Installing ES Polys in front control arm of 280ZX

[Guest x2164]

Hi All,

 

I've been searching through this forum for information about installing

Energy Suspension polyurthane bushings in the front control arms of

my 1981 280zx.

 

The correct procedure seems to be to remove the outer shell of the currently

installed bushing from a control arm and press the replacement poly bushing

into the now empty control arm cylinder that the bushing shell had resided in.

 

As someone else mentioned doing in a previous post i measured the O.D.

of the new poly bushing, using calipers, and compared it to the O.D. of

a shell from an OEM replacement bushing that was damaged during an

attempt to install it. Given that i got some variation of a couple of thou

measuring at several points around each O.D. it would probably be fair

to say that they are nominaly the same size.

 

Of course the directions that came with the ES polys say to leave the

old shells in which would probably make it a bit of a tight squeze

trying to get the polys in.

 

Most of the postings about installing the ES polys seemed to relate to

installing them in 240zs'. What i'd like to know, before i pick-up my

hacksaw and chisel as opposed to after , is if removing the outer

shell of the old bushing is correct for a 280zx.

 

TIA

 

pete

[Warren]

Installing them is not hard...removing the outter shell of the old bushing IS...however, YES, you MUST remove the outter shell of the old bushing. Once you have removed the inner sleeve, you can use a hacksaw, or pnuematic body saw to cut through the outter shell, being VERY VERY careful not to cut into the control arm itself. Once you have a groove cut all the way through the outter shell, the outter shell should easily come out using whatever you have to pry it out. There won't be any tension left on it keeping it in place, merely most likely some rust. Then just lightly hone out the control arm to remove the remaining rust.

 

A MAJOR error that some people make during the installation of the new ES bushings is that they try to put one bushing half in, then put the sleeve in, then try to force the other bushing half in... IT WON'T WORK. The correct way to do it is to lube everything up with the grease they supply, then put the two bushing halves in, then slide the sleeve through them. If you don't, you will trap air between the bushing halves and no matter how hard you try, you can't get the bushing halves to meet in the middle.

 

BTW, the instruction sheet that comes with the ES busings are GENERAL instructions, not all parts of what they say applies in all circumstances.

 

Hope all of that helps ya. But YES, definitely remove the outter shell of the old bushing or the new ES stuff won't fit.

 

I did my front ones last month and I'm doing the rear ones today, along with installing the rear camber and toe adjusters.

 

Warren

[Guest x2164]

Hey Warren,

 

Glad you mentioned not putting the the inner sleave in before you have

to halves installed. Probably saved me a couple of hours right there.

 

One thing i forgot to ask in my first post concerned longevity of the polys. One

of the post i read said that the polys' life wasn't as long as rubber,

i thought it was just the opposite.

 

Well i guess i've used up all the good excuses for not going out and

installing the new bushings, time to get dirty.

 

Good info.

 

 

pete

[Warren]

Well, I can't answer the question of longevity of these particular bushings, but from what I understand, they're supposed to last as long if not longer than the stock rubber/steel sleeved bushings. I guess only time will tell as I'm too far committed now to worry about it. I do know that when they do wear out, they'll be ALOT easier to replace than the stock ones, so just from a maintenance/replacement standpoint, the polyurethane ones win hands down. Besides that, they're a whole lot cheaper than stock ones.

 

Warren