Ive just replaced the front bottom suspension arms, the old ones were badly cracked at the tie bar mounting points. I found that when bolting the tie bars back to the arms they didnt tighten down flush and I think the reason is its had polly bushes fitted with absolutely no give, hence the reason the arms fooked up in the first place.

 

Now im looking to replace the bushes with a softer type, unfortunately looking at the traders sites it only seems to be the the hard polly bushes that are available, does anyone know of a supplier of uprated bushes that still have a bit of give in them

The newer Energy suspension tie bar bushes have been redesigned to overcome this problem. Tried speaking to Smithy?

not yet, I thought the energy ones would be just like the ones fitted already

 

Looking at the suspension as it was the tension bar must have been acting like torsion bar suspension and giving the coil springs major assistance, shame the arms arent built to take the strain.

 

thanks for the info I'll give Smithy a shout.

Other option is to fit the adjustable pillow ball type.... Don't need much compliance in the tension bushes so it won't give a firmer ride, just more positive steering responce, which is always a good thing :)

yep am considering those, but really want to keep it looking as standard as possible (for insurance purposes ;) ). even to the extent that I decided against KYB adjustables and renewed the front shocks with another set of OEM

One of my tension rod bushings is leaking clear sticky stuff and I'm thinking of getting the energy type ones from smithy.

 

can anyone confirm that these were redesigned to prevent damaging the tension bar?

I couldnt find out if the newer style bushes were softer and didnt want to take the chance so I went down the adjustable tension rod route.

 

Its not the tension rod that gets damaged its the suspension arms where the tension rods bolt onto that fook up.

One of my tension rod bushings is leaking clear sticky stuff and I'm thinking of getting the energy type ones from smithy.

 

can anyone confirm that these were redesigned to prevent damaging the tension bar?

 

new style tension rod bushings are a 3 piece design, whereas the old style wern't, which was a problem in itself.

cheers

smithy

Ossian, I have been speaking to the traders and no one has any bushes in stock!

 

I am also looking at going the adjustable route, How easy are they to fit and setup correctly?

 

I am also looking at the other front suspension bushes, is it worth doing them as well?

Ossian, I have been speaking to the traders and no one has any bushes in stock!

 

I am also looking at going the adjustable route, How easy are they to fit and setup correctly?

 

I am also looking at the other front suspension bushes, is it worth doing them as well?

 

they are easy to fit, if you set them to the same length as the old ones you remove then the Caster will be roughly the same.

To adjust the caster correctly you will need it on a 4 wheel aligner :)

When i first got the car the tyres on the front were wrecked on the inside edges. I had new track rod ends and new tyres all round last summer. I checked the fronts yesterday and the wear appears to be equal across the tyre. I'm only changing my bushes as the passanger side one is leaking heavily.

 

I might wait and do all the front bushes, the tension rod bushes have now been redesigned i belive.

I got new replacement bushes from MJP in the Traders section not too long ago. They are the same as the originals. Bu**er to fit, but they are a softer option to Poly bushes - and a lot of technology in comparison.

 

Good luck

 

Jack

got some adjustable tension rods from luke at the zcentre today!

Sorry bud, havent been on much for a couple of days. personnally think youve made the right choice with the adjustable links all the benifits of the poly bushes without the side effects off fukin the suspension arms. And as Paul C says they really are easy to fit just line them up to the original tie bars for lenght, then for fine tuning get them set with at a garage that can carry out four wheel alignment

 

 

ps. the front tension rod bolts can be a bit akward to get out (they hit the arch lining) but they do come out with a bit of levering.

Cheers mate, they do look a little difficult to get to.

i got nismo tension rod bushes... they didnt cost much either.

A month on and I am just about the fit the adjustable tension rods I got from Luke. He said that I needed to grease the threads before fitting them. Which threads on them do I need to grease please?

A month on and I am just about the fit the adjustable tension rods I got from Luke. He said that I needed to grease the threads before fitting them. Which threads on them do I need to grease please?

 

where the actual adjustment is, where the threaded parts go into the main arm!

Cheers Paul, I am reusing the bolt that went through the old bush, the new rods come with the spacers to fill the gap. Do I need to grease this bolt as well?

Cheers Paul, I am reusing the bolt that went through the old bush, the new rods come with the spacers to fill the gap. Do I need to grease this bolt as well?

 

wouldnt hurt mate, i usually put a little bit of spray copper slip on them :)

Thanks mate :duffer:

Did it this morning, not too bad of a job. Had to take the roll bar and suspension arm down to get the drivers side bolt in and out. All done now tho.