Sloppy rear end

[slack]

This makes sense to me.

Something that came to mind when working on my car was that simply jacking up the car might be enough to send worn control arm bushings over the edge. When you consider that the bolts for the control arm bushings are supposed to be tightened up when the car is at normal ride height, and then consider how much the control arms move when the car is jacked up or on a hoist, the resulting strain just can't be good for worn bushings.

Please do let us know what you find. I like learning how things turned out.

Will do! And that makes sense as well. I've swapped out most of everything suspension wise and I know I did the front bushings in when forcing the a arms around to get the HD springs in there. Makes sense the rears are bad too.

I wanted to dive under the car and take a look today but I threw my back out this morning pretty bad so it will probably have to wait until tomorrow until I can update on the condition.

The rear bushings were not horrible. The ones in the arms are cake. Tale the arms out and light up the tourch, mapp gas, etc and have at it. Make sue to do it on a surface you don't car about. Lots of black expandable worms coming shooting out and the grand finale is the entire bushing bursting out.

The one in the pumpkin was a PAIN. Had to be careful heating that one up because the fuel take is right there. I got it hot enough to take a punch and push the guts out. I have a permanent wire wheel for cleaning out the holes now. That rubber just sticks to everything once heated up. lol

QFT!
I destroyed a set of work clothes (the dirty work kind of old worn out jeans and t-shirt, but still absolutely ended them) when I did my front bushings. Never have done the rear.. I just use it as an excuse to power slide it with the limited slip in the rear.

Good to know! So you burned the bushings out while the arms are still in the car? I think I read that with the fronts, you have to remove the control arms completely to get the arms out so you can burn the bushings out.

Also, I just went digging through my parts list that I installed after reading TopLoader's thread here.

In the front I have the heavy duty springs with KYB gas-a-justs and it's great. There's very little bounce at all.

In the rear, I realized that I have the heavy duty springs but I'm using the economy Monroe shocks (MONROE 33128). I'm wondering if this is contributing to my sloppiness in the rear end and if I should swap out for the MONROE 550011 or go KYB again and get the KYB KG5521? Or would it not even really make a difference as long as the Monroe's I have in there are functional?

[gadget73]

I'd remove the arms from the car to do those bushings. That will get you 6 of them. There are 2 that remain in the axle though, and you either have to do them in place, or pull the entire axle out from under the car. You can do one arm at a time if you don't want to pull the whole rear.

[87gtVIC]

Arms come out. Only bushings left are the ones above the pumpkin like Thain mentioned.

I had all arms out and left the axle on jackstands.

[jaywish]

IIRC we changed the rear bushings on the wagon with sockets and "C" clamps.

[gadget73]

if you're doing rubber ones, a ball joint press is usually the tool to use. They look like a really massive C clamp. A regular C clamp won't give near enough force. You usually also need to jam a piece of pipe in the open side to keep the thing from smashing itself flat.

[jaywish]

Makes sense, probably was a ball joint press.

[slack]

Ok cool. So it sounds like the rears (besides the bushings on top of the diff) are easier than the front control arms. If I have enough money after bills, I'll pick up the Energy Suspension bushing back for the rear.

With my back being fubared still, I wasn't able to get a look at the current bushings yet. I couldn't get underneath enough to get a good view.

I was able to get a video demonstrating the wobble. I asked my friend to give the car a good couple of pushes from the side to demonstrate.

What do you guys think?

Link to youtube: http://youtu.be/HUal2lLDkEw

[Mr Bean]

Why not get some Metco control arms?

[packman]

I found it easier to get the control and trailing arms out of the JY, strip them of their bushings, clean and paint, and install them when you're ready. This is if your back is up for the task. I had my front end replaced in one weekend; however, it took 2 more weeks to finish because of a couple brake lines that snapped.

Packman

[87gtVIC]

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.....


LOL I know my car did that. Never checked it since the rear end bushing job though to see if that stopped it. I can say though I feel no odd wobbles nowadays.

[slack]

Why not get some Metco control arms?

Is there a significant performance gain? I did a quick search and found a random post over at CVN with some concern that they're too firm and could crack the frame. Not sure if that's true though...

I found it easier to get the control and trailing arms out of the JY, strip them of their bushings, clean and paint, and install them when you're ready. This is if your back is up for the task. I had my front end replaced in one weekend; however, it took 2 more weeks to finish because of a couple brake lines that snapped.

Packman

That's not a bad idea. I did a quick JY check and it looks like there's some cheap arms for 92-97 rear control arms locally. Nothing for boxes though. Are the aero rear control arms the same as the box ones? If so, that could be an option.

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.....


LOL I know my car did that. Never checked it since the rear end bushing job though to see if that stopped it. I can say though I feel no odd wobbles nowadays.

lol. Did you feel the wobble when you're car was milkshaking as well?

[87gtVIC]

I cannot remember.

[gadget73]

Most of the side to side motion you'll see with the car parked is the tires flexing. Mine is all poly in the front and back and I bet it would wobble much like that if I pushed it from the side.

[Mr Bean]

Is there a significant performance gain? I did a quick search and found a random post over at CVN with some concern that they're too firm and could crack the frame. Not sure if that's true though...

They tighten the rear end up nicely. Don't think there is anyone here that makes enough power to crack the frame.

[IPreferDIY]

...I was able to get a video demonstrating the wobble. I asked my friend to give the car a good couple of pushes from the side to demonstrate. ...

That looks something like what I experienced from a big gust of wind while stopped at a red light before changing my rear control arms and Watts link. I couldn't resist going out and giving my car a few pushes just now. You can definitely see the tires flexing, but my car's ass end has a high frequency, low amplitude 'giggly' motion rather than the low frequency, high amplitude wavy motion in the video. I would have liked to post a video but I'm not a video person at the moment.