The guy at the counter gave me a real horror story about getting the bushings pressed in, so that just made me shy away from doing it. Due to an evil woman(long story)I no longer have my tools, so I have to borrow whatever I need, so I'd just be happy to get the shackles in with no additional problems as this is my daily driver. I did soak them for a little bit with the PB blaster and was able to loosen them up really nice. If everything goes fine, I'll try to mess with the bushings-as they did come with the shackles.
I'm doing it this Sunday so I'll update you guys when I can to let you know how it went.
Wish me luck!

 

yeah if your bushings arent bad leave that crap alone unless youre going to remove the leaf spring. last time i did rear shackles on a newer body style s10, take off those rear side skirt things so you can get a better swing with the hammer and get air tools in there. sometimes those bolts come out sometimes they dont

 

FAILURE!!
I tried like hell to get that upper bolt out that goes through the frame and the rubber bushing with no luck! I had some thick gloves on and was banging on the bolt with a small sledge and whacked my finger tip! If I didn't have those thick gloves on I would've been at the hospital right now. Luckily I just tore up the tip a bit.
Before I attempted the job myself I got a quote of $170 just for labor, let's see how much it'll be now!!

 

if you can break down the rubber portion of the bushing with heat or elbow grease you can separate the sleeve out then collapse the bushing and push it through.

maybe try this.

https://blazerforum.com/forum/articl...-thread-43925/

 

a air chisel works wonders too. sometimes you need that extra impact to break them loose

 

Here's some pics. Sorry if they're too big.
I tried to get a better pic of the driver side but just couldn't get the angle w/o laying on the ground--gravel hurts when you're in your pajamas still!

 

The bracket came out in 2 pieces like that. The other side is holding by a hair. I still can't get that bolt or sleeve out of there.

 

dam those shackles are SHOT

 

Unbelieveable right? It's amazing they lasted as long as they did! What would have happened if they broke while I was driving? Lots of damage?
I'm only 3 blocks from the ocean--damn salt air! In the past 3 months I've put so much money into this truck I could've bought another one! Actually someone was selling a 97 for $1900. I've put over $2000 into mine so far(in 3 months). Only 2 things keep me from getting rid of it--the manual 4wd(little stick)and the woman who I bought it from put a new Jasper mmotor in it and she had a huge stack of receipts for everything she did to it!

 

Your gonn have to break that rubber outta the bushing and collapse it then push it out. It can be done ...just a real pain.
Its wrotten when a whole job is hung up on one bolt.