I'm getting ready to press out my old pillow *****. There is a small amount of grease under the dust seal on the factory parts. I'm installing J-auto pillowballs and am wondering if I should throw a slight amount of grease under the new seals? Is this totally unnecessary because the new ones are self lubricating?

 

Pillow ball dust seals: If you are reusing your old pillow ball dust seals, make sure you clean each seal to remove all grease stuck to the seal. You don't want grease getting on the spherical bearings. The spherical bearings inside J-AUTO pillow ***** are maintenance free, no grease required, due to the teflon coating on the bearing race.

 

So, I figured I would practice my necromancy and revive this post. Thought that since I have a slightly similar question that this would be better than starting a new thread.

I'm pretty sure I need new bushings so I contacted a local shop that specializes in rotories about doing all six rear bushings and the two pillowballs. My quote was $2,800. That seems high to me, am I crazy?

So then I was going to borrow a press from a friend and try and do it myself but was then advised that it was "easy" to mess it up and cause more problems. Can any of you with more experience way in here? I would rather save the money and do it myself but not if I'm just going to cause other problems. I'm fine spending money when it's truly needed.

Thanks!

 

I don't know what other bushings they quoted to replace for you, but there are SIX pillow ball bushings that cause clunking and should really be replaced at the same time. They are not difficult to replace, and as long as you are careful and take your time, you shouldn't have to worry about damaging anything.
Search again for purchasing the pillow *****. You can go with a OEM set, or with the ones sold by J-auto which appear to be superior.
Also search again and you can find a few threads on how to remove and install them.
Find out what other bushings they quoted for you. For almost 3k$ I would hope that they were replacing every bushing back there including the differential mount bushings.
I always recommend that if you have the time, the space, the tools, and the desire to learn more about your car, then do it yourself. You may not know how to change all the bushings right now, but you definitely can learn how to do.

 

You are correct sir. The quote I got was for doing all the bushings in the rear, including the diff. Replacing them with OEM. I do want to go with the J-Auto. I guess I'll watch some videos to see if I can do them myself.

 

You can definitely do it yourself. I did this over the summer and also installed the J-auto pillowballs w/ Superpro bushings all around.

I think the hardest bushings (to press out) will be the lower control arm bushing and toe links due to the tapered/flange on one of the sides.

Also the differential is not as bad as it seems, I did it on jackstands following the write up below.

There is really no way to mess up, and if you do, you can find cheap used spares here on the forum.

Just take your time and do each side individually, it took me about a week to do them all working on the afternoons but I also cleaned the tire wells, repainted them with truck-bed liner paint and installed coilovers.

These will help you out:
https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-w...shings-648765/
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-gen-arch...nstall-294744/

 

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice! You've encouraged me into doing this myself, for better or worse. I hope I'm still as appreciative when I'm done!

 

Okay, turns out I need more help. Before I ordered the parts I got some time to crawl around under the car and I couldn't tell if the bushings were bad. The dust covers hide them and they looked okay. Is there anyway to tell if they are bad? I thought they would look bad, and maybe they do, but they look good to me. Maybe I just don't know how a FD is supposed to feel.

 

How much play is there when you move the arm side to side on the long axis?

 

Okay, car is only on ramps right now, Jack in storage. No play, if I understand what your asking but I assume it's because of the weight on the wheels. I did find a small crack in the right diff bushing, could that be causing the slidy butt? Give me a sec and I'll post a pic.

 

 

How many miles on your bushings? Mine only had 65k and the only ones that weren't wiggly were the trailing arms.

The diff is a pain to get to though. If you are not doing your entire suspension, you may want to look into a brace to see if that tightens it up

 

Greasing the pillow ***** is only necessary with original Mazda pillow *****. J-AUTO pillow ***** don't require any grease and I recommend completely cleaning the old dust seals if they're being reused. Grease on J-AUTO pillow ***** will gunk them up and shorten their lifespan. I can be contacted at sales@j-auto.net and by phone 909-764-8501 with any questions regarding J-AUTO products.

The links Sephek provided and a copy of the factory service manual will make this job easier for you.

Here's some quick tips on inspecting your pillow *****:

Grab a copy of the factory service manual if you don't have it. You want to get your car, or at least the rear, on jack stands so you can really inspect your pillow ball bushings. The easiest pillow ball to inspect is the one where the trailing arm bolts to. With the rear on jack stands, remove the wheel from the side you're working on. Using a 14mm socket, remove the bolt that holds the trailing arm to the rear lower control arm's pillow ball. Now slightly loosen (dont remove it) the 17mm nut & bolt at the other end of the trailing arm so you can swing it down without resistance.

With the trailing arm swung down out of the way, use a thin flat blade screwdriver to pop both rubber pillow ball seals off. Be careful not to damage the seals in case you need to put them back on to drive the car around as-is while you get replacement bushings. Page 38 of the Suspension section of the service manual has a good illustration on removing these seals. The rubber seals will add some resistance to the pillow ball which makes it look like it's in better condition than it really is. Removing both pillow ball seals is important.

Brand new pillow ***** are stiff and hard to move around. Worn pillow ***** are very sloppy and can be easily moved around with one finger effortlessly. Grab one end of the pillow ball with your thumb and the other end with your index finger. You can also move the pillow ball back and forth (towards front and rear of your car) to hear it clunking and see/feel the play in it.

Hope this helps.

 

Again, thanks so much for the help. I'm going to have to wait a bit to work on it since my son was just born and ate up all my "free" time. I really appreciate the advice.

Juan, I will most likely be getting your bushings, if I need any, as well as a Koyo rad and silicone hoses from you. Any recommendations for which brand of diff bushings match best with your bushings? Also, just in case you didn't know, and I'm sure you do, your site is down right now.

 

Congrats on the new baby boy!

If your FD is mainly a street car with a track day or two a year, go with SuperPro or Powerflex purple diff bushings. These won't transmit any noise into the cabin. If you're not too worried about noise or vibration, you can get Powerflex black bushings which are made of a harder poly material. The noise and vibration these introduce into the cabin is very minimal, some claim no noise or vibration, but it's something to consider depending on your setup.

Thanks for the heads up on the website. I sorted out the issue within minutes from the time I realized it was down.