I recently began the painful process of replacing the 13 year old suspension bushings on my race car. I went with Powerflex Race (black 95A) from GT Motoring, a site sponsor. I decided to start with the upper arms since they are not as labor intensive as the lower arms. With Energy Suspension bushings the lower arms have to be heated with a torch and all the old bushing rubber has to be scraped away while the upper arms simply get the entire old bushing pressed out. For Powerflex lower arm bushings you simply press the old bushings completely out and then press in the replacement. I plan to do the lower arms this winter. I have detailed the how-to here: Suspension Bushing Replacement. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to do the first rear upper arm as I worked out the procedure but it took less than 2 hours each to do the rest.

I was surprised to find my rear upper bushings seem to be in great shape. There was no evidence of tearing or degradation so I don't know if the new upper arm bushings will make a difference. I'll report back on this thread when I get the car on the track.

I did replace my front lower compliance bushings a few years ago because they were ripped and in pretty bad shape.


I would recommend the rear toe arm bushing as the second highest replacement priority after the front lower compliance bushing but I have Megan Racing bump steer toe arms with very nice stiff bushings so I don't need to replace them.


Flattening the face of a 1" socket used as an upper arm bearing press:



"In place" bearing press used to remove the old upper arm bushings:



Installed bushings and grease zerk:

 

Do the Powerflex bushings also require you to retain the outer shell for the LCAs, or is that only for Energy Suspension?

 

Instead of using the socket, perhaps you could have used a 1.25" O.D. steel tubing scrap from the local metal supply store?

 

I believe so but I'm not positive. Hopefully someone that's done the Powerflex lower swap will chime in and confirm.

No, the outside diameter needs to be between 1.34" and 1.375" or it won't press out the thin old bearing outside metal band. If I didn't find something pre-sized I was going to put some steel bar in the lathe and cut it down to size. Steel would also be better for the receiver cup but the aluminum tube worked with a little fitting.

 

How often do you grease these bushings? I plan on doing the zerk as well when I do the install.

 

Someone posted on another thread that they didn't install zerks and the new bushings disintegrated in short order--I don't know what brand of bushings they were though. I plan to grease mine every couple of months.

 

I contacted PowerFlex UK, their sales manager James Bourn stated that "All of the bushes are metalastic type bushes and the outer shell must be removed to fit our parts. "

I will be installing mine hopefully this month or next, when I receive the parts.

 

Cool, thanks for doing that. I was going to give them a call to ask the same question. This makes the Powerflex bushing swap much cleaner and easier but you will have to have the right size driver to push out the old bearings. This helps to justify the price premium you pay for the Powerflex bushings.

 

After getting some time in the car with the new Powerflex Race 95A upper arm bushings I have to report I didn't notice any difference in handling or harshness (but my car is already very harsh with upgraded motor, trans and diff mounts). As I previously mentioned I replaced the bushings on all 4 upper arms. The removed OEM 13 year old bushings seemed to be in great shape.

The lower arm bushings are much larger and take much more load than the upper so replacing them my make more of a difference. I did replace the front lower arm compliance bushings a couple of years ago because they were visibly torn.

 

Not to hijack your thread Rob but it is related. What about the rear toe arm bushing? This flex would seem to cause a high amount of influence on handling since it could/would toe IN/OUT under load. Seems like a solid roller bearing or steel bushing, rather then a rubber bushing would be best for this one. I'm trying to decided what to do about it which makes the most bang for the buck sense. My alignment guy says it flexes like a mother just trying to set an alignment point and I'm sure that's making the car feel loose back there when making higher load transitions. Wondering what you guys use? Or maybe the best option would be to lose the entire OEM arm and upgrade with a aftermarket turn buckle style that already has a solid mount incorporated in it?