Powerflex Poly Bush install and Arm refurb, By Chris at Center Gravity

Last weekend I went up to Center Gravity to see Chris and Jayne, and also to get my long awaited suspension arm refurb and, bush replacement with Powerflex poly bushes done. What a long weekend it was! But well worth it...



I arrived on Friday evening after work at Chris' unit and we almost immediately started work on the car. The task for Friday was to strip down the car and get all the existing arms out.

Chris had laid out a set of wishbones he'd sourced from Furbers together with all the poly bushes on the floor, in the shape of the S2000! This pic is from the rear of the car.



The bits in detail:

Rear O/S


Rear N/S


Front O/S


Front N/S


The Packaging from the Poly Bushes:


We got the car up on the Ramp:



And prepared the basic set of tools.


In addition to these tools, we also needed the ball joint splitter, and later on discovered we also needed some more heavy duty instruments!

So it was now time to start getting our hands dirty!

After pulling on our latex gloves, the wheels came off, and we started on wheel number 1 (Front O/S). Removing the split pins and undoing the nuts.



Using the ball joint splitter to release the hub from the upper and lower wishbones:




Once the hub was held in place, you can see here the state of my Castor adjustment, the bush has split as well as seized!:



So out came the hacksaw!!



After a lot of sawing and swearing the bugger came out - it was well and truely fooked!



(This was the worst side for seizures, so it is a good illustration!)

Next was the Camber adjustment, which was also seized on this wheel. For this Chris had to get really angry with the angle grinder! (but it made some cool photos!)








We repeated this process for each wheel on the car (with less cutting on the other wheels, as some weren't seized). We gave up on the rear O/S as it was late plus we were tired and hungry! We went back to Chris and Jaynes, to be greeted by a mental dog and a lovely pizza.

Up early on Saturday morning and back to the workshop. The S was still safely stuck up on the ramp, and we got the last wishbone off, giving us a full set of upper and lower wishbones, all laid out nicely on the floor, ready to be wired brushed and coated.



Sideways (rear is at the left of the pic):








An electric drill with wire brush attachments was used to rub down all the metal, and we removed the remaining bushes using various cutting methods, and a 10 ton press:



(Be very careful if you use a 10 ton press, 10 ton of pressure can fire a metal wishbone fairly far, and it hurts when it hits your arm! )

All the bushes removed:



Next we read the instructions on the "POR 15". POR-15® is a high-tech, high performance rust-preventive coating designed for application directly on rusted or seasoned metal surfaces. It dries to an incredible rock-hard, non-porous finish that won't chip, crack, or peel, and it prevents rust from recurring by protecting metal from further exposure to moisture.



This stuff is lethal - do NOT get it on your skin - it is very hard to get off when wet, and if it dries the only thing that will get it off is time! It has to be poured into another container and the lid replaced (with cling film between the lid and the tin otherwise it will not re-open! We used a plastic cup - this is not advised, it ate the plastic cup gradually and when I was holding the cup the paint went all over me as it burned a hole in it - on my jeans and soaked through to my legs! (I washed it off immediately but am still a little stained!) So we found an old jar and used this!

We used disposable paint brushes:


I then coated all of the suspension arms and hung them up using cable ties to dry. It takes 3-5 hours to dry, we left them overnight.

The next morning the arms were all nice and dry, and ready to have the new bushes put in them. We laid them out again, together with nuts and bolts...








The next job was to re-bush them all. Each bush is made up of the polyeurthane (sp?) outer, and a machined metal inner 'collar'. We coated each outer with copper grease and pushed them into place. Then the collar was copper greased and inserted into the purple outer. Each bolt was also greased and pushed in and out of the collar to grease the inner. (No squeaks required!)

We discovered that you have to be careful to have the thin side and thick side of each of the poly bushes the right way round... Thick part outside, thin part inside... A polybushed arm (this was before we noticed the thick/thin issue!):


And all of them complete:


Now it was time to re-assemble. This was the most straightforward of jobs. Poly bushes on the Anti Roll bar first:


And then the suspension arms:


This is the now newly done version of the most knackered one above!


We didn't quite get finished by Sunday night due to a slight hitch (powerflex had supplied an incorrect sized collar for one of the rears (to fit M12 not M14) so Chris had to get this on the Monday, then he set the car's geo up. This was a dream to do as everything was fresh, and it all moved!

He delivered the car back to me this morning, and I got new rear boots on it.

How is it? It feels like a new car - My dampers feel a bit lazy, as they are 151k miles old now, so I really want to upgrade my springs and dampers (I'll probably go for Bilstein ones). The car feels great though, it feels a very slightly bit harder, i can feel the bumps, but it is very comfortable, and now my geo is spot on it is a dream to drive.

So, am I the first poly bushed S out there? If you have seized bushes I would highly reccommend this route, rather than forking out £300 per wishbone from Honda. Chris should be able to do a suspension arm exchange program now, and as soon as details are available I'll let you all know.

Caveat to the above posts - I've not checked any of the technical details with Chris, and as you know my technical knowledge is not the best! So I apologise in advance for any errors, please let me know if you spot any, as I have written this up from my memory!

I do hope some of you find it useful.

Cheers

Looks like you have both done a great job!

However whilst you were at it you should have cleaned the wheel wells

My standing around for an hour waiting for you both says it wasn't an early start...


I have por15 on my elbow from a week ago-it does take some time for it to come off! No signs of skin reaction though.

No! There are a few others that have had it done.

I would also have had it done but Chris informed me that he was unable to obtain a complete set of poly pushes.

I haven't heard from him since.

He now has a second complete set, the only bush that Powerflex have not yet developed is the castor adjustment (I think?) but he's giving them one so they can engineer it.

I said we got up early, not arrived early

Excellent write-up Feathers.

Great write up AE

Chris obviously giving 100% as usual. I may be up for this next year when I let Chris loose on mine again!!

Andy

Thanks for sharing the info Ian, and posting up the photos.

Speaking to Chris today on this subject was very interesting, and seeing first hand just how stuck these bolts can get was a real eye opener.

again

nice write up! Am glad that we now have an option other than going through Honda

Nice write up Ian.
The service to be had from Chris / Center Gravity is first class.
Should make a good few owners a lot less nervous about suspension issues.
My CRX was rejuvenated with new bushes all round, so I know what a difference this will have made.

Ian,
Not pulling holes in your extensive, informative and again keeping a sense of humour throughout write up.
Interesting read.

Just want to clarify, did you have all the bushes done or all but the castor bushes (which was the one Chris attacked with a hacksaw)?

Nice write up - has there been any discussion re. potential cost for doing what you've had done ?

The latter, which is the most troublesome bush. Hence I didn't buy powerflex bushes a couple of weeks ago to press into mine using a friend's press. With Chris's excellent efforts that issue should be resolved and a cheaper and less hardcore option to the bushes offered by j's racing et al should be available

how much would a poly bush upgrade cost compared to getting a new set of arms from honda

The list price of a single wishbone is £250...

thats 8 arms plus labour ? ouch

so what did it cost all in? not a cheap job by the looks of it

4 arms, the uppers don't cause problems in the same way.

I could be tempted by all this, but you really want the poly caster bush too. Using somebody else's bush doesn't sound ideal.

(Yes I know that sounds a bit rude. )