Bushes

[leedurrant73]

Hello all,

Hope your surviving in the cold weather, know this probably have been asked but I’m looking at replacing all the bushes under the car. So want to buy a full kit and go from there. Any kit better than other or a certain make?

Suppliers name would also be great, fitting to a 69t only for Road pleasure and fun.

Thanks Lee

[911hillclimber]

I fitted a whole set of blue polybushes for my road/ hillclimb 73T.
Have removed almost all of them now it is a road only car, far much better with stock rubber.

[leedurrant73]

Thanks mate,

Any recommendation for supplier and can you buy as a set?
I see you can buy the poly bushes as a set for about £340.

Any idea of the cost for a complete set of stock rubbers?

Thanks Lee

[911hillclimber]

You and 'de-rubber' an early 911 and the car will feel tight and will gain harshness esp when you do the 4 drive train mounts. Quite a bit of work, but the car was great on the hills.

Putting the rubber back into the car is tedious, so maybe choose a hardness that is towards the rubber spec.

I de-rubbered my hillclimb Impreza, road driven, and the effect was far more pronounced, but what a chassis esp with 360 bhp, a brilliant car. This included WRC engine and trans mounts.
The change to poly bushes on the Drive Train will make a good improvement to the gear change and will stop the engine/box moving on HARD acceleration from a standstill but you will feel this at all road speeds.
I've just removed mine for rubber, the end of the de-poly bushing on my car.

I think Nick Moss sells all the parts, maybe Canford do too, but a call to the supplier will get you all you need.
Use a lot of the correct grease, it is white in colour. I felt they did not supply enough with the kits parts.

I did not change the damper bushes at the rear as I feel they articulate quite a lot through full suspension travel so kept them.

All this is personal taste, many race with solid drive train mounts, but imho murder on the road.

If I was to do my car just as a road car I would change rubber for new rubber, not sure if you can do this on the lower A arms on the front or on the rear spring plates.
Do your research.

[leedurrant73]

Great thank you.

Lee

[911SE]

Lee,

I replaced all suspension bushes with new rubber ones from Elephant Racing, from memory there were 2 hardnesses to choose from and I went for the harder compound. Car rides very well and I wouldn't want anything harsher for fast road driving and I certainly wouldn't want the squeaky sound you sometimes get from plastic bushes, it's a subjective thing.

The spring plate ones take some effort to replace and for front A-arms it might be worth just replacing the whole arm, looking back that's what I should've done instead of sandblasting, galvanising, powder coating and then fitting new bushes...

Cheers,

[leedurrant73]

Thank you

[jjeffries]

Lee, another vote for Elephant's parts. They are spendy but likely will outlast you/me/all of us. Beware the cheap stuff....total false economy. Best of luck to you, John in Connecticut/USA

[rhd racer]

Agree with Graham on the engine / trans mounts observation. I have run standard, urethane and solid ones on the 914, and the best yet are Wevo semi solid ones. You get all the benefits of the gear change without the harshness and vibration of a solid mount, and they load up when under stress.

For suspension, I have urethane bushes on both the 914 and the Boxster. I might be used to them after 15 years or so, but I do not find them too crashy on the road, in fact compared to the Boxster the 914 feels incredibly comfortable, that mainly being down to the extraordinary Spring ratings on the Boxster. Both are used infrequently though in real terms, so it depends what sort of driving you are going to do and how often.

Probably worth jumping in a couple of cars to feel the difference on varied roads before you commit, as Graham says it's a hell of a job and costly once you add in full geo afterwards!

Cheers
Wayne

[911hillclimber]

My bone-stock 2009 Boxster is harsh on today's UK roads, though a limo compared to my Z4 with M suspension that I had before it, that was stupidly hard.
My rubber/polybushed '73 rides really well in comparison, and steers better than the Boxster too!

Porsche found a great spring/damper rating for it's earlier cars, pity that has been lost to a large degree.

My 911 now has full stock rubber drive train mounts after 15 years of the polybush mounts.
You really cannot feel much nvh difference, but you can sense the loss of the gear change advantage the poly bush kit provides.

I'll give mine this year, but if things are weak, then the poly mounts will go back in.

[RichardJ]

I have just taken all the front suspension apart on the 914 I'm restoring, ready for blasting and refinishing. I'll be replacing all the bushes and ball joints. Initially I thought the original rubber wishbone bushes didn't look badly worn when I got everything apart, but on taking the torsion bars out, I was very surprised to see both show signs of metal to metal contact at the rear ends. One had just rubbed the paint off, the other has very slight scratches into the metal.
I had planned to fit new rubber bushes, but if the originals have somehow allowed the torsion bars to rub on the auxiliary support, I'm thinking slightly stiffer polyurethane may be a better bet. I've been pleased with Powerflex bushes in VW applications before, and theirs for this application seem reasonably priced. If anyone here has used them in 911 / 914 front wishbone applications, I'd be interested to know what you thought - especially whether they squeaked at all.
Powerflex don't appear to to a strut top bush, but I see Superflex do. Again I was looking for rubber really, but any opinions would be useful. I've never used anything of theirs before. The objective is to build a nice, squeak free road car, not an ultra stiff racer. Thank you,

[911hillclimber]

I put plastic bushes in my 73T frontwishbones.
They worked well, the ride vibrationswere high, but thefront was very precise.
I di the anti roll bar bushes and drop link bushes, top mounts were steel ball bearings.
All tight and very direct.
They squeezed at times, but not much.
They were in there for 12 years, went back to rubber when the car stopped hill climbing.
Still direct, much nicer on the road, maintenance free.
I kept the anti roll bar bushes in plastic, but everything else is stock rubber.

Recently removed all the poly bushes from the drive train mounts to new stock rubber.
Car is nice and a lot of vibrationis gone.

Personally, I would fit or keep rubber for a road car.
Just my long term experience.

[RichardJ]

Thank you,