How To Install - Whiteline Control Arm Bushing Front and Rear by RallySport Direct
Oct 14, 2013, 05:51 PM
#1
How To Install - Whiteline Control Arm Bushing Front and Rear by RallySport Direct
Our La Flama Blanca shop Evo X has been taking a lot of trips to the autocross events here in Salt Lake. Recently we have been looking into improving its handling abilities by upgrading some of the suspension parts. We did a lot of research and testing and decided to go with a plethora of Whiteline parts. In the next few how to write-ups for you guys, we will be installing all of these great products!
1) WHI W0593 - X2 One Front one Rear Whiteline Control Arm Lower Inner Front Bushing
2) WHI KCA395 - Whiteline Front Roll Center Kit
3) WHI BMF55Z - Whiteline Heavy Duty Front Sway Bar 27mm Adjustable
4) WHI BMR84Z - Whiteline Heavy Duty Rear Sway Bar 27mm Adjustable
5) WHI KLC139 - Whiteline Adjustable Ball Socket Front End links
6) WHI KLC174 - Whiteline Adjustable Ball Socket End links Rear
2) WHI KCA395 - Whiteline Front Roll Center Kit
3) WHI BMF55Z - Whiteline Heavy Duty Front Sway Bar 27mm Adjustable
4) WHI BMR84Z - Whiteline Heavy Duty Rear Sway Bar 27mm Adjustable
5) WHI KLC139 - Whiteline Adjustable Ball Socket Front End links
6) WHI KLC174 - Whiteline Adjustable Ball Socket End links Rear
In this how-to, we will be installing the Whiteline control arm bushings, on the front and the rear. The ones on the front were a lot easier than the rear. But they were both relatively easy, just time consuming.
Getting started, the first thing we needed to do was collect the necessary tools to perform this task. There was one special tool we needed for this install and it was the press tool kit. So, let’s get a list of tools you will need.
1) Ratchet
2) Sockets: 14mm, 17mm, 19mm
3) Wrenches 14mm, 17mm, 19mm
4) Jack, or car lift
5) Jack stands (if on the floor)
2) Sockets: 14mm, 17mm, 19mm
3) Wrenches 14mm, 17mm, 19mm
4) Jack, or car lift
5) Jack stands (if on the floor)
Here’s a picture of all of the items we are going to be installing in these how-tos. LOTS of Whiteline goodies!
Now, we have all of our tools, should we get started on this fun filled project? I think so. We will need to remove the parts outlined in the image below; the front section can be left on the car for this install. You won’t have to remove the entire under tray, just these parts to gain access to the bolts and nuts.
There are a few 10mm bolts holding these but mostly there are plastic clips that require either a flat tip screwdriver like the one pictured below, or a Phillips screwdriver that you just back out a half turn.
Now we can get to the bolts that hold the lower control arm in place. You will have one in the rear position it bolts straight up into the chassis and it’s a 19mm there is a nut on the other end of it and you’ll have to put a 19mm wrench on there to keep it from spinning. You can take it all the way out.
Next there is one in the front of the car, It’s also a 19 mm and you’ll have to pull the plastic cover out of the way to gain access to it. Simple enough, once you get to it, just zip it out and take it out of the car.
Take the bolt/nut out of the spindle to lower control arm. It’s a 17mm bolt with a nut on the back side, get your wrench on the back side before you loosen it. Then just pull it right out.
Take the bolt out of the end link and the LCA should be ready to pull out. You might have to wiggle it back and forth just a little bit, but it should pull out with little effort.
In order for us to get the existing bushings out we will need a ball joint press tool kit. We went down to the local AutoZone and bought this kit from them. It is available as a “tool to rent” if you just needed to use it this once and bring it back. If you do that you get your 100 bucks back
With the arm off the vehicle, we can remove the stock bushings. We need to get the rubber washers off the ends of the bushing; they easily come off with your fingers.
We just need to separate them with the #2 press adaptor. It’s a little tricky to get in there because of the shape of the arm itself. It’s doable, just tricky. We used an air impact to drive the press shaft into the bushing to push it out of the arm like this
Once we have the old bushings out, we can slide the new ones in, first; however, we need to throw some grease in the bushing to avoid abnormal wear on the bushing.
Since they are greased up, we can slide them in place; they should fit tight, but go in with a little bit of effort.
This being a two piece bushing you will have to put once half in one side and the other half on the other side.
Now we slide the sleeve in through the whole assembly. You can do this by hand, be sure to push it all the way through.
While putting the arm in, you will want to slip the rear of the arm in first, then you can push the front part we just replaced the bushing in
Now we can reinstall the arm. Word of caution; make sure you get the cut out on the stud lined up with the hole so you don’t destroy your bolt as you slide it in.
Push the arm up and slide the stud back in place and throw your bolt through (it should slide in easily) Then thread your nut on and tighten it down.
Put your end link back on and thread the nut on and tighten it down.
Ok, so that’s it for the fronts, let’s move on to the rear. The rears are a little more difficult considering their location. They are up top on the forward part of the upper control arm. Here’s a picture of the bushings we will be replacing.
To get to these bushings, we will need to remove the upper control arm. To do this, we ultimately need to remove these three bolts.
Take the 17mm bolt/nut off the spindle to control arm. There is a nut and a bolt here so you will have to use a wrench and a ratchet with socket.
Next pull the rear most 19mm bolt out from just in front of the rear sway bar.
Now the award winning tough to get to bolt! This one took the most time out of all of the bolts in this install. The proximity of the bolt to the fuel lines, fuel tank, and basically everything else you can think of made this pretty difficult to get out. We ended up having to run a very long extension up from the front of the car to the head of the bolt.
This is the angle we took to get to the bolt; this is looking back from just in front of the driver’s side wheel well behind the fuel tank. It’s tricky, but doable. Be patient.
Then pull the end link from the sway bar.
To make room for the control arm to slide out, we had to loosen the coil over and pull it out of its slot and slide it out of the way.
Now that we have the arm out of the car, let’s bring it over to the work bench and get that bushing out We’ll have to pull the same rubber washer/spacers out as we did on the fronts
These bushings pushed out nice and easy. Just use the #2 press tool and the c-clamp and press it right out.
Then we replace these bushing just like the fronts (don’t forget to grease the sleeve)
And slide the metal sleeve in
Now we can put everything back together and call this thing DONE!!
Slide the arm in place and bolt it right back up then reassemble all of it. It seemed to help to have a jack on the brake assembly to help hold it in place while we slid it into the spindle up top.
Then reassemble the strut assembly.
When we get all of this stuff together, we can stand back and look at how much we have accomplished!
Here’s the assembly all back together and ready for some track time!
It’s time to celebrate all of our hard work and take our evo out to the nearest track and test these new parts! We will have updates on the performance enhancements of these parts soon, with a video or two, keep an eye on these threads! Thanks for reading our write ups and we hope they all help you guys when you install your own items.
-Corby
Oct 15, 2013, 02:37 PM
#4
They were a softer bushing compared to the Whiteline bushings. In the Front I can notice a more solid control/ road feel, but not sure if the Front Sway bars are also playing a big part of this feed back I am getting. It really isn't too bad it just take a bit of time and patients. Its pretty straight forward and we hope that by providing these How To's will help point out the steps and some of those tricky things that may be hard to see or get to
If you ever have any other questions or concerns that are not addressed in this How to please do not hesitate to contact us or shoot us an email
Best Regards!
-Dallin
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