I spread this project over two weeks but have now completed replacing all the rubber in the front suspension, including steering rack. Car only has 52000 miles but the 15 year old rubber was quite hard. One big thing I learned was, at 72 years old it is a lot harder to work on cars than it was several years ago. I will point out a few thinks that may save someone time in the future. A couple of hints, on the lower control arm you will need to lower the steering rack to clear the rear bolts, do the rack bushings at that time and at least on mine (01) the front bolt would not clear a stamped bracket so I took a die grinder and made a notch in the bracket edge so the bolt head would clear. On installation I turned the bolt around and put the nut towards the front.

After a lot of wasted time I discovered it easier to remove the front rotor and dust shield to get access to the ball joint and other parts, the only surprise here was a strap from the dust shield that was secured by the ball joint, a pair of tin snips took care of that, the three small bolts are all that is needed to hold the shield in place. The passenger side didn't take any time after I figured out everything to do on the drivers side. Results, much smoother ride and response.

 

Richard,

Good to hear you're still successfully taking on major overhauls at 72 ........ because I'm only 5 years behind you.

Graham

 

Great job, Rich... could you let me know exactly what parts you ordered and where from? I am sure that I am going to need to do the same in the future (since are cars are both the same age). I did the upper shock mounts but that was about it...

 

Chris, I did the upper and lower control arms, sway bar bushings and links, and the steering rack bushings, ordered all the bushings from RockAuto, "URO" parts. All fit perfectly and appear to be of a high quality. The steering rack bushings, I ordered a pair on E-Bay, they to were a perfect fit for half the cost. Why others charge 3 times the cost for the left side is beyond me, it is just a little larger than the right side. Car only has 52,000 miles so the ball joints were still good.

 

If you squash the boots, the rear lower wishbone bolts slide past the bellows and will come out without removing the rack bolts, but the best thing to do is buy new inner/outer tie rod ends, then open the inside clamp on the bellows, pull the bellows out and remove the inner tie rod with a crescent wrench.

Doing this keeps you from having to crawl under the car, which sucks for a 50 year old, and my inner tie rods were completely trashed on a 80K mile car.

 

So after doing all of the replacements, was your ride demonstrably better? I have previously done all the poly bushings and shock mounts, but the ride is still hard, the front end very low, and shakes like a bowl of jello over any dips, humps, bumps, etc. The next thing for me is to replace front springs and shocks all around to improve the ride. How is yours now?

 

I did Bilsteins and H&R lowering springs with bushings and shock mounts and the nose is higher than sagging stock before the refurb and the ride is great - like my '13 mustang 5.0 and nothing like my miata's which are harsh over large impact bumps.

Handling is excellent, too. It corners flat and is very controlled in right/left transitions.

Mine's a coupe so it won't have the cowl shake of a convert.

 

The 15 year old bushings were considerably harder than the new ones. I am not into the hard cornering like I use to be, ride was harsh, which is why I didn't go with the poly bushings, didn't need them. I no longer feel every bump and crack in the road, doesn't ride like our XJR but was a noticeable improvement over the 15 year old bushings. I did the poly upper shock mount a couple of year ago. Shocks and springs still seem to be fine.

 

Now that you've done it once. How long do you think it would take to do it again?

 

Well, I haven't gotten any younger but, having done it I did get wiser. I think it could all be done in a couple of days. I did take the lower control arms to a local shop and had the old bushings removed and the new ones pressed in, just didn't want the aggravation. If you were to tackle this I would think it would add considerably to the time.

 

My last post on this. I forgot to put in my original post that of all the bushings I replaced the sway bar bushing were the worst, drivers side had a split and a hole in the center top, the passenger side had three splits, both edges and center. This was with only 52000 miles so, the whole project was well worth the effort.