Urethane Bushings

[Turbo Shogun]

Twenty minutes... That makes it a hella closer commute. I have to drive (Legally) 45 min. to an hour to get to St. Pete to get some Auto-X Action. Even further if it's SCCA. Looks like there's a pretty sizeable Auto-X community there. Good to know! As for snow events, I think they'd be interesting...

 

[dsm1kenobe]

Originally posted by DarthBulk
...But unless you want a major disassembly job, don't tackle the subframe bushings. I just took the whole subframe off to get at those, and put a new steering rack in while I was at it. That turned out to be a bigger job than I planned.

Anyone suggest an easier way to change out these bushings? I was under the car over the weekend, and changing those bushings out looked scary.

 

[arffy]

Originally posted by 4pistons
Check out the Joliet Sports Car Club, although you'll have to wait til spring. www.jolietsportscarclub.com/pictures.html (The 2004 schedule isn't up yet.) It's a fun Run-What-Ya-Brung race. No classes so any mods are OK. It's a handicap/bracket type system. We get all kinds of cars showing up from stock Escorts to ZO6s, BMWs, Vipers and even full on, race prepped cars. It'd be nice to see more DSMs show up.

Rick - '91 GSX

Hey Rick maybe I'll see ya there in the spring, I just live 7mi. from there but never knew about it?!

Anyone suggest an easier way to change out these bushings? I was under the car over the weekend, and changing those bushings out looked scary.

I plan on going underneath tomorrow to tackle my complete E/S Hyper-flex kit. I plan to use a holesaw to cut the rubbers out of the old bushings, then a pipe cutting bit in an airhammer to get the outter sleeves out. I've done it before on other cars, I'll let ya know how I make out over the weekend.

 

[DarthBulk]

Originally posted by dsm1kenobe
Anyone suggest an easier way to change out these bushings? I was under the car over the weekend, and changing those bushings out looked scary.

I seem to remember a post on here by a guy that managed to change those bushings by taking the bolts out on one side of the subframe, and wedging it away from the body a little. He said he was able to push them out and get the new ones in. Then he put the bolts back in on that side and did the same to the other. I tried searching for that post but couldn't find it...does anyone else remeber that?

Those bushings DO pop out of the subframe pretty easy, at least mine did. I just popped them out with one hand. Of course, my subframe was off the car and sitting out in the open

 

[4pistons]

Hey Rick maybe I'll see ya there in the spring, I just live 7mi. from there but never knew about it?!

I'll be there, be sure to introduce yourself. We need more DSMs out there.

Anyone suggest an easier way to change out these bushings? I was under the car over the weekend, and changing those bushings out looked scary.

If you're lucky they come out easy but plan on plenty of downtime, disaasembly, cutting, torching, hammering and swearing. But when it's finished it's well worth the effort!

Rick - '91 GSX

 

[arffy]

well I got mine done, I know most of u in this post have a 1g and the 2g is differant, but I can tell u mine took some time. I had the better part of 40hrs invested, but that was also struts, springs, undercoating wheel wells, POR15'n suspension parts, new tires and stripping and repainting wheels while they were off. But I can say that about half or better of the time was just bushings, I installed the ES hyperflex kit which was 22 of them so that's about an hour or so per bushing. Most of which I did on the car except for the control arms and trailing arms that I took off. I just used a hole saw to cut the old rubber out and airhammered out the outter bushings. As for installing new one for those planning on doing this I might suggest the set from Prothane as they are split into two halves and slide in rather than needing to be pressed in although they are alittle stiffer even then the ES ones, but if u go with ES then just a vise will work for putting them in.

I can tell you after driving it for a week now that I personally love the feel and how well it handles, as you can actually feel the car and road, may not be as smooth as stock rubber but that is a scarifice that is made for perfromance gains noway around it. My other two cars are a '86 Monte SS and a '89 IROCZ both of which I've had ES bushings in for years with no noise or cracking problems, and love how they feel and handle as well.