jimmers

Has anyone replaced their rear camber rod bushings with Energy Suspension ones? I was trying to do mine tonight, but the bushing that attaches to the knuckle is to wide to get it back in place. Is there a certain way to shave the bushing smaller?

gerardvg

Hi
I did my bushings on the weekend, The Prothane ones I used were the two piece type (has two half bushes).

The original type are like you have a one piece that needs to be lubed and pressed in, most bushes I have seen are the two halve types for easy fitment.

*ARE THEY FOR THE RIGHT YEAR*...the 84-87 are smaller compared to 88-96......

I did kill my cordless drill, drilling holes in the old rubber bushings to make removal nice and easy......

Perhaps look for bushes that come in two pieces, oh another thing the front upper control arm bushes has a one piece that fits toward the front of the car. One on each side, all the rest were two piece.

See ebay link below to see the type that are for the front of each front upper control arm.

Oh don't forget to lube the bushes with the special grease or they will be noisy...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Energy-Suspe...VWnYLV&vxp=mtr

84-87 rear strut rod bushings.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Energy-Suspe...9Y3QQj&vxp=mtr

88-96 rear strut rod bushes.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suspension-S...BYmI2T&vxp=mtr

The kit I got is below came with the bushes for all C4 years.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Complete-Pol...FUxrJr&vxp=mtr

hcbph

Before I decided to do the Banski suspension kit, I checked out the Prothane kit. They were 2 piece with a sleeve that was inserted into it but I don't know about the Energy kit. If those mentioned are like the swaybar ends but larger, you would need to lube them up and press them into the camber bar ends then insert the sleeve. I don't know if that's accurate or not, photo's would help.

The gap in the bottom of the knuckle being too small, I've seen that one. Apparently the 'normal' gap is 1.70" and that's what the Banski kit was designed for. Happens my knuckles have a 1.64" gap so I had to reduce the length of the spacers to make them fit. If you have to do similar, remember to do a little at a time - it's easier to take off than put back on.
I suspect if you need to adjust anything substantial it would be the sleeve or use the one from your original bushing. As far as the bushing material, you could take a little off with a belt sander or maybe compress them enough with a C-clamp to get them started then work them in.

One thing I did make that helped was a slightly undersized over-length bolt I cut off the threads then turned down the leading edge to a taper. I first used a larger punch to get the hole and sleeve somewhat aligned, then used that bolt to get it pretty much aligned. Once prepped I removed that one and inserted the real bolt with some anti-seize on it. Though my project was different, there's enough similarities it should work for you too.

jimmers

Thanks for the reply. It's the correct kit for my car, at least it says it is. They are two piece bushings so they pressed in very easy. The issue is when I bring the rod back to the car. The bushing is to wide to fit back into the knuckle/hub.

jimmers

I guess that's my problem. The gap is too smaller then the 1.70". I'll go out later today and measure it. Such a pain since all of the other bushings went in easily. Of course the last two give me grief.

Seems you reply to all my threads about the suspension work. Want to pass on your number for a direct line to you??

hcbph

If you don't want to crawl under there, just grab the sleeve out of the old bushing and measure it. There's your dimensions. To reduce the new ones, here's what I'd do. Slide them in dry in the camber rods, slide in the old sleeve flush with one side, now measure how much extra bushing you have. Split that value in half, take that value off each side of the bushings using something like a belt sander. You might be able to use a lathe also. One other thing, I would suspect if you freeze them first they'll stay rigid making your removal cleaner. Understand I've not tried this so it's just something off the top of my head.
Once done, you can either reduce the new sleeve to the length of the old one or just use the old one.

I was in the same boat with the camber rod replacements I did, everything went well till that came up. Took a while to figure out it wasn't me, the opening was smaller than expected.

I did one more thing to mine while I had everything apart. The bolts for the camber rods, rear trailing arm bolts and the toe rods, I drilled them for cotter keys. Some I used castle nuts on while others I just had a cotter key beyond the nut so it can't back off. Just took the drill press, a nut I drilled a hole through centered and screwed it onto the respective bolt to drill where I wanted. A little cutting oil and it was done. Even though I used Loctite on the bolts, this guarantees that the nut will never come off unplanned, it might loosen but won't fall off. I firmly believe in cotter keys and safety wire where I can above and beyond a thread locker. Call me weird, but better safe than sorry IMO.

xrav22

Jimmers I just did my camber bushings last week with ES red. They will not go right in as they are crooked I did get mine in by starting the camber side 50% then wheel side and tapping with a hammer. What I did find when I did my trailing arms the other day I got advise to lossen the spring and shock to get the pressure off the hub area. That would of helped me with the strut rods I am sure. I did not have to remove the shock as I could move the rear knockel much easier. Good Luck

jimmers

I couldn't get them to go in no matter what I did. I had to shave a bit off and the fit was still pretty tight.

Are yours pretty snug?

xrav22

Snug fit check the trailing arms because they really make my car feel new again. They get offcenter and drilling them out is a pain but worth it. I used red ES but they fit better.

hcbph

When I did mine, I talked to Tom Urban at Banski about the problem I ran into. Tom said a smaller opening had been encountered before. Thing is, I have not found any rhyme or reason or a pattern to them. Speculation on my part, GM had more than one supplier of the knuckles and one or more made parts with a smaller opening in the bottom of the knuckle.

Based on Tom's feedback, the default opening for the majority of them is 1.70" while mine had a 1.64" opening. The new camber rod adapters I ended up machining down to 1.62" and they slipped in. I put the knuckle end in first then attached the top end second. I had detached the spring on the side I was working on, that gave me a little fudge to wiggle the knuckle some while putting everything together. You could also unhook one of the trailing arms while working on the camber rods reassembly, that would give even more wiggle to the part to get them hooked up (again with the spring unhooked). One advantage of the Banski kit is there's a heim joint on each end of the camber rods so you can do some rotation of the parts to bolt hole making it easier to put in as long as they fit the respective mount points.