Just finished replacing all rear end bushings with urethane but have not yet tightened the bolts, so here is my question: Should I load the suspension (jack the rear end up into the car) before torquing down the bushing bolts?

Thanks!

FYI: I would recommend removing and replacing the bushings on one link at a time rather than doing all four at once. Doing all four at once makes it a nightmare to get everything lined back up. Also, a round tapered bit for an air chisel comes in real handy to get the bushings to line up with the bolt holes in the chassis and rear end.

jorrell

Jorrell,

Its not necessary to have the suspension loaded to the neutral position with polyurethane bushings. They freely pivot unlike the rubber bushings which act more like an elastic. I've had all polyurethane on my 245 for 2 years now with no problems.

Yama:

Thanks for the reply... thats what I thought... just wanted to make sure.

The only bushings that gave me any grief during installation were the front TAB poly bushings (blue) as they interfered with the alignment chevrons welded inside the mounting tabs on the chassis. I wound up using an air chisel to remove the chevrons, ground the welds flat and repainted the mounting tabs. Gee, I wish that one was in the IPD instructions. I felt this was necessary to ensure that the PU bushings wouldn't bind on either interface as the additional compression caused by the chevrons would have resulted in wear of the PU bushings between the tabs an the TA.

jorrell

I remember that area causing greif to. My solution was to use the brute force method and just jam the s**k** in place. Now thinking back it seems like the pivot points could possibly be compromised. Can't say I've noticed any problems though. Its an area I'm going to revist though on another car I'm working on now. Do you think the removal of the chevrons will weaken the the area at all. How about cutting out some metal pieces to fill in the indented area.

Yama:

The Chevrons simply looked like alignment features to aid in assembly, however, given the amount of weld that was used I did give it some structural thought as well. As a result, I did. weld the outer edge of the washer to the outside of the flange today in order to thicken up the cross section of the material around the hole... probably overkill though as this chevron is only on one flange and not both.

The sad part is that I really stink at welding so to make sure I had a good enough bond, I layed down so much weld that it took me an hour with a grinder to clean it up! Maybe I'll take a class one of these years.

Thoughts?

jorrell

"Thoughts?"


I'll let you know after I revist this as its been awhile since I looked at that area. Currently I'm boxing in the traingle structure that supports one end of the front torque rod mount. I pulled them off for painting and thought them to be a bit to flexy. I cut some plates out of 16 ga steel and will be welding them on tomorrow.