Fit problem with outer rear control arm bushings

[dladow]

I ran into an unexpected problem over the weekend in the midst of rehabbing my rear suspension on my ’73 240z. I was working on replacing the bushings in the rear control arm. After hearing all the horror stories about removing the spindle pin to replace the outer bushings, I was expecting a long tussle to get it out. But the spindles, both sides, came out clean – no rust – and with minimal effort. (Better to be lucky than good). When I tried to dry fit the new inner metal tube (that goes inside the new bushings) on the spindle, it was clear the spindle diameter was a smidgen too large to go through it. OK, fine, I’ll just use the stock metal tubes, right? Nope, because they had too large an outside diameter to go through the bushings. (Fortunately, the bushings themselves fit fine in the outer control arm holes.) Hmmm. What I ended up doing was taking my right angle grinder and cutting through each of the replacement metal tubes lengthwise, so they could expand to fit the spindle. That way, I could still get the tubes through the bushings and the now the spindle fit through the tubes.

 

The bushings and tubes came from the Energy Suspension kit, and everything else has fit perfectly. But this set for the out rear control arm bushings were simply the wrong size for my spindles. Has anyone else run into this problem with the Energy Suspension bushings for the rear outer control arm?

 

David