I put Prothane bushings on my 96 K1500. What a royal PIA......
I took the A-arms to a mechanic friend of mine who had a 30 ton shop press, but the arms were too wide to fit so he used his extra heavy duty SnapOn ball joint press and his 3/4" drive impact to remove the factory bushings. They came out grudgingly. I helped him install the poly bushings and he had to hammer away with the impact for quite some time for the lowers. He said he's never had that problem before even on medium duty trucks. For those who want to install poly bushings, buy extra grease, and I would definitely clean the inside of the A-arms.
In hindsight.......despite having almost 220K on the odometer--and being driven on mag chloride treated dirt roads--the factory bushings were fine. The poly bushings made no difference in ride or how the truck handled. More so, the friggin' poly bushings SQUEAK in temps much below 40 degrees. Nobody told me this until after the fact.......sheesh.
If I was to replace bushings again I would use the factory rubber ones.
When I replaced my rear springs with 5 leaf on both my 96 and 97 K1500's I made sure to use AC/Delco bushings on the springs, but the shackle to frame bushing wasn't available from ACDelco so I think I used what Autozone offered.
As an added note one of the best things I have done to those two trucks are the 5 pack rear leaf springs. I used the 2025 lb rated Husky springs and if it changed the ride quality I can hardly tell, gave the trucks more control and carries a load MUCH better.
