Any of you guys ever installed the fancy red energy torque arm bushing? I did and it was harder than I thought. You have to grind out the rivets from the original rubber bushing so the new one will fit. Once you get that done you have to slide the new one over the end of the torque arm with the supplied grease. It is actually silicone and gets all over everything and makes a huge mess. I had to take a claw hammer and pry the torque arm down by prying it against the driveshaft with the claw part of the hammer inside the window of the torque arm itself. That caused me to sweat. While straining your guts out with the hammer you have to try and get the outside part of the metal mount to close against the other side of the mount and get a bolt started. After that it's all downhill. Put the rest of the bolts in and drive it. It did make a big difference on mine but my original mount was 80% gone and clunked when I shifted into drive or reverse. I also changed the end links on both sway bars with the fancy red energy ones and it tightened the car up a lot. I used an air impact to tighten up the end links so that they squished (bulged) a little. I already have the good panhard and trailing arms so the suspension is almost done and all that stuff does work. I suggest taking the torque arm mount out of the car to install the new mount. It would have been much easier and a lot more room. Has anyone ever done the A-arms and if so how involved was that?

 

I found it pretty easy...

The whole "prying" thing was because you didn't have the car supported right. Next time, jack the rear of the car up by the "frame", until the wheels are well off the ground (or jack it up that high by the pumpkin); support the chassis at the front LCA mounts; let the rear hang; jack the rear back up just enough to raise it off of the shocks; support the AXLE TUBES in this position (just above fully hanging) with 2 jack stands (the AXLE TUBES, not the pumpkin, not the shock brackets, not the LCA bracket, not ANYTHING ELSE besides the AXLE TUBES). With it supported this way, there will be so little force on the torque arm that you'll be able to move it with your little finger and it will probably even stay where you put it from the friction of the axle tubes sitting lightly on the jack stands.

But yeah, it made a HUGE difference in my car as well. I took my torque arm mount out completely because I'm so lazy, that's EASY whereas laying up under the car to do all that seemed dangerously similar to WORK which is something I would NEVER get mixed up in.

If you're talking about the front control arms, yes I've done those as well; but again, I'm lazy. Without the right tools, they can be a REAL PITA. So I went to the junkyard, got another pair, hit one of the some local tire stores about a half-hour before closing time on Sat, and slipped the tech a yuppie food stamp to do them for me. Then on Sun all I had to do was unbolt and re-bolt a bunch of stuff, without disabling the car while I tried to figure out how to deal with those things, and having to WALK places to get whatever I needed.

 

I tried doing it all under the car as well. I ended up going the same route as Sofakingdom and pulled the mount and torque arm off completely to do it. That made it so much easier!!

I attempted to Replace my control arm bushings with energy suspension ones on my own, believe me it is no easy task! I Removed the bushings from one arm and got one bushing pressed in. It took a couple of hours and lots of swearing. I then took both arms to Firestone and they had them both done in 30 min. I think they charged me $40? I know I felt like it was definitely worth it!The right tools really make a difference! I didn't have a press then so I could probably do it now.

 

I changed the front A-arm bushings with a neighbors large vice. Real PITA. I had to temporarily tack in some reinforcements to keep the 'ears' from crushing.

 

Going to the junkyard is a good idea. I could paint them and have them ready and the car would only be down a short while. Been thinking about a rack and pinion set-up as well. Has anyone tackled that without buying a new K-member?

 

K-member isn't so much the problem. What you have to overcome is, the Pitman arm in these cars moves the steering linkage some distance from side to side, and of course the spindles are set up for that much movement to produce the desired amount of wheel turning. But rack & pinions have a MUCH shorter range of motion, so if you just stick one on there, your turning radius will be about a half-mile with it fully cranked. Gotta modify the spindles; no easy task for someone who envisions staying alive even while driving the car after this has been attempted. No there are no interchangeable spindles that will fix this.