ease or difficulty of suspension bushings upgrade?

[Poindexter]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a meeting with an amazing mechanic today- the answer to my dreams actually. He was mentioned on a few of the Z forums, so I set up a meeting with him. One of his primary comments was specifically aimed at my concern over bushing health- and it turned out that I was wrong about needing new bushings. I never professed any great mechanical experience with the Z's systems- especially regarding a seemingly simple, yet at the same time, complicated inter-relationships of machinery. I just settled for a solution that seemed to fit. This guy actually told me to save my money in this area- for now, that my stiff ride was the result of a factory option rear sway-bar- which he showed me, and a slightly stiffer "stock" alternate strut- OEM branded Nissan. Apparently many of the earlier Z's came with extremely soft suspension, and this was one of the first factory tries to deal with people wanting more sporty handling. I could have changed the bushings to cream cheese for all the good it would have done me! So if I were to do any bushing changing now, it would strictly be to deal with future aging by putting in newer materials earlier. *Then* the questions about the elemental makeup of the bushings would come into play- but I would still have to address so many other factors. The synergy,the end result, involves so many more discrete contributions from more parts than I was aware of, something I would never have surmised without benefit of many years of experience in this type.

He told me to first concern myself with getting the carbs perfect, the click in a rocker arm adjusted out, correcting the botched front caliper job and changing out the bearings just because nobody could remember when they were last dealt with, which could mean 20+ years(!) and so on, to spend my money on the most important things first before I went after messing with the ride- which involves changing and adjusting several components.

So I still have to wonder about putting rubber in some places, and urethane in others, but unless I consider the effect of each move, before changing out many of the other related parts in the chain, I'm almost wasting my time. I bet this mechanic will have an opinion on this subject based on nearly 40 years of working on these cars.

So I'm just guilty of WIAI at its' most prominent. I guess the long-winded point I was trying to make is that I learned that it's almost never easier to alter one thing because "I felt like it", "I like the blue color!", or "I'm in there already, so I might as well..." without that piece being a part of a much larger and well-considered plan to deal with the relationships between all of the parts too. I guess that's why they call it "geometry".

[Sailor Bob]

You lost me.

[bkelly]

Here's the gap in my bushings due to the sleeves. Should I grind them down?

[Darrel]

Here's the gap in my bushings due to the sleeves. Should I grind them down?

Are those one piece or 2 piece bushings? IIRC, they are one piece. I don't remember having to gind the sleeve down at all.

[Jeff G 78]

It's been a while, but I'm thinking that there will be a gap between the two halves once you install them in position.

[Darrel]

It's been a while, but I'm thinking that there will be a gap between the two halves once you install them in position.

You may be right after checking out the pics of the ES kit online.

Take either your rear crossmember or the front differential crossmember and see if they will fit when the bushings are together like you show in the pics.

[conedodger]

I recall doing those outer bushings a few years back. I hammered away at that spindle pin for hours until I finally got up, went to Sears, bought the biggest BFH they had and put that problem to bed. One could argue that the hours of banging I had done earlier effected the fact that it took only two hits with the BFH...

Still, start with the biggest BFH you can find.

[bkelly]

I finally got my coil over perches welded today on so I can start to reassemble the suspension. I still think once everything is bolted up I'm going to have to grind them down flush. Yes those are two piece, which I thought was odd.

My solution to the spindle pin problem after wrecking two of them was to get a rear suspension off a parts car and cutting them out with a cut off wheel. Once the metal is "cracked", spray some WD-40 in there to loosen up the rust then they pop out with one hit of a hammer. Wrecking a $1 wheel is better than dropping $100 on a puller or $80 on new pins. I can't understand why the tool to pull them out in tact is more expensive than cave manning them out and buying brand new ones.

[adcvideo]

I also placed red poly on the front of mine and have driven with no issues, even with stiff Cosmos coilovers on the front (which I am taking off and replacing w/ OEM coils for around town) the cheap coilovers are way too stiff on bumpy roads.

[biddljj]

I had some clowns install urathan bushings in my 240Z... Now it's sqeek city...

I am thinking all of the bushing were installed with no grease...

I imagine I will be be disassembling and doing the bushing over again...

zdisease

[Curtis240Z]

The bushing length are different between the front and rear on the lower control arm. Make sure you don't have them switched.