. I can get just the bushings locally for about $20 each. Time is the important thing.

When I have the time to set up another vehicle to use, I can replace all 3 control arms and the ball joint for $250, that's Moog and Omix-ADA for parts.

jon-d

would it be possible to pull the part from a local junk yard? granted you have to find one in decent shape but it might be worth it in a pinch.

dave1123

Actually, this is what's nice about having a friend with his own shop. This morning he put 2 new premium control arms in, $170 and 35 minutes. Done! That's without an appointment as well. All he had scheduled this morning was a couple of inspections and a muffler. To show you what condition my WJ is in, the bolts spun right out with an impact. I was pleasantly surprised. The control arms must be a problem on WJs because every parts house in the area had them in stock. He even put anti-seize on the bolts.

The muffler was on a V6 Fiero. Nice car.

jon-d

nice Dave!