Pressing rear trailing arm bushings and other suspension rambling s

["Bain, Bill" <Bill.Bain@domain.elided>]

Ed asks about pressing out rear trailing arm bushings vs. the "cut and
burn" method.  FWIW, my mechanic recommends pressing them out,
primarlily because it's very difficult to make a perfectly level cut
with the saw (most cuts are slightly arced) and the potential exists to
damage the trailing arm.  The cost in the Atlanta area for having a
machine shop press them out was around $25 when I had the bushings in
both ends pressed out.  Having said that, a lot of folks manage to cut
them out just fine, so YMMV.

If you replace the bushings with polyurethane ones, they don't need to
be pressed in.  the driver's end body bushing takes up the torque from
the engine and is often the first to go, so I'd do the body ends
bushings in poly for sure.  The rear end bushings don't have a lot of
stress on them so the stock ones seem to hold up better than in the
front, but they have to be pressed in.  I used poly there to avoid
another trip to the machine shop.  Don't forget to replace the
differential/T-arm bushing while you're under there.  I used poly there
are well, but some folks prefer the OEM rubber ones.

It's important to realize that the Spider is a fairly flexible platform.
Overstiffen the suspension and the twisting will be taken up by the
body/chassis and that's not necessarily a good thing, for it might be
less predictable near the limit than if the suspension were doing the
work.  Once you start fooling around with springs, you need to keep in
mind that the suspension needs to be viewed as a unified whole.
Basically, pick a "system" (Rugh, W&D, Centerline, IAP, whomever) and
install the whole system.  Mixing and matching is a recipe for trouble,
as I found out at Roebling Road last year.  Even new springs on just one
end of the car can be problematic if the other end is clapped out.  The
biggest problem with obtaining new OEM springs is the cost -- you can
buy a complete set of "performance" springs from Centerline or IAP for
the price of just the OEM front springs.  Centerline's set up has the
virtue of using the stock rear sway bar and is therefore less expensive
-- IAP's set up uses a slightly larger sway bar, as does W&D.  I can't
speak to Rugh's setup.  RIde height can be adjusted to some degree
through the use of spacers, but just about everyone's springs, except
OEM, reduce  the ride height at least back to Euro specs.  If you
already have Koni "reds", I'd be inclined to keep them since you could
adjust them if needed. I'm not a fan of gas shocks in Spiders, but  my
experience is limited.

Bill Bain 

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