Best rear spring plate bushings for under $100?

Hotwatermusic · 04-24-2010, 08:17 PM

If I got a hundo to spend on rear spring plate bushings, where's my money best spent? Elephant OEM rubber, Neatrix, Weltmeister Race spec? My old bushings are freaking haggard and I need to attend to them stat. No track for this car, but hard daily street driving.

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

Go with the factory-spec rubber replacements, no plastic or other stuff like that.

mike635 · mike635's Garage

I went the the Elephant racing rubber parts, worked great. I finished the project about a month ago and it went pretty well.

Mike

porschenut · 04-25-2010, 05:32 AM

Either Neatrix or ER.

barndoor · barndoor's Garage

Elephant Racing

jcc911 · 04-25-2010, 07:25 AM

+1 On the ER parts. Reasonably priced, and excellent customer support.

msk1986911 · 04-25-2010, 07:43 AM

Since the bushings on my '86 look similar to the picture I've been thinking about doing the same to my car. Will the toe and camber adjustments be totally lost when I disconnect the spring plate from the trailing arm? I assume an alignment is required in any event. What kind of tension are the torsion bars under when all weight has been removed?

Thanks.

Mike

Hotwatermusic · 04-25-2010, 08:55 AM

One more question: In Wayne's "101 Projects" book, in one of the suspension projects he specifically says that aftermarket rear bushings aren't as good as the ones the cars come with from the factory. Is this still the case? What bushings was Wayne talking about specifically that aren't as good? Is it because of the fact that the factory molded the rear bushings right onto the spring plate, and aftermarkets simply "sit" on it, that they don't work as well?

Cattler · Cattler's Garage

I've been following the recent flurry of threads on spring plate bushings--and mine look much like those in the original post. I've been slowly fixing up the car, upgraded to Bilstein HDs all around about a year ago, but didn't touch these bushings.

Two questions:
- They look like they should be replaced. Should I care? My car also is a DD (more of a weekend driver)--will it matter for street only use?

- I don't think I can do this on my own. Understanding the new bushings will be less than $100, but how much should I expect to pay to replace them and set everything straight afterwards?

Thanks,
David

uwanna · 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotwatermusic

If I got a hundo to spend on rear spring plate bushings, where's my money best spent? Elephant OEM rubber, Neatrix, Weltmeister Race spec? My old bushings are freaking haggard and I need to attend to them stat. No track for this car, but hard daily street driving.

Ok guys, this may not pass muster with the high performance techie folks, but I have a low price fix for ya'll. Remove the spring plates (first scribe their position on the trailing arms to get back to close to your alignment setting on reinstall). Then swap the left for the right plate. The wear occurs on the top of the bushing, so when you swap them, you have a brand new bushing wear surface because the plates are "flipped", plus you still have the "bonded bushings"! This will all become apparent when you get it apart. Looking at the pic above, after the flip, you will now have the original clearence between the mounting plate and the bushing.
I just helped a fellow Pelican (Ruby911) do this two weeks ago, and it worked great. Plus you can't beat the price!
By the way, when you do this, set your adjustable spring plate to the middle of the adjustment range, so you can tweak as needed for height and corner balance. I've known many folks who have used this fix, and if you don't track your car and just use as daily driver, it will feel like new!

rusnak · 04-25-2010, 09:53 AM

The job is easily doable by a home mechanic with the right tools in one weekend. If you don't have the right tools, add another weekend. Lots of info on this topic, so I won't repeat here. The important tools are a thin wrench to adjust ride height, a large allen key to adjust toe and camber, an impact wrench to loosen the large clamp nut that is on the springplate or radius arm. You can use a hacksaw and a torch to quickly remove the old rubber.

88911coupe · 10-14-2011, 06:20 AM

Flipping these just seems too easy a solution...an serious drawbacks? I assume if the "flipped" bushings don't start sagging to the point of the tube rubbing you're good to go...? Seems like a good short term solution if you are just buying a few months. In my case I want to re remove my engine in a few months and it would be good to do all this at once but the right rear is just starting to rub a bit so obviously needs to be addressed.

KTL · 10-14-2011, 07:05 AM

Flipping won't work if your bushing retainer metal "brackets" are corroded inside. Mine had huge rust bubbles inside them and had to get new ones. Even with new brackets it'll still be tough in my opinion to get the deformed bushings to fit well.

I think since the bushings are relatively cheap and easy to replace, it's best to just replace. Like others said, heat the plate (NOT the rubber) with a propane torch. The bushings will let go of the plate and you can twist them off with a big pair of channel lock pliers. Clean up the surface with a wire wheel or brush, slap the new ones on there with super glue. Yep, super glue is the glue that actually works.

Once they're installed, the glue is meaningless. The pressure of the slight press fit in the chassis and bracket makes the bushings stick in place. Just be sure to use some degradable lubricant like silicone spray or dishwashing soap to aid in pushing the bushings into the chassis and the bracket. Without lubricant, you'll have a hell of a time and curse like there's no tomorrow.

Also advisable to have a group of four longer M10 bolts to let you use the bolts to draw the bracket on. The original bolts are too short to work for you. After you pull it in with the long bolts, you take them out and put the shorter originals back in.

mightys4 · mightys4's Garage

I have a set of Neatrix bushings, I've been trying to find a home for... I went with Elephant when it was all said and done.

$50.00 shipped. Feel free to sent me an IM or email if interested. Thats WELL under $100.

Kemo · 10-14-2011, 07:22 AM

good info on the flipping...ill store that one in my bag of low cost tricks. ya never know

KTL · 10-14-2011, 07:23 AM

Neatrix are good. I ran them in my '87 for around 6 years with stiffer 22/29 torsion bars. When I took them out to replace with polygraphite (because I thought it would make the car perform better at the track...), the Neatrix bushings looked great. I thought they held up to the abuse of track driving very well for just an ordinary rubber replacement bushing.