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Bump on my torque question, does the suspension have be to loaded when tightening all of the control arm bolts? I'm thinking about jacking up the wheel carrier before tightening everything down?
Found this in the workshop manual about installing the main control arm:
Generally speaking any retained rubber bushing with a vulcanised sleeve should be tightened in the ride height position. U can tear out the sleeve if its in constant tension. Ball joints, heims, monoballs and poly bushings with loose sleeves can be tightened i any position.
Does anyone have experience with Powerflex Bushings?
Pros/Cons? I have a press at the house and it does seem like it would be a relatively simple/economical upgrade rather than buying new components (even aftermarket).
The manual is explicit about it. Follow the directions in the manual. The part you circled couldn't be much more clear.
Can you do something differently? Sure. It might be fine. Why bother... You are at risk of tearing the rubber that bonds the center of the bushing to the control arm side of the bushing, resulting in additional redundant cost, and rework.
Yes, powerflex bushings are great, but you need to be comfortable with the addition noise, vibration and harshness that comes when you replace rubber with polyurethane.
Does anyone have experience with Powerflex Bushings?
Pros/Cons? I have a press at the house and it does seem like it would be a relatively simple/economical upgrade rather than buying new components (even aftermarket).
yes I did the whole set on my car . Big job but not complicated . All the labour is in removing the old bushings . They press in easily with a basic press .
I sourced them from the UK which was cheaper than the us .
They improve the handling significantly and given that the oem ones don’t last especially if you’re doing track days , the fact they last 4x longer than stock is a bonus
if you’ve also done other suspension upgrades like coilovers and sway bars , which will put additional stress on the rubber Bush components , up rating to poly bushes is worth considering as they are much stronger
if you’ve done other suspension upgrades , what I would say is up rating the bushes is what pulls it all together .
i used the street purple ones . I wouldn’t reccomend the race black ones except in a true track car
my earlier post post in this thread has a link to the uk source .
ive used other brands in the past
powerflex is much better to live with .
yes I did the whole set on my car . Big job but not complicated . All the labour is in removing the old bushings . They press in easily with a basic press .
I sourced them from the UK which was cheaper than the us .
They improve the handling significantly and given that the oem ones don’t last especially if you’re doing track days , the fact they last 4x longer than stock is a bonus
if you’ve also done other suspension upgrades like coilovers and sway bars , which will put additional stress on the rubber Bush components , up rating to poly bushes is worth considering as they are much stronger
if you’ve done other suspension upgrades , what I would say is up rating the bushes is what pulls it all together .
i used the street purple ones . I wouldn’t reccomend the race black ones except in a true track car
my earlier post post in this thread has a link to the uk source .
ive used other brands in the past
powerflex is much better to live with .
Thanks for the tip!
I just ordered a ROW M030 kit from Carnewal and figure this would tie everything together a little tighter than stock.
What did you do for arms with the ball joints? Are replacement ball joints available or are we stuck when the ball joints give out?
Anyone have any tips for getting the large end of the tie rod boot over the steering rack? I've been trying for over an hour and can't seem to get it on... tried screw drivers, needle nose pliers, but it just seems too stiff to get the whole thing over the lip. It's a TRW boot.
Anyone have any tips for getting the rear wishbone ball joint to pop out? It's pretty hard to get to, can't get my ball joint separator to it, and can't seem to get it to pop off with a pickle fork. Sprayed some PB Blaster on it for tonight, will try again tomorrow.
Finally finished up the project on Sunday afternoon, most of the ball joint seals were blown (2002 Targa with ~90k miles.) Are my old parts of any value to anyone, maybe if you want to put new bushings in them? Took it for a quick test drive, feels nice and tight with no rattles or squeaks anymore, going for an alignment tomorrow.
Yeah, pretty straight forward install, only troublesome part was getting those darn tie rod boots on. The rear wishbone ball joints popped out easily with a pickle fork once I released the other side from the chassis. Couldn't get a torque wrench on some of the parts so I just torqued them by hand. Spent a few hours a day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, overall not too bad.
I think the only specialty tools I used were a pickle fork, ball joint splitter, 32 mm wrench for the tie rod, T40 torx socket, and I wish I had a thin 21mm wrench for one of the rear control arm bolts. Everything else was just normal size wrenches and sockets.
10-21-2018, 08:10 PM
