tires and wheels need advice on what rear bushings to replace

[Redtail]

Hi all,

My 73 corners flat most of the time, but occasionally when rounding a sharp curve the car will suddenly "dive" or severely oversteer to the inside of the curve. It feels like the rear wheels are twisting to the outside of the corner, causing the nose of the car to dive in.

I know all my shocks are bad - I have a set of Bilstein HDs coming next week. My question is which bushings are the likely culprits? The big trailing arm bushings or the diff/subframe mounts? Could it just be severely worn shocks causing the problems?

The car is my daily driver, but i plan to go with poly replacement bushings anyway. Comments?

[BillWilliams]

just do them all. In the rear, the big ones are easy, they come as a unit.

The trailing arm bushes are not bad if you have the tool to remove and insert.

The diff ones need to be pressed out and in unless you go to the "cut the metal" method as discussed here before.

Here is a pic of the tool to use, or there is a much cheaper one made of PVC, washers, and all thread. The home made unit works well and its construction is in the threads someplace.

[Guest Anonymous]

It could be both the shocks and the bushings. Easiest way to find out is to check out the bushings, if they looked cracked and worn, they probably are.

I had one subframe bushing that the rubber wasn't even attached anymore to the housing.

Also one of the diff mounts was completely seperated, it would cause a pop in the rear when reversing.

Just get down there and look when you put on the new HDs.

Lars

[Redtail]

thanks for the help guys. Looks like i'll put on the HDs then start in on all the bushings! should make quite the difference.

[Mike_D]

Hey Z-Man,

Glad to see you're on the board. OT, but are you going to Bimmerfest in Santa Barbara?

Alza Sucks,

Mike

[Redtail]

MIKE!!

how'd ya know it was me man?

Haven't heard about bimmerfest, but i'm always up for a funrun and a show or somethin. What are the dates on this event?

How's your ride comin along?

[Mike_D]

hehe, I saw your post about Datsun roadsters last week and figured it was you. Plus Miz mentioned you had bought an 02. Bimmerfest is April 8th (http://www.bimmerfest.com/event.php?action=insertregistration&EvId=10). Not sure if I'm gonna go yet. 300 miles, no stereo, and the sweet smell of exhaust in the cabin... fun! Anyway, I think I'm gonna sell my Camaro in the next few months. The money I save from insurance per year alone would pay for my M20 swap. I think this summer I'm going to do the engine swap and suspension work along with some rust repair. She'll still look a little thrashed still, but should be a blast with ~200hp and some ground hugging coilovers. How are your projects coming along?

[Redtail]

yeah dude sell the camaro. classic is the way to go for sure!

The roadster's been super reliable lately. I just changed out the shocks, and boy did it make a huge differnece. Gave me the motivation to get that done on the BMW too. Then there's just a bunch of little things to fix on the 2002, and the roadster could always use a nice new top. Just $$$ and time man i'll get to it all.

we should get together for a brew one of these days...

[Mike_D]

Yeah, we should get together and swap rides for a bit. I'd like to see how another 02 drives compared to mine. I only test drove one other car before getting mine, but it was a POS and the guy wanted $3800.