danmdevries does a RTA bushing

Posted: Sat 12 12, 09 7:30 am

THIS WRITEUP FROM DANMDEVRIES!

It needs to be able to flex in all directions. Over time they wear out and tear. This is greatly accelerated when the car is lowered because the bushing is constantly flexed beyond its original intention.

The bushing at the front of the visible trailing arm is what I'm talking about here:

This is the right way to do it. There's two right ways. One is to buy the special tool to do the bushing replacement on the car, the other is the way I'm showing here:

Prior to doing anything, put the car on the ground where the suspension will be resting. If you've lowered the car, this is important. If you're riding stock, not very. Mark the vertical axis on the trailing arm at the bushing while the car is on the ground. We'll get more on this later.

Remove the trailing arm from the car. This might take a while, most of the bolts are probably stuck. Also, good luck getting the handbrake cable to release from the slot in the back of the drum. Since my exhaust was already off and interior stripped, I just undid the cable from the inside, took out the three 10mm bolts holding the cable under the car and removed the whole trailing arm with the cable attached.

You can see when I dropped the arm, the bushing just fell apart. It was torn completely through, providing no support. I can only imagine how hairy this must've been on the road. Since I got the car as a shell, I didn't drive it like this.

Next step is to remove the old bushing and shell. Depending on what bushing you buy to replace it, the poly bushings require reusing the original shell. These are okay to use but can cause snap oversteer in a more performance oriented car because it will bind up when loaded with counter-axis rotational force when the original bushing was intended to allow some movement. I chose to replace with OEM-style rubber. Rockauto.com had them for ~$35 ea IIRC. The poly replacements I think were $100/set

You can remove the shell with a hammer but I wouldn't recommend it. Find someone with a press or get one yourself, it's a great tool to have especially when doing bushings and bearings.

If you didn't mark the vertical axis while on the car, do it now. Mark the trailing arm where the bolt hole axis passes through the bushing. See pic. Press the shell out. I had to make a jig for this using some plate steel, you can also press it out using a piece of 3" exhaust tubing seems to fit fine.

Now you have a baseline. If you're at stock height, you're going to use the stock axis. If you're lowered, you will have to rotate/clock the bushing to the rear because the distal part of the trailing arm is going to sit higher than stock. This is where marking it on the car is the best way to find out how much rotation to put on the bushing

Place the bushing so the bolt axis aligns with the mark you made and press it in. It took me a while to figure out the best way to press it in. This worked great for me: old rear drum topped with an arbor plate. Find something that works for you.

Press the bushing in, the outer surface of the shell will sit parallel with the highest point on the outer edge of the trailing arm. Easy peasy.

Reinstall on the car. In order to save the bushings on the control arms, front and upper, install these loosely. When you put the car back on the ground, then tighten them up so they're not forced out of rotation tolerance by being clamped down in a position the suspension will not be sitting at.

Good luck.[/b]