Bushings!:)

[Ivan141]

Next up where the tension rods. You only need to undo these at the front of the car, the other side is only for alignment adjustments.
After you take the nut at the front off you need to loosen the two nuts on the underside of the control arm. When they are off you can use a hammer to get the tension rod out of the control arm if it's stuck.
Install new bushings with some lubricant and put it all back together again....
Now the only bushings up front that I havent done yet where the control arm bushings and the middle 2 stabiliser bar bushings, which are very easy to replace, just read mux's post.

Here are some more pics: first is before tension rod bushings install, second is a close-up of tension rod bushing, third is view of completed front.

[Widar]

Damn, the front stabaliser bushing look like hell lot of fun to change!

I really dunno why.

[Ivan141]

Okay, now onto the more complicated part of the job, the rear suspension.
We started by just taking off the rear stabiliser bar completely..
The middle 2 mounts are easy to take off, 1 bolt each. The end links are also pretty easy to take off if you take a good look. They are supported by a single nut on top of the assembly, if you leave the stabiliser hanging when you undo the first turn of the nuts then the endlinks cant move, making the process a bit easier. (So first undo both nuts a bit, because it's more difficult otherwise). Also undo the nuts holding the bar to the endlinks a bit before you take everything off.

The old bushings can be pressed out of the stabiliser using a vice and some large sockets or bits of pipe, we put a larger socket behind the bushing to stop the bar (so same diameter as metal around bushing). Then put a smaller socket in front, or a smaller pipe that pushes on the metal insert, and tighten the vice. This will push the bushing out into the larger socket. The new bushings can be pressed in using the vice, if one side wont cooperate you can squeeze it in using some big channel locks (err dunno if thats the correct name for them...waterpomptang in dutch..).

Before you start working on the 4-links, it is easier to get the panhard rod out of the way, and possibly even the rear springs. Just undo the top mounting bolt, then undo the mount on the axle and slide it off of the axle backwards. Dont lose the metal shims because you will be re-using them..

The bushings of the panhard rod are the most difficult ones to remove, you can press out the rubber on both of them in the usual fashion with the vice (theyre a bit small for mux's drilling method). The bushings on the lower axle side mount of the panhard are of a 3 piece design, they'll probably fall out on dissasembly, the other side is more difficult.
When the rubber is out of the chassis (top) mounting point, you will most likely notice that the bushings dont fit. That is because there is a metal sleeve in there that is corroded and probably not coming out. To remove this one you need to find a metal piece of pipe that is exactly the same diameter as the sleeve, so you can rest the sides of the mounting hole on the vice, and hammer out the sleeve. The new bushings for this hole are 2-piece design, easy to fit. The axle side mount however gets a 1 piece bushing to replace the old 3-piece one. Pressing this one in is very tricky, same principles apply as with the rear stabiliser bushings. press and squeeze in the protruding bits.

[Ivan141]

Pfieuuww....I'm tired....last ones left are the 4-links...
You can take these off one at a time, which is probably best because the axle stays in place that way, making it easier to reinstall the arms.
Undo the big bolts with whatever you can use, we used an air wrench where possible, and hammered on a ring-wrench (name that tool!) to get the nuts loose on the harder to reach places. You need to tug on the arm a little to get it out (as demonstrated by our model robokill in the pic below) .

Again you need to press out the metal sleeve first with a smaller pipe or metal bar, then use a socket to push the rubber out. New bushings can be pressed in with some lubricant using the vice.

Getting them back in place is a tedious business, you need to hammer the arms in place and exactly align the hole for the bolt to come through. When it's aligned as good as you can get it, you can tap the bolt through with a hammer (be carefull though). I suggest doing the chassis side first, that worked better than putting both ends in to start with.

[Mux213]

Owh nice, the same procedure looked at by two different people, interesting how many different ways you can get stuff done.

God I need to get myself an airwrench though, some of the bolts are crazy to get loose....

[NoHachi]

Nice work everyone! nice writeups aswell!

[robokill]

... i look like shit .....

[KristianAE86]

robokill Wrote:... i look like shit .....

[AndrE86]

today mounted the bushings

[Tofu @ AE86]

hehe....today i finnished mine!

damn! that supergrease should be called "superglue"....

ok...a little help for you....do you want an easy way to take the old bushings out?.....barbecue....iep, a blow torch or a barbecue will burn those sucker out in a instant!

i installed all the bushings at the same time, plus rca´s and camber plates....and damn....i´m tired....


i want to thank the help of two friends of mine, Gon & Apardal for helping me out alot!


btw, the car´s handling really improved, just wow