Hi all im new to the forums here and have been reading some of the posts here and i am finding a lot of useful and valuable information here. Picked up my all original 68 coupe with the 200cid straight six two months ago and have been working on restoring it. Even the original headliner is in mint condition. The previous owners father in law had hit a horse with the car so the drivers fender, hood, and everything else was in the midst of getting replaced and the owners started to have children and such and let the car sit for 10 years in their yard in Oklahoma. Thankfully the rust is not bad just a little around the quarters and some in the trunk. but heres my dilema so far. im replacing every rubber bushing, ball joint, tie rod etc in the front suspension and cannot get the strut rod bushings off so i can clean up that area repaint it and start putting everything back together. i know theres a sleeve that connects the two large metal caps that surround the busing and one even will turn on the sleeve but short of beating the crap out if with a hammer and a punch these things will not come off. is there a special trick u guys use to get these off, i do have an air compressor and air chisel but its not very powerful cause of tank capacity. any help you guys can throw my way to get these blasted things off will be helpful.  

We used to burn the stubborn ones off(bushings in general). Not very EPA friendly, but hey!, it was the 70's.  

ok but what about the metal the two big metal washers are held together by a steel sleeve? i could burn off the rubber but that still leaves me with the metal pieces.  

hmmm dont forget theres a nut on the underside holding those bushing in. if they still turn just get a airgrinder with a cutting wheel and cut them off. your putting new ones on anyhow. i just rebuilt the frontend of my 65 coupe and what a time it was. but when everything is in you'll be glad you replaced everything. good luck  

Thankyou ill go take a look at it. the strut rod on the drivers side i couldnt get off the car because the adjustment nut is seized up so i have been letting it soak by spraying wd40 on it but will probably need to get something different. i can get some aerokroil from work if it still doesnt come loose so i replace the bushings. if all else fails ill skip the drivers side bushings till i can take it to reputable shop and have them remove it and cause me less head ache. just waiting on the parts to come in to start putting it all back together, cant wait till i can drive her.  

I saw you had a air compressor, my thought would be to get an impact gun from one of the tool stores and get the strut rod off.  Once it is off if you still have trouble getting the washers and sleeve off, take the whole strut rod with washers and all to a local garage.  Most of them will be able to press the pieces off and they will only charge you a couple of bucks. If you are planning to do much of the work on your car yourself air tools(especially an impact gun) are invaluable.  These don't have to be real expensive for the hobbiest. Just a thought about how I would do it. Good luck Tom  

The issue as I read it is that the sleeve is stuck to the strut-rod which won't allow the outer (forward) bushing to be removed so that the rod can be removed from the car. You have two choices, beat it off or burn it it off (forward bushing only). Once you can get the strut-rod out of the car you can put it in a vise to see if the sleeve is really that stuck or not. Usually heat will allow the sleeve to expand enough to be removed.  A good auto machine shop can help you get it apart if you can get it out of the car. good luck.
JLG  

the bushings are not stuck on the strut rod itself, rather the bushings are stuck on the frame of the car. the strut rod came off without too much hassle but the rubber and metal washers themselves are still attached to the frame. ill see what i can do about getting a few pics up for you folks to look at to see what i mean.  

I got it now.  If you can, take the rod out and get a tapered punch that will wedge into the sleeve and pound it until one of the washers falls off or the sleeve starts coming out of the the other end of the bushing. Once the sleeves out, it's nothing but rubber left and you can cut it off or beat it off or burn it off of the strut rod brace fitting.  

ok i got a pic taken of the bushing,


will be using the replacement bushings from Virginia Classic Mustang will i need to have the these pressed back onto the sleeve or just run the one nut down add a washer and bushing half then put it back through the brace fitting then the other bushing half and washer then add the nut?  Sorry im not familiar with restoring an older car this is my first.  

You have the right idea. I just started a total restoration on my 69 gt 57k miles on it.  Had to chisel the forward end off. Once you take out the strut rod that piece will bend in toward the center, the front washer and bushing. Make sure your chisel is sharp so you can catch the thin piece of metal that wraps around the big washer. can email you pics of mine if you like  

Forgot to mention..I bought a poly bushing kit from energy suspension it only came with the sleeves and actual bushings I am gong to blast my end washers and re use. Never really looked into complete set up however I did find a bunch of oem looking stuff at these two sites fairly priced..I bought new strut rods from mustang parts house they are exactly like the originals.Lower ball joints by moog have the correst rivet style not retro weld http://www.mustangpartshouse.com/and http://www.trophymustang.com/  

i finally got them off the car and everything is how replaced. i took a small air grinder with a cutoff wheel on it and ground off the front lip of the sleeve. then  the rear large washer just fell out with the sleeve attached. the whole assembly looked to have been tightend so much that the sleeve went into the washer making it all one big chunk of metal. But heres where it got interesting, as i crawled out from under the car and look at it all there was a really thin extra sleeve inside the  other. kinda like pop can metal that was holding everything together causing me all that fuss. If i had thought to keep the old metal i would gladly have given it away to who ever might need it but since i got all new washers sleeve and bushings, out with the old and in with the new. thanks for everyones help. Now to get the engine freed up and rebuilt.  

68dreamstang:
i finally got them off the car and everything is how replaced. i took a small air grinder with a cutoff wheel on it and ground off the front lip of the sleeve. then  the rear large washer just fell out with the sleeve attached. the whole assembly looked to have been tightend so much that the sleeve went into the washer making it all one big chunk of metal. But heres where it got interesting, as i crawled out from under the car and look at it all there was a really thin extra sleeve inside the  other. kinda like pop can metal that was holding everything together causing me all that fuss. If i had thought to keep the old metal i would gladly have given it away to who ever might need it but since i got all new washers sleeve and bushings, out with the old and in with the new. thanks for everyones help. Now to get the engine freed up and rebuilt.

To free up that engine , you might try, removing the spark plugs from each cylinder head and using a small squirt bottle or mustard bottle with a short hose on it squirt some diesel fuel in to each cylinder and let it sit for a day or two and then try to spin the engine over with a socket on the crank snout bolt. If you would like any more help with this pm me. Good luck. Tom