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steering rod bushings

2K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  andyt 
#1 ·
#3 ·
Took me about 30 min to do it on my vig. But if you have help then it should be no problem. I did it with car on the ground and had a hard time twisting the wheels. Here is my write up from November.

http://trolltuner.com/:

Steering Rod Bushings

After seeing quite a few cars with excessive wear on the inner bushings I decided it was time to work on a replacement. The factory bushings are only available with the arms $$$.. Well a few hours in the machine shop and a little urethane later i had some decent prototypes to try.
I decided to install them in my Viggen since it has about 20K miles no wear was expected. I found a decent about of wear on the factory bushings which was a little amazing in this short time. I would guess that many of the higher mileage cars are far worse.
The actual install was pretty easy took a leisurely 30 min. Basic hand tools. I used a long 10mm bolt and a 34mm 1/2" drive socket to pull the old bushings from the arms. This is probably not necessary for the higher mileage cars. Installation was very easy once the old ones were out. I did it with the car on the ground making it a little harder than necessary. It took a helper to get the arms aligned and the bolts into the steering gear. Used a little thread locker there too just as a precaution.
Initial feelings are improved on center feel and less of the mushy steering response. I will see after the road trip to StLouis tomorrow.
 
#8 ·
I called to add them to my order when I first noticed them on Monday... When I spoke to Nick he said that he thought they were all gone but that he would check and add them to my order if there were any left.

Just checked my order and there not on it. So either there all sold out or he forgot. :)
 
#11 ·
Install was straight forward, just as Nick said. I also installed while the car was on the ground. Simply remove the strut bar, then two 15mm bolts securing the steering rack. Tons of room to maneuver once the strut bar was off. Hardest part was removing the old bushings. New bushings when in easy, my only advice is to push the bushings and inner tie rod against the end of the 15mm steering rack bolts before reinstalling, since you have to push the bolts in quite a ways before the thread catches. Initial impressions are just as Nick said, more direct feel on-center and while turning; especially under load. Another great cost/performance modification from gs!
 
#13 ·
Well, isn't that freakin' great. I just had to replace my inner tie rod drivers (last month) when putting in a rebuilt rack, because my bushings had dissolved. They were carbonized and crumbled when I removed the the bolts. I had to cobble up some rubber and metal washers and reinstall until new inner rod drivers arrived. Timing is everything.
 
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