READ ENTIRE POST BEFORE REMOVING BUSHINGS.
Ok, so after finding that ALL 96-98 Cobras use the "Hydro" style bushings I ordered mine from Prothane and set about to remove my old ones.
This relates to the front control arm only as the upper rear Diff bushings are solid rubber.
Pull the control arm of course, set it down with the Balljoint end facing you and the spring pocket up, just as it would be on the car.
The foreword bushing is a normal rubber type, you can burn them out as suggested but I took a 1-1/4 inch hole saw and cut it from the outside, my hole saw is a DeWalt and is two inches deep, I cut right through the bushing, pulled the sleeve out with vise-grips and pried/cut out the rest.
I then used a round wire brush on my drill to clean out the bore.
I drilled out the rear bushing using numerous holes, it is filled with some kind of water like fluid, yuk, I still had a lot of work to do to clean it out when I had a thought.
In the directions for figuring out what type of bushing you have it says to pry on the outside rear shell flange, if it moves around a bit this means that it's not actually part of the pressed in shell but is in reality a " Hydro " bushing.
I found that I could pry on the outside rear flange on the bushing and move it a bit, I got out a bigger pry bar and was able to pry the entire bushing out of the shell which remained in the control arm.
No burning or drilling needed, it's because the bushing contains fluid that it's removable this way, they can't vulcanize it to the shell as it would burst from the heat or maybe twist enough in the shell to leak.
At least I figured it out before I did the other arm.
And there you go.....
Ok, so after finding that ALL 96-98 Cobras use the "Hydro" style bushings I ordered mine from Prothane and set about to remove my old ones.
This relates to the front control arm only as the upper rear Diff bushings are solid rubber.
Pull the control arm of course, set it down with the Balljoint end facing you and the spring pocket up, just as it would be on the car.
The foreword bushing is a normal rubber type, you can burn them out as suggested but I took a 1-1/4 inch hole saw and cut it from the outside, my hole saw is a DeWalt and is two inches deep, I cut right through the bushing, pulled the sleeve out with vise-grips and pried/cut out the rest.
I then used a round wire brush on my drill to clean out the bore.
I drilled out the rear bushing using numerous holes, it is filled with some kind of water like fluid, yuk, I still had a lot of work to do to clean it out when I had a thought.
In the directions for figuring out what type of bushing you have it says to pry on the outside rear shell flange, if it moves around a bit this means that it's not actually part of the pressed in shell but is in reality a " Hydro " bushing.
I found that I could pry on the outside rear flange on the bushing and move it a bit, I got out a bigger pry bar and was able to pry the entire bushing out of the shell which remained in the control arm.
No burning or drilling needed, it's because the bushing contains fluid that it's removable this way, they can't vulcanize it to the shell as it would burst from the heat or maybe twist enough in the shell to leak.
At least I figured it out before I did the other arm.
And there you go.....
