I recently replaced my LCAB and thought I'd share the videos and tools I used. I know its a common job and Modmini has made 2 videos on how to do it, but it's a job that's intimidated me for a while and I was very happy to be able to successfully accomplish it without too much difficulty. I didn't take pictures or video because I wasn't really planning on doing a write up, but I did a lot of searching and watching videos so I thought it'd be nice to have them all in one spot if anyone needs them.

Modmini was my main source of information

But I don't have a sawzall and I don't love the idea of sawing through the bushings and possibly damaging the brackets, so I decided to buy this tool to press the bushings in and out.

it worked like a charm.

I also used the technique in this video to removed the lower control arms, but instead of using a pickle fork to separate the inner ball joints, I used the wrecking bar to put pressure on the control arm, while hitting it with a hammer. The passenger side fell apart almost as soon as I got the inner ball joint nut loose. The drivers side took a bit more persuading, but came apart eventually (side note, I found a 36 inch wrecking bar was enough of a lever and it was at lowes for $10).



I spent an hour trying to use Modmini's pry hard method to get the control arm back into the new bushing before doing some more searching and finding this german video. They use a ratchet strap to pop the control arm in, and that worked fantastic for me.


With the control arm back on the car, all I had to do was torque the ball joints back down. The inner ball joint is torqued to 59 ft/lbs and the outer ball joint is torqued to 41 ft/lbs

If you don't need to remove the subframe, i would definitely recommend this method. there's very little to go wrong since you only remove a max of 2 nuts and 2 bolts per side (not counting the wheel bolts)

I went with the powerflex black bushings and I've only gone for a couple of short drives with them, but I don't notice any extra noise, vibration, or harshness with them, but they have improved the play I could feel with the worn out OEM ones.

 

That was a good method of getting the control-arm back into the bushing. I pushed the end into the bushing as far as I could, then took a large pair of pipe pliers and grabbed the lip of the control arm and the back of the housing, then just squeezed, went right in..