How to: Install new suspension bushings.

Information on how to change the bushings in the front suspension without too much trouble. Get new bushings from either Superflex or Powerflex. Both types are made of polyurethane and should last longer much longer and be much stiffer than the original rubber bushes. Rubber is the saying word here; Rubber....makes you think about something soft and flexible which is not what suspension bushings should be. Polyurethane bushings will improve steering response and suspension precision, and your suspension alignment won't go out of adjustment. The original Ford bushings are not stiff enough and won't last.

1. Get the car up in the air with the wheels free, I.e. support in on the appropriate jack-positions on the chassis. Be sure that the car won't fall down on you (that could hurt and lead to serious injury). It is a very good idea to have it so high that you can stand erect under it. This will ease the work a lot.
2. Remove both front wheels.
3. Remove the bolts that holds the antirollbar-bushes, the bushing-carriers and the bar itself to the chassis. Remove the antirollbar-bushes from the antiroll-bar. Then remove the bolts at the ends of the antirollbar.
4. Use a big wise to squeeze the antirollbar together so that you can remove it from the lower track control arm. If you don't have a wise then remove the lower track control arm from it's inner fixing point, then remove the stabilizer bar.
5. Remove the bushings from the lower track control arm where the antiroll bar went through.
6. Remove the bolts that fixes the lower track control arm to the chassis.
7. Use a bearing puller or some other sort of extractor to remove the old bushing from the lower track control arm.
8. Clean and inspect all the parts you have taken apart
9. When installing the new bushing use lots of the supplied "copper-grease", this will ease assembly and make this move a lot easier.
If you don't have a wise do steps 10 and 11 in reverse order. I haven't tried it and I imagine it might require a lot of force to get the lower track control arms into their correct location when the stabilizer bar is fixed to them.
10. Insert the new inner bushings into the lower track control arm and fix them to the chassis with bolts and NEW nuts, the nuts have plastic inserts that locks them into place but those work only once. If you use old nuts the chances of them working their way loose is big.
11. Insert new bushings where the antirollbar passes through the lower track control arm and insert the antirollbar into the bushings and the track control arm. Fix the antirollbar to the track control arm with NEW nuts. If the nuts that comes with the bushings don't fit get some others that do from Würth or it's like, don't use old nuts. They did not fit on my May '92 car.
12. Mount the antiroll bar bushes around the antiroll bar and fix the antiroll bar to the chassis with the bush-carriers and screws.
13. Voila, you're done.

Here's the tightening torques:

It is a good idea to have all your suspension angles checked when new polyurethane bushings have been installed, the old bushings may have been so worn that when changing to new ones the suspension alignment gets poor.

If you have any other good ideas send 'em to: SigmundCool@hotmail.com

Here's a little info on the rear suspension bushes.

Back to www.wrc-cosworth.org.