I just helped my buddy upgrade the steering rack bushings on his 2004 WRX....
its amazing how nice and sharp the turn in has become..Since these bushings were only 30 bucks and took only 45 minutes to install i was wondering if such a thing is available for the FD???

Im really considering just replacing mine with OEM parts as his bushings were made out of soft rubber, and this after 10 years cant be in good working order..

 

you can order the parts from Mazda. I'm rebuilding mine also. Just ask them for the rebuild kit. It's like $100 but it comes with all the seals.

 

I think he was talking about the rack bushings that go in the mounts to the chassis, not rebuilding the rack. Anyone? I am following this one since I noticed mine seem kind of beat also .
Joe

 

I'd just make new ones out of poly, just like everyone does with the motor mounts.

 

I was wondering the same thing probably Energy Suspension or Prothane might make an application to fit our cars.

 

I browsed the shop manual last night...and the bushings I installed on his car look exactly the pics in the shop manual

 

link us to where you bought them

 

thats a quick pic...guess (this is from reading nasioc) that whiteline and super pro both make this exact thing

Heres the link to the item
http://mastrowrx.com/index.asp?PageA...ROD&ProdID=263

 

nope, not going to work

 

thats fine but why??? and is there anything like this for the FD?? anyone, bueller?

 

they are a bit different in shape.

I've looked at them for a while while doing my manual rack conversion

I'm think'n of going solid mounts. The only concern is how much vibrations it will pick up.

My FC that has a manual rack and doesn't vib bad at all but not sure on solids..........

 

ahhh cool

 

I replaced my old 100,000 mile steering rack bushings with new stock ones and noticed no difference.

 

Yes, in fact, the 65k mile bushings from my FD and the 160k mile bushings from the FC that I got the manual rack from were, well, pretty much in the same shape. It's not like they experience a lot of load - most of the load is lateral and on the bracket; they just dampen vibration.

 

its wierd...all the wrx guys reported a nicer and tighter feeling in the steering wheel...i drove his last night after this and it did feel *nicer*

oh well...

 

Precisely, and this is one place that I'd keep rubber bushings. Living with some road noise picked up through stiffer suspension bushings is one thing. Living with constant vibration through the steering wheel would be annoying, to say the least, and there's no benefit to be gained from having stiffer rack bushings.

 

yep, but its not applicable to the FD. made a nice difference on my old VW also except for the vibration. differing things for different cars...

 

Never heard anyone ever complain about steering responce of our FDs.

Mazda did very good engineering with our suspension and steering.

Other cars are just plain sloppy compared to our stock system!

 

The passenger's side bracket and bushing are not fixed in place, they're just a resting point for the rack. The driver's side is held rigidly in place by the shape of the flange in the casting on that end of the rack, which overlaps the rubber bushing on the bottom on both sides, clamping the rack firmly in place. There is a very, very small amount of movement that could take place, while the rack is still isolated from the body of the car by the rubber.

Passenger's side...





Note the flange on the driver's side...

 

jim..nice shots man
ok good deal

 

jim, if I win the lottery I would pay you a crap load of money to just be my mechanic..lol. I would like to say thanks for all you are doing, you have always been a great resource, even though I bug the hell out of you.

 

I thought you were going to say "even though you're a complete *******."

 

would you like me to? I can do that for free