Front suspension bushing replace procedure?

[cstreit]

Has onyone got a writeup n how to replace the front suspension bushings?

DOes the A-arm need to come off? If not, if the car is up on jacks, presumably there is no danger in removing the plates that hold the torsion bar tubes to the car, since they bars are no longer under stress right?

[kstylianos]

Chris,

The a-arms do need to come off if you are replacing the a-arm bushings as you'll have a hell of a time trying to get the old bushings free working upside down, although its probably possible. If replacing the swaybar bushings, only 1 a-arm needs to come off to free the sway. Chuck Moreland has a good writeup on how to replace the bushings and massage the street poly bushings to size if needed. If you dont have a lathe handy for hand fitting the poly/street bushings, I was able to turn them by hand on a wooden dowell fitted w/ sandpaper. Open them up just enough to get a snug, but smooth rotating action on the a-arm w/ the bushing housing installed. Zirk fittings in the a-arm bushing housings will help w/ greasing down the road and poly lube (messy stuff) for the initial install.

If the front of the car is supported on stands, the whole suspension assy. (a-arms, sway, crossmember, strut housings) will come out as a big whopping unit by removing the belly pan, rack bolts, shock tower bolts, and the bolts supporting the a-arm ends. Don't forget to unbolt the fuel pump from the rack and the break lines. Probably will need to sepatate the tie rods from the strut housing as well.

[dhoward]

What is this "belly pan" everyone speaks of ?....
Kystal... is right. No stress, unbolt and everything falls off.

[cstreit]

I'm just talking the a-arm bushings here, I've got the poly ones now, but they have some play in one side. Whole suspension can move about 1/4" now...

I'd like to do it without removing the suspension to save having to reset everything... The car is balanced perfectly and I'd rather not mess with it...

So it'll be a royal pain yeah? but still possible if one is persistent?

[dhoward]

I'm not sure how you would get the rears out?
Sure seems like they need to come out. Easier in the long run to do the fitting. Wouldn't you need to realign, rebalance anyway, as the new bushings have no 'flow' to them yet?

[kstylianos]

Chris,

If you dont have to wrestle with removing the vulcanised OEM bushings, you may be able to get away w/ not removing the whole suspension. If the old ones slide right off the a-arm and housings and the new ones do not need fitting, then you are money. If the new ones do need fitting, you'll need to take the new bushing, place it in the housing then hand fit/sand the ID a bit, crawl back under the car and test fit. Do this procedure until its just right, no slop, not too tight and relatively low rotational friction.

You can unbolt the a-arms at both ends, loosen up some other fastening bolts and see if you can slide the a-arms out of the cross member (about 2-3 inches forward). Once they clear the crossmember, they will probably hang there and may need support from jack stands and such. You will have to remove the height adjustment screw, make sure to mark the threads and splines (if you can) so you can put it back together w/o loosing your settings.

[cstreit]

WHere in the assembly does the torsion bar meet with splines?

Presumably at the cross member, where else?

[Chuck Moreland]

Chris,

You can leave the ball joint connected. Disconnect front and rear control arm mounts, then rotate the arm about the ball joint so it is easy to access. You will need to pull the tbars to do this.

You will have to re-align, but it does save the troublesome problem of getting the ball joints off.

The Elephant Racing bearings avoid the hassles of custom turning or sanding the polyurethane, making for much easier installation.