Is OEM bushings (probably $$$) my only choice for RUBBER bushings? Does anyone make replacement sets? The ones on my FC are cracking a bit from old age.

I'm not looking at getting Energy poly-urethane bushings or anything. My car will be 95% streetdriven and it makes no sense for me to get squeeky and harsh riding urethane ones especially on SF streets.

 

Um....well from what I've seen they are really well priced for the energy suspension master kit. they are like 99 bucks or so plus shipping at suspension.com. I don't know how much mazda sells them for but I'm willing to bet that they are expensive.

 

but the energy ones are cheap!

 

I put the full Energy Suspension set on my 87 GXL, front and rear. It was great. No squeaking that i could hear. I didn't find anything harsh about the ride either, just good and solid.

 

did you install them yourself of did you get them put on??? If you got them put on how much did the job cost?

 

man just put them on your self or youll be lookig at an empty wallet

 

I changed the bushings myself. The front is not difficult, you just have to take your time. The rear was more difficult, mostly just more time consuming. First you have to drop the entire rear end because you have to remove the sub-frame. (It's a good time to change the differential mount. I wish I had known that and got one before starting.) Then second, what was hard in my case, was getting the arm back in the sub-frame with the new bushings. It was like the new bushings were just a bit too long. They stuck out of their holes just a bit. I couldn't sqeeze them together to get the assembly back between the tabs of the sub-frame. After several attemps, I finally removed the bushings and trimed abount 1/8" off the inside end of each so that they would go all the way in. Even then it was difficult to get them into the sub-frame. Took a couple people, a C clamp and sweat! But it worked well. One other thing, I just used my bench vise and sockets to press out and in most of the bushings. The big ones on the back of the front control arms are special. You have cut off some of the rubber to expose the metal band inside, then take a Dremel tool or something and cut that band. Then you can pull them off. The new ones are easy to install. On the rear, I had to drill out some of the rubber before pressing the rest out. Just be careful not to mess up the hole in the control arm.
Well, that wasn't a short answer, but yes, you can do it yourself. I think it would cost a lot to have it done, plus doing it yourself you get the chance to learn more about your car. Now I have a T2 and I'll be doing it all again one of these days! Should be easier the second time!

 

damn! That sounds like a pain in the *** I figured it wasn't going to be easy. Well thanks for the info I might just do it myself. Thanks.

 

Do it!

 

Are poly bushings REALLY that harsh? I was thinking about them.

 

They are really only harsh if the rest of your suspension is. You lose a little bit of the "give" in the suspension, so they ride a little stiffer.

Put better:

If I didn't tell you I had poly bushings, then you drove my car, you wouldn't know.

If I told you ahead of time, you -might- notice. It's really just the feel in corners that it's a LOT better in.

 

Ok to answer your real question:

Polyurethane is great on the street and won't affect NVH (noise vibration harshness).

Since you have an 86-88 year rx-7, the swaybar end links have replaceable bushings as well, so those are cheap to replace with polyurethane.

You'll probably need to replace the rear subframe end links & sublink (subframe to body link) with OEM new and those aren't as cheap. Also it's normaly to replace the motor & tranny mounts when you do suspension as well.

The "rear steer" in your car is probably shot by now. Since the OEM "DTSS HUB" rear steer bushings are not replaceable, normally you have to buy the whole hub which is ~$300. Instead of doing this, go install the Racing Beat/Mazdatrix "toe elimnators" which replaces this hub with a solid piece. It doesn't affect NVH at all & tightens up the rear suspension a bit too.

You'll probably also want to replace your shocks. If you do both aftermarket springs & shocks, you might want to go with "adjustable" shocks to help compensate for the "additional stiffness" that aftermarket shocks from racing beat supplies.

Finally if you lower the car through aftermarket springs & you want your allignment "spot on", instead of buying the "sub link" I mentioned earlier you want an ajdustable sub-link from Racing Beat/Mazdatrix. This will let you compenstate for caster being out of the OEM allignment range.

 

THANK YOU VAUGHNC!

I guess since a few of you guys have said that it doesn't really increase noise or harshness too much, I will try out the energy bushings. Yeah, I'll go with the DTSS eliminator bushings as well since I'm going to be removing everything anyways along with the camber link (it will be lowered an inch or more.)