Bushings
 

I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to things mechanical, so please excuse me asking about what might seem like common knowledge to most of you: I took my '66 for PA state inspection and it failed from needing to have "lower arn bushings" replaced. Both places I took it to said this is an expensive repair job. And if the brake lines are rusted, it could be worse. Please, would someone explain to me what bushings are and why I should pay over 500.00 to replace them?

Most likely i imagine it would be the lower control arm bushings in the front of the vehicle. Bushings are rubber insulators/flexible mounting points that tie moving parts of a vehicle to a fixture/frame. For example a lower control arm moves up and down when you hit bumps (tied to a "knuckle" and "spindle" which is tied to the wheel), to isolate the noise and harshness of movement and shock bushings are used. The springs help absorb and deflect road shocks and shock absorbers dampen the springs and help absorb the shock from a bump or just road irregularities. Most likely the rubber lower control arm bushings have aged and hardened, which causes them to crack and eventually fail. Failure would cause lots of noise and your car would be hard to control because there would be alot of slop between the moving suspension parts (lower control arm, spindle/knuckle assembly, and wheel moving excessively around the frame).

Bushings are a common replacement item in high mileage vehicle so I personally believe the cost is justified, plus your mustang may just ride better after you have it done.

Good luck,

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the details! The 2nd mechanic found out he could do it for less than he'd originally quoted me, so looks like I'll be able to get it done soon.

You might want to check into getting a whole new suspension kit. If the lower A-arm bushings are bad, chances are the rest of the suspension bushings and various parts are not real good either. Many places sell whole kits which I highly recomend. Usually the kits are less than $1000. I replaced several pieces at a time on one car. By the time I was done, it would have been cheaper and easier to replace the whole thing. On the second car I bought the whole kit. Worked great and it was all done at once.

One more thing, on the 65-66 mustangs, if you remove the upper A-arm be sure to save the shims between the A-arm and the mount. These shims are what are used to align the car and if you remove them you allignment will be off.

Maybe in the short run it would be better to have someone else replace the lower bushings, but if you want to do your own work on these cars, the suspension rebuild looks complex but is pretty straight forward.

Thats a good tip Thunder, the cherge for labor will be the same. It dosent matter to the mechanic if hes putting in new parts or old. Dont be pennywise and pound foolish.

If you're doing the work yourself perhaps replacing the bushing seems to be the most economic answer, however it seems to me the cheapest purchased labor would be to replace the lower control arms (LCA). These come with the new bushing and a new lower ball joint. No rework of the existing LCA is required so its a fairly quick remove + replace action. Each LCA is $47.50 in the NPD parts catalog and is likely no more at Autozone. Although you pay more for the LCA than for the bushing, the total cost is about the same. It takes a half hour more to replace the bushing in the existing LCA given clean up and press work (twice per LCA) making labor more expensive to replace the bushing only. The advantage of replacing the LCA is you get a new lower ball joint free in the deal.