Doing brakes and bearings on the old sled. Will likely refresh the shocks and struts, as well. Maybe ball joints, while I'm at it. I was extremely pleased with the ride in my '83 VW Rabbit convertible when I re-bushed the whole car last summer with the Prothane poly bushing kit. Tight, but not harsh, for street use. Felt more planted on the road.

Noted that there is a poly kit for the 240. Front, rear, and accessory mountings. I'm thinking that, with 190K on her, it's time for a re-bush, as well. My question is this: Do any of the members have actual experience with a poly bushing kit on their street 240? If so, how do you like it, is it an improvement, and--most important--would you do it again if given a chance for a "do over"?

Thanks in advance.
B

I have used poly on IPD sway bars, front suspension rear position control arm, and torque rods in the rear. I can recommend poly in these locations and they don't add to noise or harshness. I have found cheap poly sway bar end links just crumble after a few year.

I think poly would be fine on the pan hard bar, never needed to replace front position control arm bushings but poly would probably be fine.

I had a set of rear poly TAB's but never could get myself to use them sand used rubber instead.

Dan

Looks like I'll be doing the front and only a few of the rears in poly. Can't wait to try it out. If it's half as good as the VW Rabbit turned out, I'll be a really happy guy. Thanks, all!

B

On all of my cars, I take out the shocks and strut cartridges and replace them with solid steel rods, and I never found the poly bushings to be at all harsh.



...seriously though, the rear trailing arm bushings make a noticable difference in harshness and do not, IMO, improve upon good stock bushings in terms of handling. Some people actually believe that the poly bushings, allowing free rotation, are inferior to the rubber bushings bonded to the shell, which limit torquing of the rear axle.

There are several locations where the poly bushings are great, including the control arms.

FYI: My bushings are a mix of poly (control arms and such) with OEM rubber in trailing arm... I forget the exact mix off the top of my head.

For the reason stated above, I was actually seriously thinking about concentrating my re-bushing the front end in poly and the rear using stock rubber-bonded-metal, as appropriate. Axle hop, and resonant noise transmission into the cabin of a rear-drive car is really no fun, especially on long trips.

B

Didn't notice any axle hop or axle/transmission noise with poly bushings out back on the panhard rod and torque rods. I did leave the regular rubber bushings in the trailing arms, though, as those didn't need to be changed and they are an utter pain in the buttocks to do.

I also had a rubber transmission mount and engine mounts, as well. I would think replacing those with poly would be a bad idea for noise, harshness, and vibration.

Yes. I put the IPD poly mix bushings in my 245. Worth it. Tightens things up. I would install poly bushings in any 240 I drove. I hear the Superflex bushings are good too.

I can easily suggest the IPD swaybars plus GT braces to improve handling also.

And if you're doing the shocks/struts look into upgrading those.

My attitude is to upgrade suspension parts whenever possible to improve the heavy understeer a stock 240 comes with.

Mods to my 91 245 suspension:
poly bushings
IPD swaybars
GT braces
Cherry Turbo shock tower brace
IPD overload rear springs (larger front springs came stock on 91)
Bilstein HD shocks/struts
15" wheels/tires

Absolutely worth it. Changes the way the car feels and handles for the better. The only part of the equation above I might modify is the BilHD's... Depending upon the car and driving style. The BilHD's are great but on the stiff side. If I did it again (and had the $) I might try Koni's.

I installed poly bushings front and rear (whereever I could put them) on my 245 Targa Newfoundland racer. It had very stiff springs and koni adjsutables set to relatively stiff settings front and rear.

The car NEVER felt stiff or uncomfortable to drive in. We drove on every road surface (ultra smooth to pocked gravel roads) at every speed (slow transit stages to all-out race speeds for 1500 miles. Never once did I wish I had rubber bushings.

Although the car wasn't a daily driver, we drove it daily for over a week on public roads, and I couldn't have been happier with the way it felt.

Long story long..it's an excellent update to the 240 suspension/chassis.

Thank you. Exactly the candid, real-world reply I was looking for. Appreciate it.

B