Suspension Powerflex Front Control Arm Bushings

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Old 01-16-2019, 12:09 PM
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J_L
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Ok- put these bushings in a few weeks ago. Did the adjustable camber versions in the front. I don't know why you'd just do one pair and not all 4, for all the trouble.

The instructions on Newtis link are good. You unbolt the ball joint, which pops right out. 4 bolts on the rear bushing carrier. 1 bolt on the front bushing- that's a tough angle to get at. Need to get the car HIGH off the ground to have room for a long enough breaker bar, mine is 24". Have a big ratchet handy too. Then the arm slides right out. I picked up an adjustable length 3/8 ratchet at Harbor Freight for next time. That bolt also is supposed to tighten very very tight- I forgot what it was, but it's over 100 ft-lb, PLUS 1/4 turn. Which I just don't think is possible with my skinny arms. Did the best I could though, so far so good.

Hardest part was finding a shop to remove the old bushings. A regular corner mechanic I doubt would be able to do it. My guy recommended his machine shop- Under Car Inc- there are a handful of them around So Cal. They did it in a couple hours for $25 each bushing- $100 out the door. The old bushings were very squishy- you can move them by hand. There were a few cracks, after 4 years and 30k miles. Maybe halfway through their life if I could see the future. The Powerflex bushings I pushed in myself, once well-lubed with Energy Suspension grease- the real sticky stuff (cleans up easy with WD-40). I used a bench vise to press some of them in. Easy.

Upon re-install, do as the instructions say and install the front bushing bolt first. It's impossible to line up the bolt thru the nut if you already have the rear bushing bolted to frame. Nearly stripped the nut before it occurred to me I might be going out of order.

Despite what power flex says, I think its not possible to adjust the camber with everything assembled in the car. There isn't room for the wrench to fit in the little box the bushing sits in. I might try grinding down the wrench, as it's pretty much useless now. However, I figured out a trick to adjusting without removing the arms entirely. Have everything installed, except the ball joint. Loosen the camber bolt so it can move freely. Let the arm flop down. It's now at like 20 degrees vs. where it should be. Now tighten the camber bolt. Then lift and reinstall the ball joint. Boom- you rotated the bushing 20-something degrees. Do it in reverse to rotate the other way. Or do it again for more rotation.

I figured that method out when I attempted to measure my camber, and thought one side was quite a bit different than the other... and tried to correct it. Turns out I was not measuring accurately, and shouldn't have touched the bushing. But now I know how to do it... will re-do again sometime when I'm bored. I haven't tested my method yet, but I think you can get accurate camber measurements by checking a level (craftsman digital laser level here) in BOTH directions. Check, flip 180, check again. Average of those 2 #s should be absolutely correct, even if level isn't calibrated. All this assuming the car is perfectly level- the NM strut tower bar seemed like a good place to check that. I guess subframe would be better, but it's less accessible.

The side that I had set to max read about 2 degrees after an alignment. The other side I set to like 1 click off max, and that came to 1.5 degrees. At some point I'll try to set that side to max, then match whatever I get on the other side, assuming it's less than 2.

The wheels were pushed out quite a bit. Even at the top of the tires. Probably like 3-5mm out at the top, and they started rubbing on the fender liners. So I trimmed those, and seems to be fine now. My wheels are +42, tires are 205 wide. But if you're running something like a 35 offset wheel with 225s, this probably would be a real problem, unless you want to try rolling your fenders... Top hats would be your route then, to bring the tire closer to body.

The ride is a little more tactile with the bushings. More road noise and vibrations coming in on rough roads. On smooth roads, I don't think my butt knows the difference. And I don't know that I can tell sharper handling- I think my 16" tires are giving more slop than anything in my system, and dulling down other improvements. It does seem like launches from standstill are more smooth, less bouncing. Also don't know that I can tell a traction improvement due to the camber. Took a canyon run, and... seemed about as fun as other canyon runs. I'd hope on an actual track or auto-x I'd see lower times, but who knows. But dang it looks so much better now, haha. So at least there's that.

That's all I can think of... let me know any questions on the job or results!
 
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