I am in the process of replacing the bushings with energy suspension ones and have taken off the upper control arm and have taken out the bushings. What I'm trying to figure out is what rotates over what. Starting from the center, there's the shaft, which bolts to the frame. The sleeve with a rubber bushing glued to it. Then the outer shell, which is pressed into the arm. If the arm moves up and down, the shell obviously comes with. When replacing the bushing with an OEM one, it requires you to press out the whole thing including shell. So I assume the rubber is fixed to the shell as well. The sleeve seems tight against the shaft, due to the washer and nut, no?

So what moves with respect to what when the arm moves up and down. What needs to be greased?

Cheers,
Climber

For clarification, what year and what vehicle are you talking about?

Head it in my head, didn't put it in the post. It's a '91 4Runner V6 4WD.

the bushings are sleeved, youll need to reuse the big sleeve after you burn the old bushings off, the bushings are tight, they flex more than rotate when old, but when i put in new bushings (w/ total chaos kit anyway) there was much better movement.

I know I need to reuse the outer shells and sleeves. But I want to know what rotates in what. That tells me what needs to be made smooth and greased. Does the rubber rotate within the outershell?

only thing that should rotate is the inner bushing surface on the cross-shaft, although the washers and nuts will prevent it from moving very freely, does the bushing set come with those thin metal sleeves, not sure about those, didnt have to reuse those in my application.

Well, that has been a lot more work than I was willing to put in. Those staked nuts are a pain in the ass. If you're not careful, you pound the metal down instead of outward. One shaft end got damaged enough that it required some careful filing to make the threads good enough to accept a nut. Can't find a big enough die.

The melted rubber makes a mess. Sticks to everything. I only got the two front upper control arms done and the front sway bar. Still have to do the lower control and all the rear end. Does the rear end require any burning? It didn't look like from the shop manual, but ...

Hope the dealer has new nuts in stock. Also my sway bar link boots are torn. Can't find any loose boots. Need to spend $35 x 2 on new links :-(

Hope this is going to be all worth it.

Climber