I`m sure a socket will be fine, although I could not get my panhard rod bushes to fit the other day. I have done bushes before & had the old rod cleaned out & sanded all back. The pin fit fine in the bush out of the rod, but as soon as the bush was in the rod & the pin was most of the way through, the last bit just seemed to mushroom the bush. I chamfered the pins, removed the coating on them froze them etc etc & nothing worked. Wish I had just bought the standard panhard replacement rod with bushes complete rather than the polybush set.
Dan.