Rebel Bushing Install, also yet another reason I dont let "pro" shops touch my cars Options

[JamesM]

I have never really documented the work I do on my cars, but figure this might be a good place to start as I have not seen too many people out there running these Rebel Racing Bushings.

Start with a little back story:

A long time ago, in a state far far away... or at least as far left as you can go on the map. 13 or so years ago, before I did much work on my own cars I had some failing front bushings replaced with poly ones by a local alignment shot. They were ok aside from squeaking all the time, but then I really didn't push my car to the limit on a regular basis back then. Fast forward to today, been autocrossing for 5 or so years, always felt like the car has pushed really bad in the tighter stuff and always seems to lose traction in the front WAY to easy under breaking. Came to the conclusion that a lot of it is probably the poly bushings in the front sucking major @$$ and binding all the time. I had not planned on doing this upgrade this year but a failed rear bushing meant I had to get an alignment anyways so I figured might as well just do them all.

Decided to go with the Rebel front setup as I like the design and don't like having to lube bushings all the time.


Crapy phone pics to come...

[JamesM]

Snag #1:
Never fun to have a sway bar mounting tab break off in your hand 1 week before the next autox. Thankfully I have a spare control arm, and it even has a decent balljoint.

I suspect this was due to a combination of the mechanic who installed the polys losing the spacer for the end link on this side, combined with the amount of force required to move the stuck control arms, and also the fact that I had adjusted the swaybar to full soft in an attempt to compensate. Angle +force = SNAP

[JamesM]

*sigh* really? This is how ONE of the control arms looked when it came off. I could understand maybe if they put them both on backwards, but just one side?!! Half @$$ crap like this is why no one touches my cars but me anymore

Also want to point out that these are poly bushings, they don't flex like rubber, so I would expect to be able to get at least some movement out of the control arm when I apply force. Stood as much weight on it as I could without shifting the car of the jackstands and NOTHING, no movement at all. think that pretty much confirmed I may have not been getting as much as I could out of my front suspension.

[JamesM]

The poly bushings dont soften under heat like rubber, they liquify, so at least they came off easy after taking a map torch to the housing. The spare arm I used had rubber which also came off pretty easy but did require a bit of twisting around the arm.

[Jeff Hail]

The poly bushings dont soften under heat like rubber, they liquify, so at least they came off easy after taking a map torch to the housing. The spare arm I used had rubber which also came off pretty easy but did require a bit of twisting around the arm.

Next time put the smaller tube on the control arm in the pipe jaw of your vise, not the flats. The flats will oval the torsion bar tubes. The control arm won't roll on you this way.