Peter F

Anyone tried the new poly bushings sold at the big three:s?
Any noticeable difference?
What is the steps needed to replace them?
I'm changing the front shocks and ball joints to steel version.
Thought this might be a good idea while at it.

Thanks/Peter

Peter F

Come on, any experience on the forum of these?

Bruce Sinclair

I put some in well over a year ago. Requires removal of the upper A arm from the car. I did mine while doing the motor mounts which made getting to the attachment bolts easier. Loosen the nuts on each end of the arms before removing the arms from the car. The attachment bolts then need to be driven out of the arms to allow bushing removal. Re assembly takes some persistance to press the bushings into the arm but it can be done with common hand tools. It made a big difference in the handling of the car. pictures available here:
<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/jumpytoad/" target="_blank">http://members.rennlist.com/jumpytoad/</a>

Erik - Denmark

Bruce,
Good info and good pictures, but blue text on green background is very difficult to read!
You said: It made a big difference in the handling of the car - Can you explain the difference more precise?

Weissach

I would like to know if the painful process of doing this job was worth it for street use. I have found that new shocks and factory bushings give a pretty firm ride. How do these poly ones compare?? Anybody have a mini road report??

Bruce Sinclair

When I did mine my car had 135K on it, the car had probably never seen the inside of a garage. The factory bushings were very deteriorated. You could grab the ball joint end of the arm and move it forward and back over one inch without much struggle. This had obvious ill effects on the front suspension maintaining correct geometry. After the replacement there was more precise turn in to corners, less steering wander and a tighter overall feeling to the front end of the car. Being faced with bushings that were shot and replacement rebuilt arms costing 275 bucks each, Yes it was worth the trouble and 75 bucks for the bushings. My motor mounts, alluminum ball joints and steering rack were also replaced at the same time so the extra couple hours to do the bushings was worth it. If you have good bushings and have no other reason to tear down your car this far, is there a benefit to changing out the bushings to gain some handling performance? Probably not.

Peter F

Thanks Bruce for the advice and inputs.
Since I'm doing shocks and replacing aluminum ball joints anyway this sounds like a good idea.
How did you get to the a arm bolts?
It looks pretty tight down there.

Br/Peter

Bruce Sinclair

When I did mine I had the cross member and the steering rack out. It made getting to the bolts much easier. It is amazing to hear how many of these cars still have the alluminum encased ball joints. I guess it goes to show that many of these cars never went back to the dealer after the service bulletin was issued.

Peter F

So now the driver side has been dismantled.
All the parts have been cleaned and painted.
Tomorrow I will get the parts from 928 International to assemble everything again.
The toughest part so far was loosening the a-arm bolts.
The spring holding the a-arm boot looks like a difficult point.
Any advice on how to get that bugger back without damaging the new boot?