SuperPro Bushing Install
By:
CsHoSi
(From: http://www.preludepower.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207766)
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I finally laid out the cash and bought a complete set of SuperPro poly bushings for my 'Lude from Global Parts Source. You can contact <glennd@globalpartssource.com>Glenn Dirkse or <beckyf@globalpartssource.com>Becky Flowers, or by phone, 616 399-9025.
Here is an updated price list for a complete set of bushings:
Originally I thought I could get ALL UCA bushings for $92 but after speaking with Glenn I found out that SPF2061K was needed for both front and rear. After this I opted for the Orijin UCA bushings but they were out of stock and the dood still hasn't returned my email so I later bought the SuperPro UCA bushings on another order.
Here is my almost complete bushing kit (minus the UCAs). Notice the Whiteline rear sway bar! The yellow bushings are included with the sway bar. I didn't have to buy SPF266-17k mount-to-chassis bushings since they came with the sway bar.
Ok, I've been lowered for about a year but was still riding on my rear OEM struts due to the bolts being seized in the rubber. Well, an Oxy-Acetlyene made a quick and fun job out of that! I wish I could have been taking pictures while cutting it was purty, lots of sparks and molten metal skating across the floor. Anyways, here is one strut after cutting it out and using the spring compressor:
And the new Tokico mated to the spring:
And Installed if interested
The torch cooked the old rubber out in no time flat. After the rubber fell out we still had to remove the thin metal sleeve for the new bushing to fit. We used a sawzall to make two incisions and then a hammer and screw driver to knock the metal sleeve out. After that the SuperPro bushings slid in nicely.
Here you can see what the new bushing looks like:
Notice I caught my lower ball joint on fire!!! I didn't wrap it with enough foil! Dano later suggested wrapping it in a wet rag instead of foil. Also, I tried using the sway bar endlinks that came with the Whiteline sway bar which I think now was a mistake. I had to enlarge the hole on the radius rod to get that to fit through. More on that later...
Ok, this is another shot once I got the endlinks installed:
As you can see, I had to use one of the old stock bushings to take up slack and it doesn't look like it's fitting very well. This weekend I will be installing the endlink bushing kit that I got from SuperPro, SPF0904-4k. They are much beefier. It sucks I wasn't thinking clearly when installing and just trying to finish. Now I drilled out my radius rod and ruined two of my washer things that were attached to the radius rod right there when it was not at all necessary.
Maybe somebody can tell me what those yellow pieces from Whiteline actually go to?
And here is the sway bar fully installed:
You can see the bar-to-chassis bushings from Whiteline that fit nicely. Also the upper-endlinks from SuperPro that were a pain to press in.
Well that's it for now, I'm going to install the SuperPro lower-endlinks tomorrow but I'd still like someone to tell me if those yellows from Whiteline were even meant to go there.
The rest of the bushings are going to wait until I can afford some downtime. I want to take the suspension components completely off the car and I have to replace the rear wheel bearings so I'm thinking about buying a 20-ton shop press and necessary drivers so I can do everything myself in my garage.
Almost forgot, I installed my rear Gladman STB while I was back there. I'm installing the front tomorrow, I will take pics of both, along with the SuperPro lower-endlinks.
Improvements?
I think improvement is an understatement. The car can grip hard! I can take corners frightenly fast. There's this one particular S-turn coming off the highway I like to play on, I took it at 65, previously only enough ballz to take it at 50. I'm sure I can go faster but I don't intend on crashing into the curb so I will wait for some track time to test my limits.
This is how my lower endlinks turned out:
I didn't end up taking out the yellow things that came with the whiteline cuz they were in there tight. I only used one of the yellow rings on bottom. I couldn't fit both SuperPros on there so I only did the top, rather than the stock one on the bottom as in the first pics. It looks to fit better now and is pretty solid.
I also installed the front Gladman STB. It went on rather painless. Just used a medium screwdriver to bend it maybe an eighth inch inward. Now the caps I couldn't get to snap on securely even though I trimmed one leg off. Here are the gladman STB pics:
The ride may be a little rougher, a little bouncier, but body roll is virtually non-existant and the car is very reassuring around turns at speed. The car starts to swing around slightly now when reaching the tires' traction limit and it seems I can maintain control with little effort. The steering response I can't really judge but I didn't put any of my front bushings in yet so maybe that's why I didn't notice much.
I'll be doing my UCA bushings next to hopefully eliminate the clunking sound when going over uneven pavement.