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MikeJinCO · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:21 pm Post subject: Rear Trailing Arm Bushings

Has anyone figured out out how to remove the rear trailing arm bushings without destroying them? I have an idea on how to replace them with some inexpensive urethane ones, but would rather not have to destroy the existing ones in the process.
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

the_mad_electrician · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1073 Location: Central Georgia

If you find urethane replacements share with the rest of the class I want to rebush my car soon
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81 924 N/A

2004 Ranger "Edge"

2005 Mazda 6

Rasta Monsta · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 11733 Location: PacNW

Weltmeister makes polyurethane, Racer's Edge makes delrin. Both are available at Paragon.
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Toofah King Bad

WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

MikeJinCO · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 12:36 am Post subject:

I will provide the info, if it works. It involves modifying some other poly bushings. There is no reason to start posting info that is wrong as it would just start spreading. So how do I get the **** things apart.
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

ideola · Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Posts: 15550 Location: Spring Lake MI

You have to destroy them, no other way. And once you get through the joy of pressing out the bushings, you then have the ecstasy of very carefully cutting and removing the aluminum sleeves, a necessary removal in order to install replacement poly or Delrin bushings.
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erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made

pyropete125 · Joined: 20 May 2010 Posts: 45 Location: west haven, CT

i make bushings all the time out of 6/6 nylon with MDS.

they work great!

anybody have a drawing of them or dimentions i can make a small run of them.

pete

Joes924Racer · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 9:44 am Post subject:

He says cry joy and give up.. Geez that sounds like a big
pita job.
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1979 porsche 924 Na
1980 porsche Turbo 931GT Replica
Have u ever driven a turbo.

MikeJinCO · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 10:07 am Post subject:

The old bushings came out pretty easily, spray and soak with a little lithium grease and pry out with a pair of screwdrivers. These are the old steel trailing arm. I have some poly busings with the right OD, Had to cu them shorter using a band saw. But the flanges are too thick We are traveling right now and won't be back for 10 days so no progress until home. I'm going to try to fixture them in my router(cnc for wood) freeze them or use dry ice and cut them down. Then the problemwill be that the sleeves are made for a 1/2" bol(.508) rather than the 12mm of about ..480-.486 and that would be too much clearance and drilling out the holes in the brackets welded to the TB carrier to 1/2" is really an extreme commitment. Machining off the .080 or so required is probably not going to work, but if it does I'll make new bushings as a I will be having a new ball screw machined for the router anyway. The bushings I got were about $20 per set so not a great risk here. Another option might be to use Super Beetle bushings,with a steel sleeve sized to fit the 12mm as the SB supposedly has a 17mm bolt.
It will lbe interesting.
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

924RACR · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject:

Oh, you mean front a-arm rear bushings. Not the bushings on the rear trailing arms (rear suspension)?

FWIW, there's two types of the former...
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Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

Grenadiers · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 11:17 pm Post subject:

yeah, he's talking about a rusty pair of front control arms I sent him.
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'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

MikeJinCO · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 2:57 am Post subject:

I've got two things going here, time to stop the confusion. The primary subject is the rear suspension trailing arms. The old supposedly Super Beetle ones on a '77. This is the area I'm working on the bushings.

I also got some front control arms from Grenadiers(Ilive in dry country and not used to rust like this) that I will be working on adapting the late front sway bars to using the late model drop links rather than the bolt on brackets.

But first I have got to get the rear suspension back together. I have 23.5mm TB's, adjustable spring plates, and to rework the trailing arms and axles on my '77 with the old style TB carrier. This is enough changes that many of the parts are slightly different(early TB busings are different than late etc) , and it is getting interesting.
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

Joes924Racer · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:34 am Post subject:

Geez guys com'on even I knew he was talking bout the rear.
Sounds like you have a plan of attack though keep us posted
paddle maker.
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1979 porsche 924 Na
1980 porsche Turbo 931GT Replica
Have u ever driven a turbo.

tyfighter123 · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 551 Location: Colorado

Any updates on how things are coming? I'm in the same procces of tearing down the new style torsion carrier and adapting the arm to the old style. It's a royal pita!!
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Porsche 924 1977 N/A
Mustang GT/CS 2007
Porsche 924S 1987 (parts car)(cut up and recycled)
Porsche 911S 1976
Porsche 931 1980
Porsche 931 1980 (parts car)

MikeJinCO · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:33 am Post subject:

I bought a Bosch 14v impact wrench and it has made disassembly easy. I'm more used to trying to get a 3/4 or 1 ton truck apart so these are easy. I've got the rear suspension reassembled with early 944 adjustable spring plates, 23.5mm 944 torsion bars and Energy Suspension bushings for both the torsion bars and trailing arms. I'll write it all up with part numbers soon, but I can't really take good pictures right now as the TB carrier is upside down trying to get the sway bar fitted.

To get the bushings off the 944 spring plates here is what I did. The folks who make the delrin bushings originally wrote this, I just refined it a little.

1. Put the spring plate in a vise

2. Take a razor knife and cut vertically thru the bushing so it is now a cut donut.

3. Using the razor knife cut vertically around the bushing between the bushing and the spring plate. You won't get all the way to the housing as there is a 45 degree fillet weld there.

4. Heat the inside of the housing up with a propane or Mapp torch, I found propane to work quite well.

5. Using a large flat blade screwdriver pry one end of the split donut off the housing and work it around as the glue loosens. Typically with glues the peel strength is much less then the tensile strength. This will pull it away from the spring plate also.

6. I scraped most of the glue off with a straight edge razor scraper and various paint scrapers. It works good enough for replacing with poly type bushings, good luck getting it clean enough for delrin bushings. It really helps when trying to get the glue off to keep all the metal pretty warm
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Mike

'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

ideola · Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Posts: 15550 Location: Spring Lake MI

Those are not the rear trailing arm bushings that you originally wrote about...

...did you replace those too?
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erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made