*HOW TO* Poly/Nylon Bush Fitting
Again appolgies for no piccies... If someone wants to do the honours by following the guide and taking pics etc :D
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# Author: Stuart Lindborg (Cambridge) #
# Date: 2nd March 2005 #
# Contact: lidnborg.stuart@googlemail.com #
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Lets face it novas are a minimum of 12/13 years old and even with the best will in the world parts are going to wear out, even if the car isnt driven much. The suspension bushes are one of those items you tend to overlook as one of those "parts that dont exist" because you dont see them doing their work, they dont make your car have a louder exhaust/induction note and they certainly dont "seem" to do much. Well thats a load of toilet lol, the bushes are KEY to the cars handling because with worn rubber bushes the suspension parts can freely move about in directions that they arent supposed to go in etc, this is called 'play' and its generally not good for nice road holding.
You can replace your worn standard bushes with pattern part or OEM standard item or you could get a set of aftermarket "race" type poly/hard nylon bushes. The harder aftermarket ones are there to prevent the suspension parts from delecting too far under loads, which will lead to an improvement in road holding and better driver feedback, a down side is that they will take out some of the damping that the lovely rubber/worn bushes gave, so things might get a little bumpy. Never mind who cares about that when you want to go fast )
There are a few manufacturers/suppliers of these aftermarket bushes, to name them specifically in this guide would be unfair to those that i miss.
They generally come in 2 ratings "fast road" (or just regular harder bushes, generally Yellow in colour) and "race" spec ones (much much harder, generally in red)
Its possible that there are different colours and specs but i cant cover all makers, im only human(ish)
On a nova there are 3 key sets of bushes that need replacing and then a couple of extra ones but most people tend to forget them or change the spec of the suspension to eliminate even a hard poly bush. The 3 are Rear Beam pivot, Inner track control Arm and Tie Bar mount, these 3 do the majority of the "bush" work for the car so these are the ones that really should be changed and the rest, well they are a nice option.
It is a fairly easy job to so i shall give it a Haynes manual style 1.5 spanners.
Weather you have acess to ramps or not, the procedure is the same, its just easier if you have ramps.
Stuff needed:
Soft Beverages (alcohol and car repairs are a bad idea)
Food, and maybe a maccy D's break in the middle (other fast food outlets available)
Radio (select desired genre of station)
seriously:
Medium - Large sized Vice with a selection of large diameter tubing or large deep sockets
WD-40 or duck oil, and some copper grease.
1/2" drive socket set (3/8" will do) ranging from 8mm - 22mm + narrow spark plug socket
Breaker bar to suit above set.
Spanners (An adjustable will do).
Hammer(s)
Sturdy Flat bladed Screwdriver (for levering)
Jack/Axel Stands
Procedure
Im going to run through with the basics incase some folk arent as aufait with stuff like this as others.
Slacken all 4 bolts on both front wheels (or 5 if youve been mad enough to go 5 stud)
Place Hand brake on and chock the rear wheels (safety first)
Jack both sides of the car up and place on stands, id say higher the better, but its your call on that one.
Remove the front wheels and place under the car behind the stands (just incase) or just anywhere out of the way.
If you have your anti roll bar fitted, remove this (and throw it away, but thats another discussion).
Slacken off the front tie bar nuts (22mm), if they havent been removed before then soak in WD-40 (or similar) and leave for a while.
Remove the Tie bar nuts.
Undo the inner TCA bolts (15mm ish), they are the bolts at the other end of the arm that has the ball joint/hub on.
With a little wriggling and moving about the tie bars should come out of the mounts and the Track Control Arms will be out of their mounting positions. This will enable the steering knuckles to "float".
Slacken and undo the (13mm) nut + bolt that holds the bottom balljoint in the steering knuckle and remove the bolt. Use the hammer to knock the balljoint out of the knuckle and remove the lower arm from the vehicle.
You may wish to undo the two bolts that secure the tie bar, TCA and balljoint together, but its not vital, unless you fancy changing the balljoints while your here.
Undo the Tie Bar front mounts, 2 nut/bolt combos and a bolt (15mm), the mounts will come off the car.
Perform this operation to both sides of the vehicle (well duh you might say, but i wish to cover my back).
Take a large socket or the large diameter pipe and place it over one side of the TCA bush, then place the narrow spark plug socket over the metal slieve on the other end, put this all in the vice (might need 8 sets of hands) and then wind the vice closed to push the old bush out. Do both arms like this.
Clean up the bush hole, and the TCA in general, maybe give it a lick of paint while your there?
Take the new TCA bushes and liberally apply copper grease to the hole in the TCA and some on the outer edge of the bush and some on the inner hole. Place the halves of the bush in the TCA holes and push them in, if its diffifult then wind the vice up to clamp them in, once fitted put the stainless steel slieve (with copper grease) in the hole, again the vice might be needed to get it all the way in.
Place the TCA's to one side and get the tie bar mounts.
As these are quite slim you might be able to get away with jsut hammering the old bush out, if not then use the same method to get them out as stated above with the vice.
grease up the hole and bush with copper grease and push the two halves home, again a vice might be needed, then fit the slieve with the assistance of grease and a vice if need be.
Refitting these parts is essentially the opposite operation as the removal but you will need to apply copper grease to the outer faces of the TCA bush and the tie bar mount bush to reduce the frition on the poly, which could lead to premature failiure. You may also wish to check the "ovality" of the inner TCA bolt holes as they can go out of round and cause play in the suspension system, the "best" way to remeby this if it is out of round is to weld a small plate over it and redrill the hole in the correct place.
Moving to the rear beam
Slacken all 4 bolts on both rear wheels (or 5 if youve been mad enough to go 5 stud)
Chock the front wheels (safety first)
Jack both sides of the car up and place on stands, id say higher the better, but its your call on that one.
Remove the rear wheels and place under the car infront of the stands (just incase) or just anywhere out of the way.
There are two methods for removing the rear bushes, ive only done it one way but i shall describe both so you can make your call on it
method 1
undo the top shock absorber bolts inside the car and push the beam down to remove the springs.
Place chocks under the arms near the wheels to support it and then undo the two bolts that hold the beam to the car.
Drop the front of the beam down and then hammer the old bushes out. Once out you can then clean up the holes and apply copper grease, push the two halves of the bush into the beam and then used a clamp to make sure the bushes are seated right, then apply copper grease to the steel slieve and push that in, agian the clamp might be usefull.
Refitting is essentially the same as removal.
Ive not used this method as i was paranoid about hammering about under the car as it had a bodykit on etc, so i just used method 2 instead
Method 2
as method one, but you need to disconnect the hand brake cable and the brake fluid lines (bleeding afterwards is nessecary).
Totally remove the beam form the vehicle, due to its shape its a pain in the ass with regards to carrying it to the vice, so a 2nd person would be handy.
Using the same principle as the TCA bush removal method, get the old bushes out and fit the new bushes with copper grease, using the vice to drive the bushes and slieve home.
Refit the beam and reconnect the handbrake cable, and brake lines (bleeding will be needed after this).
Refit the other items as you had removed them
The other replacement bushes available are the ARB ones, which to be honest not many people bother with due to a lot of the ARB's being removed, but if you dont like the way it handels without then fit uprated bushes to that. You can also get uprated rubber parts for the suspension spring mounts, i have no experience of these but im sure they help as it will take the comperssion out of the rubber cup and leave it for the spring to do its job.
Enjoy
Late entry from Mike on this one
Also for those who aren't replacing the top-mounts with eccentric/concentric jobbies it's still worth replacing them with new standard ones, mine were totaled and the new ones only cost me ?22.50 each.
mikey14sr
Version 1.01
updated email address 18/09/2007
