Installing poly A-Arm Bushings, Is there an easy way? Options

[billd]

Any tips on how to install plastic A-arm bushings. They seem to be an extremely tight fit. Do I need to press/pound them on?

[andys]

QUOTE (Grngoat @ Dec 2 2005, 02:58 PM)

I believe that is probably true. The weltmeisters that were in my car were very tight. With the car on a lift and the top strut bolt removed, you could hang on the A-arm and it would barely budge. But they aren't polyurathane either. I have poly bushings in my GTO, and they are fine. The weltmeisters are a hard plastic, with no compliance at all like poly bushings. If you are using real polyurathane bushings on a 914, then they would probably work much better than the plastic ones do. I am real happy with the Elephant bushings, but real poly may work fine, and needle bearings might be even better. Dunno. Just hate the plastic ones.

Both the hard Welt's and the soft Energy bushings are polyurethane. The soft Energy bushings are 90 Shore A scale hardness, and the hard ones (Welt's) are 70 Shore D scale hardness. The "D" scale is much harder than the "A" scale. It very well could be that the harder material is more prone to squeaking, but the same rule of pre-load applies to them. I've installed the (hard) Welt's on my trailing arms, and adjusted the re-load....once I get the car on the ground, all this theory will be put to rest!!

Andys