I am wondering what will be my best plan of attack on the rear upper control arm bushings that are in my 66 chevelle rearend. The whole thing is still in the car and I want to replace the busings in the upper rear control arms without removing the rearend. Any help and advice will be appreciated.

There is a tool you can buy or make to remove them. But if you do a search on the 2004 forum, there is a lot of info on removal.

Just did the uppers and lowers, took the rear end out, removed all control arms, drilled out the rubber of the bushing, used a sawsall to cut through the metal sleave, knocked to sleave out, cleaned and painted arms, cleaned and painted rear end, after a costly repair, cleaned and painted springs, installed new bushings, just now getting to installing the rear-end and arms. Good luck.

beat them out and in with a hammer.

It is actually easier to take the assembly out and work on it in open space. I use a rented ball joint press to push the old ones out and press in the new ones. Just work out the best combination of sleeves for the application and crank them in or out. Saves a lot of cussing and doesn't abuse the new ones going in.
OLDED

You can purchase a very nice tool for removal and instalation at this site. www.hrpartsnstuff.com (http://www.hrpartsnstuff.com) . Click on "products" it's about $80.00. You may belong to a Chevelle club or know others that could use this. You might be able to rent it out for $10.00. Could pay for its self in a few years.

65 Camino
Team member #74

Drill out the rubber and collapse the metal shell with a hammer and chisel. Might be tight quarters with it in the car but it can be done. Getting the new ones in is a bit of a chore, much easier done with the axle out and with the proper tool.

If you have the upper arms disconnected, you are not that far from simply removing the axle as a whole. Take loose the lower arms, the shock mounts, the brake line and the u-joint bolts and out it comes. The little extra effor will make removing and replacing those bushings a whole lot easier.