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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Wishbone & Arm Bushing - A fresh perspective


Scott

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I know it's been said numerous times that the wishbones and arms are a replacement item but I just wanted to get some clarification and perhaps a fresh perspective from people who work for Toyota or close to them.

 

My reason for asking is that in the manual for the suspension it clearly tells you to remove the bushes and replace them with new ones. It even explains the proceedure for doing so making reference to numerous tooling, presses etc. The only time it says to replace the arm is when the balljoint is faulty IIRC. Surely if the manual says this then the parts must exist somewhere to do the overhaul on these components?

 

Is it at all possible that these parts wouldn't be referenced in the IPC? I just can't understand why there would be an instruction to do something in the official manual without the actual availability of parts to do it.

 

Thanks

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I just went through it all. The only bushes replaced are the following...

 

Front Upper - Both

Rear Upper - Both

Rear Strut Rod - There only is one

 

 

I'm thinking that perhaps when it's been asked about in the past people have only considered the front lowers or something? And because they couldn't find a number for those assumed there wasn't any replacement numbers for the bushes.

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Would the softer compound not affect the handling though? Or would it just be the longevity?

 

I just had a run through the parts on Toyo and there is a bush shown in the diagram for the Strut..... yet the drawing number says "not applicable". Very strange.

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As well as just the arm bushes it mentions replacement of the bush on the front shockers as well (the lower bush which bolts the shock to the lower arm).

 

Id love to know if they do actually can supply these.

 

Yeah, it also says "Not available".

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I have fitted Soarer ones before, they worked fine, no noticeable difference, they may even be a bit stiffer. DO NOT underestimate the hassle in doing these, it's not too bad if you have a lathe and scrap material to make mandrels with, and a big press, but if you have to pay someone to do this the savings may be minimal.

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I have fitted Soarer ones before, they worked fine, no noticeable difference, they may even be a bit stiffer. DO NOT underestimate the hassle in doing these, it's not too bad if you have a lathe and scrap material to make mandrels with, and a big press, but if you have to pay someone to do this the savings may be minimal.

 

Surely a socket set and a vice would do the trick nicely?

 

I have access to a few presses so don't need to worry, but I've never heard of anyone else having trouble with bushes.

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i use sockets and a vice. can a bit fiddly but does the trick. it is a peach of a vice though..... now im off to round up my cattle, yeee haaaaa

 

just like to add my new record too. last night i pushed 2 ball jpints out of my jaguar arms with the vice. now that took some doing . and balls of steal. the upper arms are £330 each if i fudged up and sheerd them. ... hi ho silver , awayyyyyyyy

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A customer brought both front lower arm bushes, they fitted the MKIV lower arms fine, I am not sure where he got them from, but they were definitely Soarer ones. It was quite a long time ago. My EPC doesn't show them as available from Toyota, and I have just realised my Microcat Live doesn't show Soarers at all :(

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I've replaced the rear bush on the front lower arm with the one for the Soarer. :)

 

The Soarer bush isn't supposed to be as stiff as the Supra bush, it's a interesting design with most of the rubber at one end with large voids around the diameter towards the other end. The Supra bush is much more solid, I drilled most of the rubber out before cutting the outer shell to remove it.

 

From what I've read the Soarer bushes aren't supposed to be that durable even on the Soarer, I've stiffened mine up by filling the voids with a liquid polyurethane 2 part mix.

 

I pressed them in using a 6" bench vice, I made one mandrel on the lathe and also used a large socket from a 3/4" set.

 

It was extremely tight squeezing them in, I'm surprised I didn't break the vice using a 3 ft lever and I'm no weakling. :blink:

 

I haven't got the car on the road yet as I'm painting/powder coating all the suspension components and brakes etc.

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I've replaced the rear bush on the front lower arm with the one for the Soarer. :)

 

The Soarer bush isn't supposed to be as stiff as the Supra bush, it's a interesting design with most of the rubber at one end with large voids around the diameter towards the other end. The Supra bush is much more solid, I drilled most of the rubber out before cutting the outer shell to remove it.

 

From what I've read the Soarer bushes aren't supposed to be that durable even on the Soarer, I've stiffened mine up by filling the voids with a liquid polyurethane 2 part mix.

 

I pressed them in using a 6" bench vice, I made one mandrel on the lathe and also used a large socket from a 3/4" set.

 

It was extremely tight squeezing them in, I'm surprised I didn't break the vice using a 3 ft lever and I'm no weakling. :blink:

 

I haven't got the car on the road yet as I'm painting/powder coating all the suspension components and brakes etc.

 

 

Do you have a note of the number at all mate? Where did you get it from?

 

Cheers

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I wonder if the bushes I was given to fit were aftermarket or none original? I certainly don't recall them having voids, they "felt" harder than the Supra ones, and looked of similar construction. I do have a durometer, but didn't have it available at the time. Again from memory they weren't in a Toyota packaging. Unfortunately the customer went to live abroad and I have no contact info for him or I would ask him. I'd have been wary of fitting a voided bush on the rear of the front lower arms, as movement here is on of the reasons a tired car tramlines.

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I replaced a worn stock set with some polyurethane ones..

 

Vice and sockets..

 

Like Chris said, awful Job, and to make it worse the poly bushes were a poor fit and the geometry would never settle.. Ended up taking it to Mr W where he fitted stock arms and geo-d it properly..

 

The faff of doing stock bush replacements on your own sounds daunting...

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