Thanks for 4kq suspension information!

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

Thanks to everyone that answered my questions regarding the:

1)4kq control arm bushing removal
2)4kq strut bearing identification

In particular thanks to (in order received):

Bob, Huw, Orin, Paul Balko, Jeff Hemmerlin, Brad Odegard, Dave Brady, Jason
A Whyte, Dave Brady, Chris Bishop, Todd Candey, Gary G. Erickson, Bruce
Bell, Ron Wood, Eugene Sokolovski, James Marriott, and last but not least Ira.

The responses were a genuine help!  I haven't gotten back into the control
arm bushings, but the overall consensus was:

a) Use a BIG vice or press or 
b) use HEAT first or an 1" coupler instead of a nut on the threaded rod

The record time of the bunch has to be "5 minutes max per bushing."  I'd
like to see it; that is incredibly fast!

On the strut bearing front, a few of you confirmed that the number I had
was the old part number, and the front 4kq bushings would indeed work on
the rear as well.

Also, true to list knowledge, I had the "blue" urq rock hard bushings in
the rear of the 4kq.  Again, the collective list knowledge is incredible,
because a few mentioned that the reason the old bearing looked entirely
different than the new one is that the old one was destroyed or "sagged" as
many mentioned.

I truth, I looked at it again and realized that the bearing should not have
come off with out removing the slotted nut! ;) That means I was comparing
only half the old bearing to new bearings!  The upper rubber piece of the
old bearing was totally gone!  The metal bearing is still there under the
threaded nut	, but the rubber just flaked off in my hand!

FYI, this is on a 1986 4kq with approximately 120k miles.  So if you have
100k+ miles on the original suspension on your 4kq, you may want to spend
an afternoon thoroughly going over the suspension bits.

Thanks again.


	

Best Regards,

John Karasaki
Portland, OR