At some meet this summer, Id love a ride in your car.

Makes me wonder how much slop is in my abused drivetrain.

 

YES! please do!! You know how it is when you get a mod and you can swear up n down its made a change so it's always good to get a few opinions.

I'll be at Franks this saturday and if you're available, i'd be glad to let you drive her no problem

 

You guys are really talking apples to pineapples in respect to what your cars are. I would think this stuff would be a must have for you Bert... At the very least you would be the one to feel any differences in your car....

 

If since he's FI and killed his bushing's then i'm def sure he would feel a good bit of difference if i can feel a major difference after Frank installed the stuff on my car...

Frank was very impressed and amazed with it as well when he drove my car. He said it felt like the car had more umph because there wasn't that slight delay in the drivetrain anymore.

 

This is something I will def look into.

I have felt that after 70K HARD miles on my car, the handling has "loosened" up a bit, thats not to say it handles bad I just feel its not as direct. Reading this now makes me want to do other bushings I hadnt thought about before.

HMFIC-I'll actually be in Rome on Saturday, but Id love a test ride when we can meet up. I dont have to drive I'm sure I will be able to feel it from the passenger side. Thanks for the offer.

 

if you want to see the parts in person frank hasnt installed mine yet. They are goign on sometime next week though. If you stop by the shop im sure he will be happy to show them to you.

 

I would like a ride a well.

 

Finished pressing in the Whiteline front bushing kit. It took a lot longer than expected but all in all a great experience. I ended up buying the bushing kit from Adam @ Z1Auto, a 6 ton A frame bench press from harbor freight, a set of goose neck wrenches, a 29mm socket, and borrowed JasonZ-YA's awesome socket.

There is a DIY by JasonZ-YA for the transverse arm in the suspension DIY section. Awesome guide and very well documented.

Impressions of the install:
The press could use some more rigidity as I struggled to keep the frame straight throughout the day. Never the less, the press was $65 so it was cheap and it did the job. Pressing the driver side lower control arm bushings was more difficult than the passenger side due to the arm shape and limitations of the arbor plate positioning within the pressing frame.

Install Tips:
Take your time when pressing the bushings in and out. Make sure the socket is positioned dead center on the bushing. The best way that I found when pressing the bushings is to drop the pressing rod down on the arbor plate. Make note of that position. Then center the bushing at that spot by placing the pressing rod onto the bushing with one hand. Use the other hand to move the arbor plates out from underneath the arm so the bushings can come out.

On average, it took me 5 minutes to press out each bushing on the passenger side and 15 minutes to press out each bushing on the driver side. Pressing in the bushings took on average 15 minutes because the frame would warp a little and cause Jason's socket to slide off the race bearing. The race bearing will wear down and round out if the socket continues to slide off. This could make it exponentially harder press the bushing in because the socket is not perfectly sized (pretty damn close though). I have two videos of the pressing process but only available upon request.

Road impressions:
Couldn't tell you the difference between the poly and stock bushing because I put coilovers on at the same time. What I can tell you is that the coilovers and bushings in combination feel great. There is no harshness over bumps nor is there any creaking or odd noises. The car rides smoother than stock but that could just be the coilovers. Driving fast couldn't be easier. The car returns a lot more confidence on high speed corners and is sharp as a tack.

Final Thought:
Would I do this again? Probably not, but do I regret doing it? Absolutely not. I enjoyed every second of this install process. Picking apart that car and putting it back together better than it was originally is an awesome feeling. DIY modding is a labor of passion for me and I'll never stop. Rear diff bushings will be next for me.

 

AWESOME MAN!!! hell ya! glad you got it all knocked out...

about the press moving on you, I ended up replacing nearly all the nuts and bolts on my press with stronger ones and really torquing them down. I was able to eliminate some of the "twist" and slop out of my harbor freight press...

congrats on doing the install....
-J