Welcome to my urethane bushing replacement page. The 28 year old original manufacture's rubber bushings were due for replacing. I wanted my Z to have more precise handling without the slop in the steering, also I wanted less body roll. I ordered the urethane bushing set from Blackdragon Auto, jacked up my Z and got to work!

My Z jacked up with the FSM, printouts of Blues Tech Tips (thanks again Blue!), and the new bushings laid out.

While I was installing my "new" transmission, I replaced the transmission crossmember bushings. Here are the new urethane bushings installed and the old rubber bushings waiting for disposal. All of the old bushings looked like these - cracked and dry-rotted after their 28-year ride.

The front control arms (upper) had metal sleeves that I hammered and cut for three hours one night. I took them to Bill at Eastern Transmission and he pressed them out using a 20-ton press. He said they were siezed so tight he almost had to use a 40-ton press. Also pictured are my TC rods - rusted beyond re-use, so I sourced new ones from Danny's Datsuns.

While I was taking things apart, I primed and painted things like brackets, sway bars, and other misc pieces.

Removing the old steering knuckles was a chore. Hammering on them did no good, I had to use my gear puller with the castle-nut still on to prevent the gear puller from slipping and an aluminum breaker bar over the socket wrench to pop them loose.

This is the end result. The new tie rod end greased and fit securely over the steering rod link. The old bushing is laying on the wooden block.

When I got around to installing the new steering coupler, the bolts on the old vs. new did not line up. One night while drinking beer, an engineer friend suggested I move the brass sleeves into the other set of holes. I did and the steerring coupler fit perfectly. Why it did not come ready to install, I have no clue, but this is further proof that engineers can be useful (thanks Dave!).

Here is the underneath front passengers side. All the new bushings are installed and I cleaned up the moving parts and re-greased them. I also painted the conntol arms with 2 coats of Rustoleum primer, then 2 coats of glossy Rustoleum paint. The sway bar, mounting brackets, and frame rails were also cleaned up and painted in the same manner. I was happy to see that the rust was limited to surface rust and I am hopefull that there are no more big gaping structural rust-holes.

This project has been ongoing for 5 or 6 months due to work, wife, waiting for new parts to ship, new puppy, house projects, travel, etc. to be continued...

I sourced 240Z strut mount insulators (left) from California to replace my stock 280Z strut mount insulators (right). As you can tell, the 240Z insulators will give me a lower ride height without affecting the geometry of my suspension.

Here is my sway bar, cleaned up, primed, and painted red, and my moustache bar, cleaned up, primed and painted glossy black. The bushings were not too bad to remove from the moustache bar, i just took a wire brush attachment for my drill and went for it!

Lots to see in this picture. You can see that I have my diffy supported by a big jack. This is really important. Also, you can remove the rear control arm bushings without completely removing the control arm. I had a stubborn sleeve, so I cleaned off the rubber bushing and installed the new urethane bushing over the old sleeve. It seemend to fit fine! Remember to use lots and lots and lots of grease when installing the new bushings, its cheap and it will stop the squeaks that have been reported with urethane bushing upgrades.

Moustache bar installation. Thanks to Blues Tech Tips (thanks again Blue!), it is important to install the upper bushings only and the stock washers and nuts, then use a 2x4 and another jack to press the bottom bushings in. I could not get the moustache bar to install correctly until i used this method.

New cleaned, primed, and painted sway bar and new end links!

It took a long time to complete those projects and lots of time was spent with the Z on jackstands waiting for parts. But the end result is a much tighter feel to the car. The ride is not horribly stiff, just really responsive. This is must how my Z felt when Jon drove it off the lot in 1978!