Front A-arm bushings revisited
 

After reading the great articles about redoing front A-arm bushings, I decided to change them out. I already have 22mm front bars with stock bushings on my 89 coupe with 65K. These were done about 2 years ago. I am changing to revalved front and rear shocks and 30mm bars to replace the rear. The 28mm I have in the back are for sale if anyone is interested. I was shocked to see this on the back of my bars when I pulled them out: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/p8040266.JPG

I would agree with the previous post and would highly recommend changing your bushings as soon as possible especially if youv'e upgrades to larger bars. The thicker bars will only come into contact with the rear housing sooner:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/p8040270.JPG

I spoke to SmartRacing the other day and they also added a few further points about changing the bushings; Sometimes it is neccessary to "shim" the front housing to remove impinging because the housings is not exactly parallel. When finished, the A-arm should be able to drop under its own weight smoothly with no binding. Most replacements are too tight giving the unwanted squeaking. Do this soon!!

'89:

Could you elaborate on the shimming? I think you are talking about shimming the rearside of the front A-arm to prevent binding? This is very interesting stuff!

Also, did you glue/bond the bushings in any way, or was it all grease all around or a bit of bonding, a bit of greasing?

Finally, the sway bars you are showing in the (excellent) pics: are they hollow? I seem to remember that solid torsion bars have a smaller OD for a given size (mm.).

Thanks mightily,
John

EDIT: Also, did you go with rubber bushes or poly?

It's not the bushings in my opinion. I posted a fix for this problem a while back. See the thread squeaky! front end
-Chris

Good stuff Chris! Thanks mightily.

Chris' fix is to rectify the groove the rearward end cap will put into the alum. You build this up with weld to prevent this end of the t-bar/endcap from moving outside its normal rotation.

John

I replaced the factory bushings on my car this spring, both front and rear, with the polyurethane bushings.

I would add to the considered advice above that each bushing needs to be hand fit to the car. This will require quite a bit of time, sand paper, perhaps a drill or dremel tool. I probably spent 45 minutes, on average, fitting each bushing.

I installed adjustable spring plates with the supplied Neatrix bushings. These bushings seemed to require the most work because they need to be hand fitted on the OD and ID. The fronts seemed to logically only need fitment on the ID, although I could be wrong.

If the new bushings are too tight, you're effectively making it more difficult for the moving suspension components to do their job if you think about it.

Mr. Chuck Moreland prepared a very helpful and detailed tech article on the bushing job. Check it out. It's even funny!

Good luck! Removal of the old bushings and installation of new ones is a messy tiresome job, but the effects are well worth it.

Even on my street car, which certainly doesn't see the track use of Mr. 89 911's car, I can't tell you how much more enjoyable my car is now, after replacing virtually every single suspension wear item.


David

PS-Hey 89, the brakes I bought from your brother were in great shape. I can't use them, though, because they are not a permitted upgrade in the Street Prepared rules for a 912! Thanks for putting me in touch with him anyway!

Actually, the fix doesn't fill in the groove, it builds up the cap to compensate for the groove. Adding weld to the goove in the aluminum cross member right next to the gas tank could get "exciting". :D
-Chris

Here is a pic of the old bushings. The picture does not demostrate how much they sagged (about 50%). Since these sagged the T bar dropped and hit the rack holding them. I am confused as to any other reasons.

Actually what happens is the control arm sags and the tbar stays where it belongs. The bushing locates the control arm, not the tbar.

Has anyone tried the $460 two week turnound service that SmartRacing offers? Opinions, please. Thanks, Doug Clauder

$460? I think if this included them removing the A arm and reinstalling them with the new bushing, maybe. To hand them an a arm and then have them yank the bushings, grind the new one and replace seems steep to me. One tip I noticed is a much quicker way to remove the old bushings. Unbolt the front a arm assembly and leave the rear bushing bolted in place. Now rock and turn the a arm back and forth while pulling. It takes a bit of strength, but you will be able to pull the a arm out of rear housing. Now reattach the front assembly, leaving the rear of the arm dangling below the steering rack. Twist and turn pulling back on the arm until it pulls free. No heat, no vice, no damage to any items. Most of the problem is in obtaining a proper grip on the bushings to pull them off. Why not use the ones designed to hold them in the first place. Just make sure your car is on proper jackstands!!! And I did mean to say control arm instead of torsion bar, but the same reasoning applies.