Okay, so I got away with it last year but this year I dont think I\'ll be so lucky. After rudely awakening Neville from winter slumber I had a look round for anything untoward and have noticed all the rear rubbers, bushes etc are in a bad way-all looking cracked and a bit sad. Has anybody got experience in changing them? I\'ll post some pictures if need be but basically anything you can see from the wheel arch looks in need of TLC.
On the bright side, it hasnt gone rusty over the winter!:Thumbs-up
Hi,
It\'s difficult to source the rubber bushes without the arms from Mazda I\'m afraid and they seem to want to supply the arms as one unit. Or did when I wanted them. Wasn\'t an issue for me as I keep stock new spares of both lower and upper arms.
You can still source nylon types separately from elsewhere though (I went supaflex but others will do just as well and ISTR threads elsewhere here) - just remember not to go hard nylon at both ends of both the upper and lower arms, as the suspension wants to do bad things in roll and needs some play.
In terms of changing them it\'s not too hard - the old ones will drift out with a vice, and the nice new ones are usually two piece. Hardest bit will be getting the old bolts out I reckon - might take some Plusgas and heat..
Best of luck.
Stacy.
Hi Stacy, thanks for that....being as you are rather qualified at such things can you help me out on another issue! In the near future I really want to swap to coilovers-are there still kits available to swap for stock FB\'s do you know? And if so, any preference of brand? It\'s only used in good weather (no often!) and track days in future hopefully so I don\'t mind compromising comfort for handling.
Thanks again for the advice mate.
Tim
Hi,
You\'re very kind - I still make mistakes tho!
Yes there are plenty of kits available. The usual tuners offer some basic units, if you want my opinion on some specifics feel free to PM me.
The bottom line I guess is that you\'ll get what you pay for, and you need to look at what your intention is with the whole package. If you\'re just looking to uprate then there\'s little point in a £3k set of Ohlins..
If you want to nylon bush everything, rose joint your top mounts, cage it up, seam weld, sort your roll bars etc then all your movement will be in the dampers/springs and therefore you\'ll get a return.
If you don\'t want to touch the rest of the car then that will be absorbing a lot of the play, so just some Spax or equivalence would tidy you up fairly well I\'d have thought.
I happen to be friendly with Warren Gazzard from Gaz shocks and would be quite happy to connect you, they are the new Leda in my view - especially since the (Da)ve from there went to work for Gaz. They would be adjustable and he knows the measurements because he\'s a) done a number for me that I\'ve been very happy with, and b) knows another FB car which is being prepped at a charity place.
I\'d price up some basic uprated ones from various places and make your choice..
Cheers
Stacy