Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 23:11:46 EST
From: FSBOREGIS@aol.com

I had a clunk in my front suspension since I bought the car. I had it checked and found that the bushings in the upper A arm allowed excessive movement. I was told that it wasn't a safety problem, but I worried about handling due to changing steering geometry.

The pivot point to this bushing is actually a metal "tube". The bushing limits noise and softens the road harshness (mines an R1 so it doesn't feel like it softens it much).

I wanted urethane bushings, but couldn't find anyone who made them. I watched the movement (on a rack, not on the road! I'm not insane!) and realized that if I could limit the fore and aft motion I could live with these bushings until such time as I could find urethane. (By the way I was warned by 3 Mazda shops against replacing just the bushings. They wanted me to replace the whole A arm because they had heard of several people bending the A arm when the bushing was pressed in place.)

I took the upper arm off and found that the inner metal tube had a diameter of approximately .625" and the OD of the bushing was 2". I made a trip to my local C&S Hardware store and found out that a standard 3/4" washer had a hole diameter of .75" and an OD of 2". I spent 80 cents and bought 2. It was simplicity itself. It took me about 15 minutes to install them as "spacers" on the back side of the rubber part of the bushings. It does not interfere in any way with the metal inner tube. They fit as if they were made for that purpose. They did not cause any binding in the assembly as the assembly tightens down to the inner metal tube, not the rubber bushing. I still have the flex and shock dampening, BUT NOW I AM NOT ASHAMED TO DRIVE MY CAR! The noise is completely stopped and it did not change my front end alignment.