92' Legacy Control Arm Bushing Suggestions

[duganj]

I need to replace the front, lower rear control arm bushings in my 2WD '92 Sedan.

I've seen threads on some of the poly bushings for the newer imprezas fitting our cars, but not exactly some of the kits currently on ebay.

I was looking at this energy kit for an 02-06 WRX:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Energy-F ... ccessories

and this Prothane kit for a 95-99 Legacy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/95-99-Su ... ccessories

Would either of these work in my case?

There are also some larger master kits:

Prothane WRX and Impreza:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Subaru-W ... ccessories

Energy suspension 02 to 06 WRX

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ENERGY-S ... ccessories

Is it worth my while to get one of the larger kits, or am I going to end up with a bunch of extra parts that won't fit anything?

Thanks in advance.

John

[Legacy777]

I would not recommend trying to remove the bushing from the front a-arm's rear mount. Just buy a new mount. You can get STi ones for $43.

RH - B0200FE000
LH - B0200FE010

[duganj]

Is it a real pain to do? From others descriptions it didn't sound too bad.

If those 95-99 Legacy parts would fit, I would be incline to use them for half the price of 2 of the STi ones.

[Legacy777]

Here's a picture of the rear bushing/mount

http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... P_4747.JPG

You would need to get the rubber bushing part out with a press, and then put the poly bushing in. Trust me, it's a pain in the butt!

[duganj]

Well, against your better advice I went with the Prothane kit for the WRX. Agreed that its a pain in the butt.

I ended up pushing the center of the rubber bushings out with a rented ball joint press, then I hacksawed through the outer ring of the bushing and pounded out that ring. From there it was easy to press the Prothane bushings in by hand. Same deal with the smaller bushings in the control arm itself.

As far as modifications I needed to make to the WRX Prothane bushings fit our legacy's, I had to drill out the washer on the large rear bushing so it would fit over the stud on the control arm. For the front bushing on the front lower control arms, these were about .200" too long to fit into the brackets on my '92. I turned the .200 off of the steel center of the bushing, and .100" off of each of the Prothane halves, essentially taking the chamfer off.

To make things even more fun, I sheared the head off of one of the bolts that holds the rear brackets on. I then drilled it out, and after drilling it out off center I didn't have enough threads after retapping to hold the ~150 ft lb torque spec. So I drilled it out and tapped it to a 5/8-18. I got an alignment done yesterday, and now I'm back on the road.

Some pictures of the project here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duganj/set ... 89/detail/

[Legacy777]

Yup....sounds like quite the project

I had to do that exact same thing with the bushings. Press them out with what you can, and then I ended up cutting the metal collar so it would come out.