Okay, well I took the car "straight to the alignment shop" like a good
boy, 3 mi thru town on 25mph streets. Dropped off the car with a
Prothane Rear Axle Mount Bushing set to be installed (heard getting the
old OEM rubber bushing out was a PITA) prior to rear alignment. Shop
called half hour later, told me that the mounting hardware for the rear
bushing was rusted and seized together, unsuitable for disassembly. OK,
skip the rear bushings for now. When I arrived later in the day to pick
up the car, they were not quite finished with the front, and the shop
owner explained that I had a sloppy control arm bushing which was
throwing a variable into the alignment. Crap, now I need more bushings
yet, and the old ones were Autotech poly only a few years old. Anyway,
shop said they'd fine tune the front for free once the new bushing is in.
I saw the rusty rear bushing hardware, but the car was on the ground, so
I didn't have very good view. I'll get the car up tomorrow in the
garage and have a look. Are those OEM rear axle mount bushings really
that bad to get out and replace? I could save a bundle by doing it
myself , I was just ready to be done working on the car for awhile. Is
stainless metric hardware suitable for those pivot points (True Value
has a nice selection), or is 8.8 steel required?
Ran a couple errands in town today, so no cruises yet... didn't even get
to go on the freeway! But I can say the the new Bilstein Sport/H&RSport
Springs setup rides very much like the prior Boge Sport/Eibach over city
streets. It was, and still is, quite a firm ride. Not teeth
shattering, as I had heard the Bilstein Sports were quite the jolt. The
car is maybe 3/4" higher than the very low setup before, which is
fine... I won't worry so much about my 16's hitting the fender flares on
bumps now that I have 5mm wheel spacer in the rear on either side.
So far so good! and Damn those H&R springs are *purty*! Deep blue with
metal flakes, they really soak up the light and look black until you
examine them in closeup.
Man, to see the rusty old springs & strut housings is a nightmare! All
the parts worked okay - in fact, they were performance components
installed by PO - but the vehicle was originally an east-coast car, and
rust issues always come up. Man are they ugly! I'd like to particle
blast (as per a previous post of mine) and repaint, but the front strut
housings may be unrecoverable. Brought them down to the local German
repairshop to have them disassembled. Got the upper bearings and
springs off where I couldn't at home, but they couldn't get the shock
insert retainers unscrewed, they were rusted up so bad.. What a waste.
- Camron from Vancouver, WA USA
'86.5 Black 16V 2.0L