An EASIER way to do suspension bushings

Hi Everyone,
Many of you may remember that last winter Verell and I went through the rear suspension of my 308 and did the bushings, powder coated the A arms, etc. and wrote it all up here. That was an example of "doing it right" and taking lots of time to make the suspension better than new.

Well, what I'm about to demonstrate is the opposite. This is what I call the "Get it done, spring is coming" technique.

The problem with these suspension bushings is that they are welded into the A arms and to replace them requires grinding out the welds, pressing out the old bushings, pressing in the new ones, and tack welding them. (Much discussion went into this in the past, and YES you HAVE to weld them).

Someone asked at the end of that previous thread if it would be possible to retrofit new "guts" into an old bushing, thereby eliminating the grinding and welding. The answer is YES! Please observe!

(FYI, this is an A arm from an '83 Mondial. It has the same inner A arm bushings as a 308 and that's what I'm demonstrating...a rear, inner, bushing guts replacement.)

Image 1 is the dead bushing that caused the need for me to do this job. If your bushings look like this (YIKES!), it's time for new bushings, man!!
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OK, you will notice that the OEM bushing has an outer shell which is pressed into the A arm, and an inner "tube" which is flanged out like a trumpet on both ends to hold it in, with rubber in between. To get the guts out, you need to cut the flange off one end. It's easiest to cut off the inner flange so you can press the rest out. I used a sawzall rather than an air grinder because the rubber fouls the grinding disk.

First pic shows the cutting process and second is the result.
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BTW, on that last step, be careful to keep the saw away from the A arm. Just cut the bushing! A Sawzall with a new metal blade goes right through the bushing in about 20 seconds, so this is easy.

Now you can press out the guts. If you select the right size pressing impliment (i.e. socket size!) you can press the inner metal tube and rubber all out at the same time. I honestly have no idea if you can do this step without a press. That rubber is REALLY stuck in there, because it's bonded somehow to the inside of the outer bushing.

For those of you who roll your eyes and say "Oh, well sure, that guy has a press. I don't have tools like that." I ordered this press from Harbor Freight on sale for $79 plus $9 shipping and another $17.95 for the arbor plates. Yes, a tiny bit over $100 delivered to my door by UPS. It's a cheapo Chinese 12 ton press that will do 90% of the things the average home car nut will need for cheap money. Works great!

BTW, in the pictures, I'm not actually pressing. When you press, you need to sit the bottom of the A arm with the bushing into a metal tube of some sort to support it all the way around the bushing so you don't bend the A arm. This was just for pics. (I couldn't hold the entire thing and the camera by myself!) I went down to the hardware store and bought a bunch of different sized iron pipe fittings to use as press accoutrements, but some people who have a large selection of monster-sized sockets just use those.
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OK, so here's what you get...the OEM outer bushing (still welded into the A arm) is now "gutless". The rubber actually comes out fairly cleanly. I expected to be using a wire brush on the inside and scraping all the rubber pieces out, but there was very little clean up. Once the rubber is broken free by the press, it comes out pretty cleanly.

Next pic shows the mangled guts that come out and you can see the inner "tube" that I cut off with the sawzall.
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Now we get out a nice Energy Suspension ("ES") bushing. These are made of polyurethane rather than rubber and people have debated if these are better or worse than OEM. What I can tell you is this...if you want to do this type of "cheater" bushing replacement, you must use the ES bushing because you can't transplant the guts of an OEM bushing. The ES model number is 13-3101 G (30 mm diameter) and you can get it from http://www.suspension.com/ferrari.htm (Suspension Restoration company) and they are currently $21 a bushing. (Yes, they went up since last year).

The bushing comes as two pieces that snap together. However, the guts of this bushing is only lightly pressed into the outer shell, and comes right out. (See second pic).

The shell is almost the exact same size in all dimensions as the OEM shell.
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The ES bushings each come with a little packet of super tacky lube. Spread some lube on the polyurethane guts, and spread some inside the outer shell of the bushing on the A-arm, and then stuff the guts into the shell. You will find that it's tight, but not so tight that you can't "press" it together with just arm power as long as it has been lubed with the goop. In fact, the tightness is exactly the same as the tightness of the guts in the original ES shell. They're the same inner diameter.

Tip: The guts are pushed in from the inside of the A arm, not the outside. (Just assemble it the way it would be assembled if you hadn't recycled the outer shell and the direction is obvious).

Next, pop the other end of the bushing on, and you're done.

You can do each A arm in about 30 minutes or less. It actually takes longer to get the A arm off the car than to do the bushings!

Happy Suspension rebuilding

Birdman
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You're welcome! This has been on the list of things Verell and I were going to test out for a year, but it took me this long to buy another car to test it on!

As for the 328/308, I'm not sure. I've never peeked under a 328. I can tell you that these are the same bushings for all 308s and at least the Mondial 8/QV. Beyond that, I'm guessing.

Birdman

 

oh yeah, I forgot the disclaimer, before anyone does this.

DISCLAIMER: I'M A TOTAL SHADETREE MECHANIC AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL I'M TALKING ABOUT HALF THE TIME, SO TAKE MY ADVICE WITH CAUTION!

Please use your own judgement when doing this and if something doesn't look right (like the bushing isn't tight in your OEM outer shell for some reason, or whatever else might be wrong) don't assemble your Fcar into an accident waiting to happen!!

THIS PROCEDURE IS POSTED FOR YOUR VIEWING ENJOYMENT ONLY!

 

Absolutely, but WAY more fun to have your own!

 

Dave,
I respect your opinion. When I did my 308, we went overboard, sand blasted and powdercoated the A arms, etc. Guess what? Nobody can see them and knows they are powder coated except me, and it makes no difference at all to the ride of the car. If the things have a decent coat of paint on them and aren't going to rust, some of us don't feel the need to "restore" the entire suspension. This Mondial is a daily driver, not a showpiece. By doing this method it might not be as pretty as doing it the "right" way but the suspension is fixed, the car will drive fine and it didn't take me a month and cost a fortune. Now I can put all that effort I saved into something else on the car. I think referring to this procedure as "half assed" is a little extreme, but everyone is entitled to their opinion! (I didn't refer to your suspension rebuild as half-assed because you ONLY painted yours, and didn't actually go the extra mile and powder coat them!)

Respectfully,
Birdman

 

Hi Dave,
I only have a year on the ones in the 308 (not exactly long term) but no squeeking yet.
Birdman

 

Sean,
I agree. If I were going to do a real suspension restoration, I would just go all the way and replace everything, including the shocks and bushings. Like I said in the first post, this is the "Get it done, spring is coming" technique! I'm sure plenty of people here will like that option. Not everyone wants a month-long suspension project when they just need some new bushings.

Birdman