I posted follow up info in the Discussion area, but for future searches I thought I'd put it here too.
It's wasn't the LCA bushing I was certain it was. It was the front subframe bushing. It was rusted and in pieces. If I had just taken the splash guard off to look I would have seen it.
I had it all apart though, and replacement parts in hand so I went ahead and pulled the LCA just to be sure. The bushing's not in great shape, but it probably wouldn't have caused any issues for at least a couple more years.
I went ahead and replaced the lca front bushing, and the subframe bushing.
For anyone considering replacing a lower control arm bushing -- just replace the control arm as a whole. IMO it is not worth the hassle of pressing the bushing out and getting the new one in when you can replace the whole control arm with two new bushings for ~$50 more. I spent well over an hour and a lot of F bombs getting that stupid thing pressed back in.
BTW, I used a small floor jack and about a 12x12 piece of mdf to raise the motor in order to get the front lca bolt out.
It wasn't that tricky. There's one large nut on the trans/motor mount that sits right in the middle of the wheel well. That nut comes off and you can lift the trans a couple inches. I also loosened that front sub frame nut to gain another fraction of an inch. I ended up with JUST enough clearance to get that bolt out of the front LCA bushing, seriously, a 1/16" less clearance probably wouldn't have been enough.
