Nebuchadnezzar
New Member
Greetings everyone,
-Off topic, it wouldn't let me post this message without editing out all the parenthesis! what gives?
I just completed the installation of all four subframe bushings, which I purchased from shonut performance, and I installed two of three motor mounts. I don't own a deep enough 18 mil socket to get the rear motor mount off.
SO. How hard is it? How good are the aluminum bushings?
Hmm... Jack up the car, insert jack stands behind subframe -on the unibody frame rails that is- and lower car onto stands. Remove front wheels, and inner fenders. Now, if it's been a while since your bushings have been changed, apply several gallons of WD40, or any other lubricating, penatrating type of oil, go consume an adult beverage, and return.
The bolts on my front bushings made a mockery out of my Ingersoll Impact.
Wouldn't budge. So out comes the 1/2inch breaker bar. Nothing. A three foot pipe gets slipped over the breaker bar, and I get a slight amount of rotation. So I try again, and I heard a loud bang. The bolt spins freely now, but won't come out. So I shine a light in the tiny little hole in the frame rail, and I can see that I've just busted off the stamped steel ears that locate the nut. No big deal, I say, as I reach for another adult beverage. Out comes the die grinder. I lob off the head of the bolt -below the bushing-, and pull the plate-nut, and cut bolt, out through the tiny little hole in the frame rail. Time for another adult beverage.
A couple taps of a hammer, and some prying, and I see a heap of rusted metal chunks forming on the cement floor below. Oh, those little four nuts on top of the subframe? I grabbed a wrench, and turned to the RIGHT, yes to the right. Three of the four broke off, and the fourth decided to want to actually go to the left, and spin off like all good little nuts should do. I finally crumble the bushing out from the subframe, and inspect. I have hundreds of metal nuggets, roughly the size of safety glass nuggets. Nice.
So we clean up the area, and attempt to install the new aluminum bushing. Won't fit. So I chamfer the top 1/8" inch or so on a 45 degree angle off the top of the bushing. It locates fine, and a soft mallet sends it home. I wiggle the new plate nut in place -I bought the recall kit, HIGHLY recommended- and install the other half of the bushing, insert the bolt, and send it home with the Ingersoll. A quick adjustment from my torque wrench assures me that this bolt is there to stay.
Front motor mount. Hmm. Step one, loosen the subframe bushing bolt that I installed minutes ago. Step two: TAKE THE ADVICE OF SDPATT and remove the coolant hose! -I have a 93 ATX, so your mileage may vary here-. It *IS* possible to remove the mount WITHOUT removing the hose, but removal will make your life MUCH easier. Chances are you need a good coolant flush anyway.
beer <--- for sdpatt
So, on we go, and the top bolts on the mount are a PAIN. Out it pops....the damn mount looks FINE. I cannot visibly see ANY difference between it and the new one. I was *positive* that it was shot, I once tried rubbing a paint marker on the top of the intake manifold, shut the hood, power braked it, opened the hood and had paint marker on my hood liner.
So anyway, all four bushings installed, and the front mount replaced, the trans mount replaced, which was noooo fun either. To get the trans mount out, I had both drivers side SFB's out, put the jack under the oil pan -with a 2x4- lighlty applied pressure, and went to work on the bolts. I'm sure there's a better way.
All in all, the new parts are a nice improvement to my car. The car no longer wants to randomly change lanes, and my torque steer doesn't induce potential side swiping incidents anymore.
TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT ALUMINUM SUBFRAME BUSHINGS:
The install was NOT that bad, if you're garage is equipped properly.
Oh, about the NVH -noise, vibration, harshness- increase? DON'T LISTEN TO THE LITTLE NINNIE-BOYS elsewhere on the web that complain about excessive NVH. Do these bushings increase noise? Yes. Do they increase vibration? Very, very slightly. Do they increase harshness? **** YES! That's why I installed them! Take my words with a grain of salt, I'm a 21 year old single guy who drives the SHO harder than anything, and I live for better performance. These bushings are the cat's meow.
So, parts installed. Time for a test drive! Pull out on the gravel private drive, and instantly notice a better feel. Pull out onto the street, and commence to floggin' the living daylights out of my SHO. I was crying with excitement as I tossed the car into formerly 60-mph corners at around 85-90. Car seems to love it! My screamin' eagles need to go: I can now out-steer my tires, as I couldn't before.
So I take a turn onto a very long gravel road, I want to see the NVH factor. I wind the car out to about 70, and it feels great. Noise is up, but that is to be expected, and I enjoy it. Wind the car a little farther, and I'm doing a buck and quarter. I decide to examine high speed-unstable surface handling with my new bushings. Start tossing the car around, and she's great!
UH OH: realized a new limitation in my car: rapid direction changes in my steering tends to "lock" my steering for a moment. Almost as if I confused my VAPS for a second. Very scary to lose steering at way, way, way over a hundred while palm steering some power slides on a deserted gravel road. Not cool. Must examine. So I decide to bring the car back down to sane speeds, and get back into the paved-world.
I highly, highly suggest to everyone that doesn't have aluminum subframe bushings to drop what they are doing and order up a set. Holy smokes do they make a difference.
CRAP: I still have the "loose bolt in a coffee can" type of rattling up front. It wasn't the SFB's, obviously. I've got the poly endlinks, the drivers side sway bar bushing looked pristine, but the passenger one is roached. Note, the rattle sounds to come from the drivers side. I also installed new outer tie rod ends about 30k ago. There is SOME play in the steering, hope it's not the inners. Struts? Strut mounts? Any suggestions?
Anyone around Grand Rapids MI want to take a looksie at my SHO?
Thanks all...
Later.
beer
<small>[ May 13, 2002, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Nebuchadnezzar ]</small>
-Off topic, it wouldn't let me post this message without editing out all the parenthesis! what gives?
I just completed the installation of all four subframe bushings, which I purchased from shonut performance, and I installed two of three motor mounts. I don't own a deep enough 18 mil socket to get the rear motor mount off.
SO. How hard is it? How good are the aluminum bushings?
Hmm... Jack up the car, insert jack stands behind subframe -on the unibody frame rails that is- and lower car onto stands. Remove front wheels, and inner fenders. Now, if it's been a while since your bushings have been changed, apply several gallons of WD40, or any other lubricating, penatrating type of oil, go consume an adult beverage, and return.
The bolts on my front bushings made a mockery out of my Ingersoll Impact.
Wouldn't budge. So out comes the 1/2inch breaker bar. Nothing. A three foot pipe gets slipped over the breaker bar, and I get a slight amount of rotation. So I try again, and I heard a loud bang. The bolt spins freely now, but won't come out. So I shine a light in the tiny little hole in the frame rail, and I can see that I've just busted off the stamped steel ears that locate the nut. No big deal, I say, as I reach for another adult beverage. Out comes the die grinder. I lob off the head of the bolt -below the bushing-, and pull the plate-nut, and cut bolt, out through the tiny little hole in the frame rail. Time for another adult beverage.A couple taps of a hammer, and some prying, and I see a heap of rusted metal chunks forming on the cement floor below. Oh, those little four nuts on top of the subframe? I grabbed a wrench, and turned to the RIGHT, yes to the right. Three of the four broke off, and the fourth decided to want to actually go to the left, and spin off like all good little nuts should do. I finally crumble the bushing out from the subframe, and inspect. I have hundreds of metal nuggets, roughly the size of safety glass nuggets. Nice.
So we clean up the area, and attempt to install the new aluminum bushing. Won't fit. So I chamfer the top 1/8" inch or so on a 45 degree angle off the top of the bushing. It locates fine, and a soft mallet sends it home. I wiggle the new plate nut in place -I bought the recall kit, HIGHLY recommended- and install the other half of the bushing, insert the bolt, and send it home with the Ingersoll. A quick adjustment from my torque wrench assures me that this bolt is there to stay.
Front motor mount. Hmm. Step one, loosen the subframe bushing bolt that I installed minutes ago. Step two: TAKE THE ADVICE OF SDPATT and remove the coolant hose! -I have a 93 ATX, so your mileage may vary here-. It *IS* possible to remove the mount WITHOUT removing the hose, but removal will make your life MUCH easier. Chances are you need a good coolant flush anyway.
beer <--- for sdpatt
So, on we go, and the top bolts on the mount are a PAIN. Out it pops....the damn mount looks FINE. I cannot visibly see ANY difference between it and the new one. I was *positive* that it was shot, I once tried rubbing a paint marker on the top of the intake manifold, shut the hood, power braked it, opened the hood and had paint marker on my hood liner.
So anyway, all four bushings installed, and the front mount replaced, the trans mount replaced, which was noooo fun either. To get the trans mount out, I had both drivers side SFB's out, put the jack under the oil pan -with a 2x4- lighlty applied pressure, and went to work on the bolts. I'm sure there's a better way.
All in all, the new parts are a nice improvement to my car. The car no longer wants to randomly change lanes, and my torque steer doesn't induce potential side swiping incidents anymore.
TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT ALUMINUM SUBFRAME BUSHINGS:
The install was NOT that bad, if you're garage is equipped properly.
Oh, about the NVH -noise, vibration, harshness- increase? DON'T LISTEN TO THE LITTLE NINNIE-BOYS elsewhere on the web that complain about excessive NVH. Do these bushings increase noise? Yes. Do they increase vibration? Very, very slightly. Do they increase harshness? **** YES! That's why I installed them! Take my words with a grain of salt, I'm a 21 year old single guy who drives the SHO harder than anything, and I live for better performance. These bushings are the cat's meow.
So, parts installed. Time for a test drive! Pull out on the gravel private drive, and instantly notice a better feel. Pull out onto the street, and commence to floggin' the living daylights out of my SHO. I was crying with excitement as I tossed the car into formerly 60-mph corners at around 85-90. Car seems to love it! My screamin' eagles need to go: I can now out-steer my tires, as I couldn't before.
So I take a turn onto a very long gravel road, I want to see the NVH factor. I wind the car out to about 70, and it feels great. Noise is up, but that is to be expected, and I enjoy it. Wind the car a little farther, and I'm doing a buck and quarter. I decide to examine high speed-unstable surface handling with my new bushings. Start tossing the car around, and she's great!
UH OH: realized a new limitation in my car: rapid direction changes in my steering tends to "lock" my steering for a moment. Almost as if I confused my VAPS for a second. Very scary to lose steering at way, way, way over a hundred while palm steering some power slides on a deserted gravel road. Not cool. Must examine. So I decide to bring the car back down to sane speeds, and get back into the paved-world.
I highly, highly suggest to everyone that doesn't have aluminum subframe bushings to drop what they are doing and order up a set. Holy smokes do they make a difference.
CRAP: I still have the "loose bolt in a coffee can" type of rattling up front. It wasn't the SFB's, obviously. I've got the poly endlinks, the drivers side sway bar bushing looked pristine, but the passenger one is roached. Note, the rattle sounds to come from the drivers side. I also installed new outer tie rod ends about 30k ago. There is SOME play in the steering, hope it's not the inners. Struts? Strut mounts? Any suggestions?
Anyone around Grand Rapids MI want to take a looksie at my SHO?
Thanks all...
Later.
beer
<small>[ May 13, 2002, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Nebuchadnezzar ]</small>
