no more clunks!
 

Hello all,

Tonight I have achieved a major victory ... the world is a better place ... I am full of joy and all is well.:hah: My fellow FDers there are no clunks, clanks or other noises when I drive my car.

http://www.paventi.net/~james/pics/A...ifs/woohoo.gif

New pillow ball bushings, front upper A arm bushings, removing the rear bins to locate a loose nut, new rubber stops for the hood / hatch and tonight ... new front sway bar end links.

I installed Improved Racing's end links. (click here) I picked up an older style that included dust covers for the ball joints. I looks like I picked up the last set, I don't see them listed on the web site. Installation required four hours. Most of this time was spent carefully grinding down the spacers so that the end links would fit. I'm guessing that I removed 1mm from each of four of the spacers. They were cut to fit without the dust covers. I'm guessing that this is why they were discontinued and on sale. A bit annoying but it makes the no-clunk victory that much better.

Peace and may you find your no-clunk zone ... it is possible.

James

Awesome! I need to do mine. Do you mind giving a little more detail on which rubber stops you replaced to get rid of the hatch clunk? I can't get rid of mine. Thanks.

Sure ...

There are four rubber stops that the hood rests on when it shuts and two that the hatch rests on. They wear down and harden after 20 years. Wearing down causes the clunking and hardening a sort of squeaking ... at least, in my hatch. Try placing some old socks (or a similar compressible but dense) material over them, close the hood / hatch and drive around a bit. This will give you a feel for their condition.

The new ones for my hood were both pliable and taller than the 20 year old originals. I ended up putting a bit of dense foam (from Lowes) on top of them to stabilize the hood. I basically modified, drove around / watched the hood, and repeated as needed. It's pretty obvious, the hood goes from shaking / moving on its own to shaking / moving in time with the entire car body.

The new ones for the hatch weren't any taller than the original ones but they were pliable vs. the rock hard 20 year old ones. I ended up drilling the mounting holes out a bit on my hatch's latch so that I could adjust it's mounting position. Basically I moved the latch down until the hatch closed tightly. The pliable new stops eliminated the squeaking and make it possible to close the hatch.

One other hint. I have a 93 R1. I believe that at some point an adjustable latch (no drilling) was installed on our cars.

Good luck!

James

Major victory James! Nice to drive the car like it was brand new isn't it?

Hope all is well.

You're not going to like hearing this now, but there is no need to grind down the bushings for the sway links...

There is a press-fit aluminum bushing in the lower control arm, where the sway bar link attaches. You can kind of see it in this photo:

http://www.improvedracing.com/images/SMA-1010_3_lg.jpg

Look just to the left of the bushing on the sway bar link. That might actually be the one that doesn't move (cast into the control arm), but on the other side there is something similar that slides in and out of the control arm.

So before you install the sway bar link, you need to use a bolt and a nut, or a small c-clamp, to push that bushing out and give you enough clearance to get the sway bar end link in there. Once the link is in, the bushing will tighten back up against it when you tighten the bolt.

Ugh, I've gotta do mine. :( lol

Too funny and yes the one to the left doesn't move. I looked at it thinking that it must move ... what else would cause the stock links to be so tight after removing the bolt that holds them in. I should have looked a bit longer and not assumed that the right side was the same as the left.

thanks! The Aquamist system has been running great by the way. As soon as I sort out a knock (too high) issue I'll be headed for 12psi of boost. I'm allays checking my UIM vs any other part of the engine. Last night after an end link test drive I checked. As usual, it was cool when the rest of the engine was hot.

It's not bad. Ha ... now that I know that the bushing in the lower control are movable, I'd say it's easy.

0) Put the car on ramps so that the suspension is loaded and the geometry is as it would be on the ground. 15 min.
1) Remove splash pan. Bunch of 10mm bolts ... 2 min.
2) Remove sway bar. 4 bolts, two nuts, 5 min.
3) Remove sway bar end link to control are bolts, 2 min.
4) Use a pry bar to remove the end links.
5) Use a c-clamp, etc. to press the stock bushings back a bit. 15 min (guess)
6) Size the end links to match stock and bolt into the upper a-arms. 15 min (you'll fiddle endlessly with the length :lol:)
7) Insert and remove the sway bar, adjust the end links a bit, aim for a 90 degree angle link-to-sway bar and no sway bar load (twist), tighten down the end link adjustment bolt. 15 min
8) Install the sway bar bolts, end link to sway bar nuts and splash pan - 15 min
9) Remove the car from the ramps and put everything away - 10 min (I have to use a jack, the car is too low to drive off)

I'm sure an expert can optimize my steps a bit. Even so this is an easy job. What cost me time were the many unnecessary :blush: trips to the bench grinder.

James

Bravo James!

I too went through many years of clunks that I eventually figured out, I know that feeling of finally conquering them, it's awesome! It took me almost replacing every suspension bushing and a PPF but well worth it. Enjoy your clunk free RX7.

Thanks for the info, James.

Awesome achievement, I need to start checking out a few areas to see where my random clunk is coming from (somewhere in the passenger rear) I've already replace the pillowballs, plus the pillows made a horrible metal on metal sound when they were bad so I know its not that.

Good job James. Its a nice feeling :)