Bushings!:)

[Mux213]

Hey Guys,

Okay I've been replacing a number of bushings so I'll do some posts here about it. I haven't done all the bushings and a number of times I have forgotten to take pictures.

First thing I did is the trailing arms. I had an extra set of the shorter ones, that made it easy because you can take your time. Doesn't take to much time but I wanted to sandblast and paint them. I haven't done that with a number of other parts, mainly cause they are to big or I dont have a spare to swap.

Anyways, first you need to take the old bushings out. The way I did it was to simply drill holes in the rubber, but a bolt in the bushing, and simply bash it out. Make sure you drill plenty of holes to get the bushing as loose as possible. If you have access to a press you can press the bushings out, but this is the poor mans solution

Once the old bushings are out putting the new bushings in is just a question of greesing them up, put both halves in (they should slide in nicely) and then out the metal insert in. I found that with these bushings I could push it in by hand and then put the whole thing in a vice to do the last bit and get everything to be in its place.

Putting them on the car proved to be a challenge, its hard to push them in place, they really are a tight fit. Officially you have to put them on when the axle is 'neutral'. When you raise the car the axle droppes bringing it out of this neutral position. If you tighten the trailing arms now and you then lower the car, the bushings will be stressed.

The way I did it was to raise the car, put some really large axle stands underneath the axle, and then lower the car making the axle suspend on the axle stands. This way I can still work on the car and have the axle in the right position. It doesn't make it to easy though since you dont have much room to work.

The end result is this:

[Mux213]

Next up was the front stabilizer bar. It is less important to fasten these in the right position however its much harder to loosen and fasten the stabilizer bar when you've raised the car and the wheels are just suspended.

Again I used the same trick, put the large axle stands underneath the wishbones and lower the car so the arms get near their normal position.

Dont try to change the bushings one by one, I found out this drives you nuts. Loosen the two brackets that hold the stabilizer bar first and then loosen the parts that link the ends of the stabilizer bar to the wishbones.

The first is very easy, just two screws, but those end links are a bit of a pain. The first nut is easy to remove but unscrewing the other bolt just causes the whole thing to rotate. In the middle of the link however you can lock the center axle with a 12mm wrench. Use that and the other nut comes of easilly.

The new bushings are alot easier. We fastened the middle one first (so we are not mounting them in reverse order but in the same order as removal). We had some problems with the screws, they are a bit short and one of the threading wasn't to good. I'm gonne remove them later on and replace them with new bolts, I suggest you do the same.



Then come the end links. Make sure you have a mate helping you or you'll keep dropping it all to the ground. Also your mate can hold the stabilizer bar in place. Take a good look at how the links are in the packaging as this is the order to put them on the car.

You have your bolt, slid on a washer, then the bushing, then put it on the wishbone, then a bushing, another washer, then the spacer, then the washer, then another bushing, then the stabilizer bar, then the last bushing, the last spacer and finally the top bolt. Then tighten it all up...

[Mux213]

OKay then there is the rear stabilizer bar. Removal is easy atleast for the bar itself. Loosen the two bolts on the end link and then loosen the bolts that mount the bar to the axle. Comes right off.

What I couldn't figure out is how to remove the end links from the body, there isn't a real screw ontop that I could loosen. So I've left that alone for another day, suggestions are welcome

Once the bar is removed from the car you need to remove the bushings inside of the ends of the bar. If these are a bit old its easy to get them out as they've gotten very week. If newer use a small drill to drill away the rubber and weaken the bushing.

Insert a bolt and just start hammering away:

It should come out pretty easily.

Its best to sand the inside if its rusty like mine or you will have a hard time inserting the new bushings. The new bushings aren't two halves like with the trailing arms but a single pieces. Grease them up WELL and grease the inside of the stabilizer bar.



Then you can use a vice to push the bushing into the bar. THey are pretty flexible so if you've greased it up well enough, they go right in. One worked like a charm for me, the other went a little less easy.



Last but not least put in the metal insert:



The bushing that hold the bar to the axle require a little bit of cutting. If you look at the bushings you will see a small line at one end. Cut there and in doing so cut open one side of the bushing. Dont worry, this won't weaken it. Don't cut both sides though!



Now grease it well and push it onto the bar where the old bushing was. Don't worry about the position, we'll adjust the bar later on.
Mounting the bar on the car again requires the held of a mate to hold the bar up. Put the bracket over the bushing and slid it in the axle, then put the bolt at the other side.



Now push the ends of the bar into the end links and put the bolt back in



And that is that......

I still have two trailing arms to go on the rear axle and then I need to look at the front suspention. I expect that last one to be alot of work as I'll be taking appart a number of things.. Stay tuned for those instructions

[Widar]

Great writeup, Bas!
I learned some good stuff reading this, going to the garage today and see if i can get this whole bushing thing started for me as well.

[Mux213]

Widar, good luck, hope it goes as easy as most of the stuff for me went.

The trailing arms really are the worse, the bolt are very stuck, especially those from the longer arms. I did forget to mention that I suggest to take one out, change the bushings, put it back on, then do the next.

Having your axle supported just by some high axle stands and having no trailing arm holding them into place is a recepie for desaster. Knock one of the axle stands over and bye bye car..

[Widar]

I got my rear axle already of the car and most are unmonted from the car. I think i'm gonna remove all the old bushings then sandblast all the parts.
Maybe a little bit of paint as well.

I'll try to remeber to take pictures, i'm real bad at that. :/

mux213 Wrote:The bushing that hold the bar to the axle require a little bit of cutting. If you look at the bushings you will see a small line at one end. Cut there and in doing so cut open one side of the bushing. Dont worry, this won't weaken it. Don't cut both sides though!

Strange... I didn't have to cut mine, they came opened..?

[Mux213]

On my RX7 they were precut aswell, so are the ones for the front stabilizer bar, but for the rear bar, I had to cut them. Maybe production fault

[ZaX]

Post of the month goes to : Bastijan Olij of the aeu86.org

[Ivan141]

Gheghe....let me add a lil write-up of my own then..
Yesterday I started work on the bushings for my hachi at Lennert's place.
We first raised the front up on the bridge and supported the cross member with an axle stand.
Since I was going to try some stiffer springs out on the front, we took out the entire front struts to begin with. Since there are control arm bushings in the prothane kit this is also the way to go if your going to install those, we forgot to do these, they are probably also the hardest to take dissasemble.

[Ivan141]

After mounting the new springs we started work on the front stabiliser bushings.
We started with new end links, as these are pretty easy to replace, especially when you have a mate helping you out. Just put a 10 or 12 wrench on the flat bit in the center of the end link and start undoing those nuts on the top and bottom. Once you're done with that it is easier to undo them on the other side as well so you can move the stabiliser bar up without trouble.
The new end links come complete from prothane, you just put them on in the correct order and start fastening the nut onto the bolt. Be very carefull not too get carried away with tightening the nuts on these ones, cause you'll just squash the poly bushes if you go to far.
here's a pic of halfway the assembly, and the finished product.