Z-Bar Bushes

[Stimps]

He people, I was wondering whats involved in replecing the Z-Bar bushes in my VR, some may know them as "Radious Rod Arm" bushes. They travel from a fixed point at the front with big rubber bushes and travel through the lower control arm. Those are the ones I wish to replace. The ones in the lower control arm.

I had an inspection of them this afternoon and they look a bit worn.

Q. Do you have to drop the whole lower control arm or can I get away with undoing the linkpins ( swaybar ) stuff and pop the bottom ball joint? That sounds easier typed than done or is there an easy way of getting around it?

Anyhow just wondering how involved it would be? I am wondering if they are pressed fit too. Maybe a grab the bushes from autobarn.

[Pimpt6]

They are pretty easy to do mate . But You dont have to go that far as in removing the ball joint .Once the wheel is off and car is on safety stands its pretty straight forward. Undo the bottom nut from the link that goes to the sway bar and than the top nut from the strut. . I usually rotate the strut left when doing the passengers side til you can actually pull the link through With the sway bar pulled down a bit . Takes a bit of strenght to remove and than vice versa to install . Maybe some one else might have an easier way but thats How i have all ways done it .

[Stimps]

Cheers for the reply m8 , will look into it and see where your comming form when I got it in the air.

[deserthead]

Once the arm is out, its an easy job.
Done mine a couple months back.

I think there is a walk through from a dude that did his on his car, driled out his old bushes and made a homemade press. Did a good job.

I took mine to pedders and they pressed the old ones out n new ones in for nuthin.
Pretty happy.

I dont recommend doin the front z-bar ones yourself though, absolute pain in the arse to do. Took me bout 4 hours to get the new ones in. . . . . .

[greenacc]

mate, if you are fairly competant its a walk in the park. What you need before you even think about it is a threaded bar with nuts / big washers and some various packers to pull the old bushes out and press in new ones.
Don't touch sway bar or strut top, just remove the control arm bolt and swing the arm down and back to slip the Z bar out. Then replace bushes and refit z bar.
Check out my thread on the control arm inner bush , and dannyboy_DS thread on vr vs radius rod bushes. are you going to fit rubber or poly ?

[Pimpt6]

Oops I thought we were talking about the stabiliser link bars which now when you buy are called z bar links . . Hmm Radious rod well thats a different story . . sorry for the mix up

[Stimps]

mate, if you are fairly competant its a walk in the park. What you need before you even think about it is a threaded bar with nuts / big washers and some various packers to pull the old bushes out and press in new ones.
Don't touch sway bar or strut top, just remove the control arm bolt and swing the arm down and back to slip the Z bar out. Then replace bushes and refit z bar.
Check out my thread on the control arm inner bush , and dannyboy_DS thread on vr vs radius rod bushes. are you going to fit rubber or poly ?

Errrm.... at this stage I am thinking maybe the rubber as I assume they would be easier to press back into the hole. But should Autobarn have the polly for cheaper my guess would be that polly would be the better way to go.

Thank you all for the replys. It has helped me heaps and given me a good insight as too what needs to be done.

[greenacc]

no real difference in fitting between rubber and poly z bar bushes. The control arm inner is more difficult to fit rubber cos it has a steel shell, the poly one is easier.
Important difference is the ride , rubber is quieter and smoother but poly gives better steering performance. If they exist, Heavy duty rubber could be the best bet. My 6 poly bushes cost $150, which is as cheap as you will find em. think rubber is bit cheaper. Maybe Pedders do HD rubber ?

[DannyboyDS]

I know for a fact that there is an extensive write up in this very section with pictures and every step of the way instructions on how to do this job.

Do a search for HOWTO replace radius rod

I wrote it.

[kapzi]

yeh theres a thread just recently i put up about doing the same thing... i havent gotten around to doing them yet just got my mind on some other things cause i have borrowed my old mans tools for the weekend. but i took a big look into doing it and might start it soon sometime next week.