For all the folks who try to squeeze poly bushings from IPD and elsewhere and don't have a press handy: I think I've found a way around it.

I'm working on a '93 940 wagon NA.

I've got a set of 3 poly accessory bushings from IPD (blue ones) to replace on the alternator. The 11 year old rubber ones were warped and cracked badly. Obviously enough, in the winter temperatures (I'm mostly a shadetree mechanic), the new ones were very hard and wouldn't fit into the holes. Putting them in boiling water (without the steel inserts) made them nice and soft - with some squeezing they went in rather easily. Otherwise I'd need a press to have them fit.

I'm wondering whether a similar procedure couldn't be used with front suspension bushings. I don't know how much softer the rubber becomes when you warm it up to 200F, but the blue polyurethane material definitely becomes nice and squeezable.

I guess the procedure would be: get the bushings, put them into a pot with boiling water (just enough to cover them so that you don't have to fish for them), after few minutes take the pot to the car, insert a couple bushings, pot back onto the burner to re-soften the bushings left, rinse and repeat :)

Does anybody have experience with making the poly suspension bushings softer by heating them in water? If the material is of same density as the accessory bushings, it should become a trivial job that way it seems. I still have to order those front suspension bushings and I think I'll do the job when it gets warmer outside. It isn't too much fun changing bushings when it's snowing :)

Rants and flames welcome, of course.

Cheers, Kuba