Spring Plate Bushings

[avi8torny]

Now that I am putting the rear suspension back together, I painted the spring plates, installed new OEM trailing arm bushings and am ready to install the poly spring plate bushings....except for one problem. They are slightly to large to fit in the recesses of the body torsion tube!!!

I called the tech rep for Weltmeister who said that I may have to sand these down so they will fit. Anyone have experience with these?

[porsche74]

Common problem with any of these cast, not machined bushings,........

I use a lathe to turn down the OD of the bushings so they hand-fit the openings otherwise they will compress the ID that is the root cause of the bushing noise that people get.

I also true the ID hole with the lathe as these are rarely round.

Don't forget to use that excellent bushing grease that Performance Porducts sell, its the clear stuff in the little tub. Not cheap, but its the best and you'll regret it later if you do not.

[bob tilton]

i recently bought the sway away spring plates and the outer bushings need to be shaved.
bob
68 L

[Blackdimonds]

I just completed a huge suspension job that included new poly bushings. I sanded the OD to fit, and used plenty of the special lube, and not 1 squeek yet. Also, the car is so tight now, I wise I had done this two years ago when I first got the car.

[89911]

For those of us that don't have access to a lathe, here is what I used. Find a hole saw that fits on you electric drill. Skip the battery one, you will use that batteries very quickly. I have a hole saw set that has interchangable sizes that mount on the same chuck. Find the closest size that will fit the IO of the poly bushing. Use duct tape to build up the hole saw's OD until it fit the bushings IO very snuggly with little room for turning. Now get out the roughest sandpaper you have and tape it to a stationary piece of wood like a 2x4 that can be stabilized. Now simply crank up the drill and run it against the sanpaper with some pressure. You will see the poly fly like fine dust. Keep doing this until the OD of the bushing fits in the housing and the spring plate fit the ID of the bushing with no binding. You want the rotation to be at the spring plate and not at the bushing/housing contact point. Takes about 10-15 minutes a side. I could'nt guess how long hand sanding would take and even then, it would'nt be perfectly round.