Been working on this for awhile. finally picked them up from the Machinist Tuesday.
shaft is turned down .010 to make it round again and the fit to the bushing is .002

Just have to freeze and press them into the trailing arms and drill for grease fitting. Don't like where it is now.

Looks sweet.

And I'm going to make Rob help me drink beer while we put them in this weekend.

Hi Joe.

Looks nice!

What is the material? It looks like steel.

Yep steel, Car is not going to see much road use anymore.
Just a track whore and cone dodger.

How do those grease fitting work???

1st you get a grease gun

Actually I am not going to use the ones as shown. I will drill and tap some located near the outside edges once the bushing is pressed into the trailing arm.

How are the new bushings working out, Joe?

Hmm, How about still sitting in the freezer.

Just can't get time dedicated to the car with other "life stuff" taking precidence.

Fixing up houses, moving stuff has taken all my free time.
Maybe this weekend cuz it is going to be raining like a bitch.

Yup.....

I know whatcha mean, my parts pile keeps getting bigger but I haven't touched my car. Soon, very soon.

Are those the bushings that you got from the roundy round shop?

Hey Joe give me a call if you need help moving anything. I don't have a job right now so I'm available whenever. Steel bushings... sounds like the Redneck Racer is just getting better! Oh and I just got a car for free.

Derek where is your 914 these days?

Will you be using some sort of thrust bearing on ether end of the shaft?

When you say freeze and press in, are you talking about pressing the bushings to the trailing arms and then drilling a clearance hole to align with the threads you already put in the bushing for the grease fitting?

Is there any worry about using the stock shaft as the bearing surface? I would imagine it is rather soft. Have you thought about having it heat treated to harden it? Another thought would be to have the shaft trimmed a little more and have a hardened sleeve pressed on to act as the bearing surface.

Keep us posted, if this works it looks like a rather simple mod.

It's still at the college. They waited to long to start on my car because there were other cars that were in before mine... and now they don't have students that have enough experience... so it's sitting out of my hair stress free until they finish it. I still need a tail light lense but that can wait. I'm getting an 82 Celica Supra to run around town and I'm trying to get it ready for the 08 season. It's free and not running but it'll give me something to work... which is what I really want.

are you gonna add grease grooves?
dust seals?

once the bushings are pressed into the trailing arm.... can you guarantee they will be perfectly aligned with each other? so they will not bind?

Neat stuff.

No need for grease grooves the clearance is .002 I am going to use and extreme pressure grease.

the shaft is not that soft but it is hollow so taking too much material off will make it weak. We just took off enough to make it round, sorta like what Chris Foley does on the Delrin pieces.

There should be some room for alignment of the bushings as they are not the same O.D. for the entire length.


Damn it you guys now I am thinking about this again and want to go wrench on the car instead of set tile.

Setting tile... yeah that sounds like gobs of fun...Come on Joe... you know you wan to...Sorry to hi jack but how is the engine build coming?

How are you going to keep the grease in the bushings after two or three cycles?

Bushings installed today.
Such a beautiful day outside I rolled the car out of the garage for the 1st time in 3 months.

Fit just like I planned I used extreme pressure grease in the bearing surfaces.

Once all is re-installed the trailing arms moved up an down like butter. there is zero slop or wiggle side to side or axially.

I expect the rear toe settings to stay in check now. I have pics of the car on course with substantial deflection with the poly bushings.

Can't wait to see how they work on the track. Now ya just gotta get that motor finished.
(yeah, i know, i'm one to talk about getting a motor finished)