OK, so I'm ordering bushings...
 

...from Mazdatrix.

What all do I need to do the complete front end? This is what I picked out thus far.

SUSP BUSH URETHANE 79-85 F BAR (2) H-115101



SUSP BUSH URETHANE 79-85 F SB END (8) H-98106



SUSP BUSH URETHANE 79-85 L.C.A. (2) H-113101



BUSHING IDLER ARM 79-85 ALL 32-329B-1524

also check out this kit. It's the complete front end kit.
pst bushings

i would do control arm bushings probably.

You need bushings for the sway bar mount (on the tension rod bracket), bushings for the sway bar end links, bushings for the inboard end of the control arms, and bushings for the tension rod ends. Check your ball joints while you're at it.

Rich

Let's see if I can make the complete list from memory for when I did the front end (I did all my steering components at the same time)

- Control Arm x2
- Ball Joint x2
- Tension Rod (set of 8 w/ hardware)
- Sway Bar End Links w/ Bushings (x2, or x4 for front and rear...I bought new links, they weren't much more)
- Sway Bar Bushings (that hold the long part of the sway bar in place)

I did the tie rods (they have replacable bushings on 'em, I just got new tie rods inner and outer and adjusting sleeve)
And also the Pitman Arm and Idler Arm (again, in some cases replacable/servicable, I just got new ones)

That should just about complete the front end. I'll double check when I get home, I've still got my receipt from Victoria British for mine

Jon

I'll second that vote on www.P-S-T.com

I still haven't installed it, but the kit looks like its good quality. Take a look at their offerings before you order....

energy suspension also has a full master set

http://www.pagparts.com/perfpts4.asp...nsion&makeid=7

(edit. removed the bushing set wrong year car)


is that really all the bushings used?

I tryed to buy a master set from some company that sold energy suspention bushings(the red ones you see everywere).. I wsa going to pay 169 for them. Then the guy told me that energy suspention doesn't make a master set for '79 '85 RX7. I was ohh ohhokkk.. I was going to shop around for each part. If this is a complete set.. i thank you for letting me know.. not to mention that its cheaper then what I was going to pay, i'll be able to save some cash for some new shocks. Don't suppose you got a cheap source for those? or what about the shocks on the rear hatch..??? omg.. thick coffee.. late at night.. swwwweeeetttt :D

That master set is for FCs.

I have found good pricing on energy suspension items at http://www.suspension.com/mazda.htm <click>

Concentrate on the front of the, you want the back loose, so if you have good rubber in the rear, then let them be.



John

Re: Bushings
 

For the front you can get: Stay rod bushings, Control arm , sway bar, sway bar end links and tie rod / ball joint dust covers.
For the rear you can get the sway bar, sway bar ends links, watts kit and control arms.



Give us a shot. We have all the bushings listed below any of the above listed places. We also have assembled a complete kit for the FB from ES.

http://www.mrcmfg.com/respeed/catalo...acde11b6ef4b68


-billy

http://www.suspension.com/

Suspension Restoration. They will make the master kit for you.

Awesome people and a great price.

But your complete kit has polyurethane in the back, right? Everyone says that is bad.

Why is that?

the consensus is that it promotes binding of the rear suspension (due to inherent geometry issues) so it makes the car even more tailhappy.

We have assembled a "kit" of all the SA/FB specific bushings sold by Energy Suspension. This does not mean we feel they all should be used. Customers wanted complete kits so we assembled one. In fact, IIRC, I talked 64mgb out of purchasing the rear parts.

To answer your second question, I do not recommend using all the parts at the same time.

I am going to try and explain the rear setup as best as I can. One day I will model it so everyone can get a visual experience. This next post may get long.....

-billy

First, ANY suspension system and setup is a compromise. Even a F1 car's suspension has elements that are a compromise. Each style of suspension, each method of attaching and each material choice used are compromises. As long as everyone realizes this simple fact we can start to understand why it takes race teams years to "develop" a seemingly simple tin top race cars suspension. :)

Second, production cars are mass produced for the general population. The general population wants to fell comfortable driving their car. Comfortable in two way as well. The first way is a comfortable ride without harshness. The second way is to feel comfortable and not scared when turning. These two facts are why most production cars have understeer built in to the suspension design and why the suspension bushings are soft and compliant.

Third, only believe 10% of what you read and hear. This will work, that won't work, my guy said this, his dad once did the other thing......Most of the time these statement come from people who are just passing off bad information and do not understand the concept themselves anyways. Besides the fact that the average person will not feel the difference on most minor suspension changes.

You should now understand that the first generation rx7 has a suspension design under it that has built in understeer, a soft feeling comfortable ride and the entire system is a compromise. We have all heard the tail that Mazda did not use a pan hard bar because it would have made the car bla bla longer. This is an example of a compromise in the design stage.

Now that we understand the above information we can start to figure out the suspension of the rx7. The rear setup is a 4 link setup. There are 4 arms that server to locate the axle front to back as well as to keep the axle from rotating. These 4 arms are not the same length. These 4 arms are not mounted to the chassis in the same location from side to side. This means when the suspension moves in bump and droop the axle is moving along an arc. This is a fact. You can not do anything about this unless you move the arm pickup points to better locations and use better designed arm lengths. If we are talking about street cars I doubt you are ready to change those aspects of the suspension system.

The axle also needs some device to locate it from side to side. Mazda chose the Watts linkage to do this. Mazda made a compromise and used a offset mounting for this device. It controls the side to side movement with a price though. The price we pay for the use of the stock watts is that the axle is bound to move up and down vertically. Remember from before the 4 link design has the axle moving in a arc and now the watts linkage makes it want to only move vertical. There you have the "Bind" always talked about.

The reason the binding is not a big deal in the stock form is due to the second statement from above. Production cars use soft rubber bushings to give comfort. These comfortable bushings just so happen to also give the compliance needed to let the axle not bind when moving. Now if we were to replace all the stock bushings with a much harder rubber the compliance would be gone and the system would bind up. If we strategically replace bushings we can obtain a firmer location of the axle and still have the compliance needed to not bind up. Start with the lower arms. If we replace these with firmer bushings the suspension will still move freely and the axel would be located front to rear firmer than factory. If we replaced the watts linkage bushings the axle is now located side to side firmer than factory. We start to see a small amount of tension (I did not want to say bind) in the system. We are still at a good point though because some of the arc movement is taken up by the soft upper arm bushings. Now if we leave one of the stock bushings in the watts pivot point the arc motion would be taken up by the soft bushings in the upper arms and the axle can pivot slightly on the watts bracket. We have located the axle firmer than factory but not introduce a severe amount of bind doing it.

We have just had to compromise our suspension bushings choice due to circumstances we can not easily change. Every suspension system is a compromise.

-billy

great write up :t_up: im impressed.