The graphite bushings are better than the poly only, from what I heard. Poly has to be greased/lubed avery 6-8 months IIRC, and graphite does not. I went with the full respeed kit, I have yet to put them in though lol.


Keep the updates coming ham! Lovin it!

 

I have the fully graphite poly setup with stiffer shocks and springs. I have no binding issues. I have been more than happy with the car.

 

Due to the painfully cold weather I haven't been able to get much done lately. It's just too cold out in the garage. I can't even feel my hands when I go out there. Stay tuned though. I will get back to work very soon and post up some more progress....

Jamie

 

I did the same thing you did, same bushings, springs, shocks and struts. I ended up selling the RB springs and getting different ones, because it looked too tall on the RB springs.

The bushings are a bastard.

 

I don't know, on the racing beat springs, mine is sitting at 24inches from road to fender all the way around. Looks great to me.

 

kingsprings ftw

 

Glazedham42 i know what you mean by it being to cold, i live in mass, my car is in one of those big ten/car ports. people in warmer states are so lucky.

 

I don't know man.... Don't King Springs come from Aussie Land? By the time you figure in the cost of shipping, you could probably spend the same amount on coilovers. Then you just set the height wherever you want it... I'm just guessing though...

 

They do come from the land down under. But I have to say, they lower more than RB and Eibach and the feel real nice in corners. As for the shipping, idk, i got them from a forum guy.

 

That may be the answer. The "warn in" watts bushings may be giving enough. The stiffer springs may also be a valid point.

I would also add most street guys probably never put the car in a position to feel the binding.

-billy

 

Gentleman, it is my pleasure to present you with tonight's update. I haven't gotten much done the last couple of days, because frankly it's been colder than a witch's tit in a tin brassiere. Nevertheless, here we go....

With the help of everyone that chipped in here, I was able to reassemble the strut tubes with the new Tokico inserts inside. I decided to use some gear oil inside the strut tubes to help with cooling. I used gear oil over conventional crankcase oil because I was hoping that the thicker oil would be less likely to slosh around and leak out during spirited driving.



The next order of business was to finish painting the old parts that I was planning on reusing. Parts left to clean up were the top hats for the springs, and the top mounting plate. Not really sure what the correct name for these two parts is, but that's why I included the pictures.





Here are some pictures of the setup put back together. I'm waiting on new rubber spring isolators from Black Dragon to come in the mail. My old ones were rotten so I decided to go ahead and do it right the first time. No use reusing worn out parts. No as soon as those arrive I'll be ready to torque everything down for good.

 

This leads me to my only question of the evening. How are the springs supposed to be rotated when I torque everything down? I looked at the parts diagram in the Black Dragon catalog, but when I put the springs on as such it just doesn't sit right. I tried it three different ways, all pictured below. Am I doing this right? They just don't feel right when they are on there. Which of the three below is the correct location for the springs? They sit crooked and look generally unhappy on the bottom spring perches. Some input here would be much appreciated.

Exhibit A



Exhibit B



Exhibit C



And here is a bonus picture of Oliver, my basset hound. He's trying to stay warm in his hooded sweatshirt.

 

Here is a close up of the stock one that I pulled off my car. You can see how it should sit.

 

Here's a stupid question, sorry maybe a tad bit off topic, but I can't help but wonder...

Do these cars come with a standard Watts Link? or is there an option for a 3-link, kind of how there was that option for the Rear Disc Brakes and LSD?

Just curious, because if I remember right, the last time I had the car in the air one of the guys commented on how it had a factory 3-link... I havn't gotten a chance to double check that claim.

 

The tail of the spring should fit in the recess that you can see in these two pictures. The next coil above it should land on the part of the ring just above the recess.

 

Gotcha! Thanks for the pictures and descriptive advice. It makes total sense now. I just wasn't able to make sense of it down in the basement for some reason....

 

Just what I needed. Much obliged. You do realize that you have some catching up to do now don't you?

 

The first gen did NOT come with any tri-link option. All 4 link with watts linkage. The "one guy" either has no clue what he's talking about, or someone swapped in a tri-link before you got the car. Also the watts linkage would be swapped with a panhard bar, not tri-link. The tri-link involves removing the two top control arms and replacing them with one centre arm. Hence the term.

 

Yes I do need to catch up! Hopefully the weather will hold out for this weekend, I should be able to make a good bit of progress. Now that I have the front control arms and tie rods off its all downhill. New bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends weeeeeee!

 

WOW! those look great. makes me wish I had some money and time to work on my baby.

 

It's been a while, but finally a short update! It warmed up here in Indiana today. I think we may have hit about 47-48 F. So, I spent most of the evening after work, out in the garage. And here is what I got accomplished.



My original plan was to leave the rear end in the car and just swap out the bushings, but I thought, heck why not. If I'm going to go to the trouble of replacing all the pieces that attach to the rear end, I might as well go ahead and clean the rear end up too. So, hopefully in the next couple of days I'll start taking the rear end apart and cleaning it up. I should be ready to start installing some new parts soon too. It's always nice to head back downhill after you've been fighting something for a long time.

 

Hmmm.... for some reason my picture has disappeared from imageshack after I uploaded it.... Let me see if I can get it back up there somehow...

 

Should be fixed now...

 

Time for the update everyone! I've been getting quite a bit done, and the rear end is pretty much stripped down now. We've had a couple of 50 degree days here lately, and while it is rainy the temperatures are great. I forgot how nice it was to be out in the garage WITHOUT freezing to death.

The only thing that is really left to do to on the rear is to remove the brake lines. After that it will be ready to get cleaned up and painted. Then I will be installing all the components and putting the rear back under the car. But anyway, on to the progress.

First order of business was to take of the rear sway bar and get it cleaned up. Here is a picture of it right as I took it off. It was in pretty rough shape, and needed some major attention.



And now for the sake of our television broadcast, here is one that I prepared ahead of time. Actually it's the same one. I sanded it all down, and painted it with some Ford Red engine paint. I gave it 3-4 coats, so it shouldn't rust anytime soon. After it dried I put the new energy suspension endlinks in. They really make it look nice.



I have a quick question about the rear sway bar bushings. The stock bushings have a slit in them so that you can slip them over the bar. What is the best way to get the ES bushings on? Do you guys just cut a slit in them with something? If so what? I was thinking about using a hacksaw to cut a small slit in one side, so that I could get them on. I didnt' want to screw it up though, so I thought that I'd better ask around first. Input would be appreciated.





The next order of business was to get the bushings out of the control arms and watts link. I was originally going to leave the bushings in the watts link, because I've heard about how the rear end has a tendency to be too stiff and bind up. So, I did some research and a little asking around. I ended up sending a PM to Billy at Respeed and he was able to confirm my research. With the RB springs, the car will never be able to sit low enough to cause the rear end to bind. Billy said I should be fine switching out all the bushings. So that is what I decided to go for.

My initial thought was that I would be able to press out all of the bushings with a bench vise, or a bearing press. I decided that sounded like a monstrous headache, and probably wouldn't work on all of these dried up, rusty, old control arms. So, I ended up just torching them all out. It really was the way to go. I think it took me 45 minutes to get the bushings out of all the control arms, the watts links, and the watts link bracket. Can't argue with that.

The only downside is that burning them out gets pretty dirty. The bushings melt into this AWFUL black tar substance that doesn't come off of ANYTHING. I finally found out that laquer thinner will take it off, but not without some grief. If you decided to burn out your bushings, have something to catch them in when they fall out. An old metal bucket would be my recommendation.



I spent all night tonight cleaning the black tar crap off of the control arms and watts link. Took me about 2 hours. I also sanded everything down so that it would be easier to get the new bushings in. Once that was all done I gave them a shot of gloss black paint. After the paint has had a good chance to cure I'll put in the new bushings.





That's it for today! Stay tuned for more.

Jamie

 

Clean freak! lol, looks good man, and it sure pays off