While my motor was out (more on that later) I decided to re-bush the car, specifically the rear end. I already had the Energy Suspension subframe and differential mounts, but I wanted to replace the mounts in my uprights and the various suspension arms. While I did re-bush every arm, I ended up replacing and upgrading my rear arms before it was all said and done. I’ll give you some tips on my experience with this tedious and frustration process, which actually caused me to dislocate my right wrist at one point.
First, you should probably only do this if you are 1) really bored or 2) your suspension is noticeably worn and sloppy. Just get the rear wheel(s) up and pull on the tires. If there is a lot of play you have issues. If there is no movement, get under the car (with it properly supported of course) and shake on each of the individual arms. If any of them move around a lot then the bushing may be rotted and would need to be replaced.
You’ll need to remove your various arms from the rear of the car. If you want to do the uprights like I did then you’ll need to remove the wheel, caliper, rotor, hub, and basically all of the suspension arms. Once you get them off you should probably use a press to remove the original bushings and to install the ones. This was a pretty difficult task at first, but once you figure out the trick they go pretty quick. Just be safe because the press is no joke and you can get hurt if you are not careful. The secret is to use two sockets (impact wrench sockets work really well). Put the bigger one underneath and the smaller one on top and you can push the bushing out of the arm and into the larger socket.
While I was doing this I read on various forums about stiction and energy suspension bushings not being good for some components. You’ll have to find this out for yourself. The subframe and differential bushings have lasted years and I’ve had no issues with them. I’ll update this post if I have issues with the uprights. However, I did get a new set of OEM rear lower control arms which came with new bushings and a new ball joint as mine were not only worn, but I damaged them in the process of trying to remove one of the bushings. (Oops).
I sandblasted my parts and painted them before reinstalling. If you don’t have a sandblaster a wire wheel, scuff pad, or sandpaper would work fine. Nobody will really see these parts, but I did it for rust prevention.
So when I finally got down to doing my own suspension work (beyond just installing coilovers and camber plates) I realized why you would upgrade the various parts in the rear of the car. The RUCA I already had upgraded from Megan Racing for many years and that basically lets you adjust your rear camber. The rear toe arm adjusted the toe. The traction rods didn’t appear to have any adjustment capabilities. Seeing each of these while taking the parts off and inspecting them allowed me to understand the adjustment capabilities or lack thereof.
The RUCA and TOE ROD used an eccentric washer on the bolts that connect the arms to the subframe. This washer would rotate slightly when turned one way or the other, allowing for minimal adjustments in camber and toe. A stock car with oem characteristics will be fine with this, but a lowered car needs more adjustment. Perhaps more importantly, the way this is designed is not very stable, so under hard cornering (at a track event, for example) you could potentially cause this eccentric washer to strip/slip and your adjustment is lost causing unstable handling.
For this reason, I upgraded all of the arms including the traction rod which gives me additional adjustments (although I need to learn more why next time I go to the alignment professionals). I also chose to get the SPL lockout kit which removes those eccentric bolts for the reasons I mention above. You obviously don’t want these unless you have adjustment arms.
In this picture I have just attached the arms, but I later went back and adjusted them properly. You want to make sure the belt on each end extends evenly so that the rod in the middle is turning and the ends are stable. Then you lock the bolts down towards the middle to keep everything in position. That’s a very important point and I’ll probably swap out this photo to make sure everybody understands that.