Replacing front bushings

I've noticed that my front wings move quite a lot when I brake, and that have become worse over time. I also have a brake judder on the front. My suspicion was the rubber bushings on the front suspension.

Working on cars are fun fun fun

Removing the old bushings was a real PITA. The worst thing I've done on the car so far. On the CSR the rearward lower wishbone bushings are located in the chassis in a very tight location. The front bushings are in the removable wishbones and a bit more manageable. But to remove the ones in the chassis takes lots of swearing and bloody knuckles.

I tried to press them out with a threaded rod, nuts and washers with no luck. At the end the only thing that worked was burning out the rubber with a blow torch and then sawing through the outer ring with a Dremel milling tool using an extension cable to be able to reach. The best thing would be to cut through on opposite sides of the bush but the tight location makes that (almost) impossible. Even then it was not easy to get them out but eventually they gave in. Be careful not to cut too deep and damage the chassis.

Bushings can be made up from many different materials with different characteristics.

• Rubber (standard)
• Polyurethane bushings (Powerflex among others)
• Delrin
• Nylon
• Rose joints

Except for completely stiff rose joints, Delrin is what racers seem to prefer because of their stiffness and self lubricating qualities. Unfortunately no complete kits are available in Delrin, and therefore I bought Powerflex bushings out of laziness. The opinions about Powerflex (and other poly-bushings) vary to say the least. If they doesn't work I can reuse the hardware supplied with the bushings and make up my own bushing material in Delrin.

Rubber bushings are not necessary wrong. But as I wrote, removing them is something I rather not do again. Other types of bushings are much easier to replace.

Despite of what Poweflex website says the correct part numbers for the CSR are four PF8-901 bushings and four PF8-902 bushings per car (front suspension only). They are sold in pairs.

The smaller PF8-902 bush comes with a special bolt as they're too small to have room for an inner sleeve, but I used the standard 3/8"x2.5" for the bottom rear bolt as the supplied bolt was too short.

Lets hope this works.