Prothane LCA Bushing - Fitted - Problem ???

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:40 am

i have bought brand new arms coz mine are soo rusty and got the prothane LCA bushing kit so i thought id put the prothane bushings on the new arms before they go on the car

burned out the horizontal bushing ... easiest thing to do.
managed to get the vertical bushing out fairly easy and cleaned up the id on the arm and cleaned up the metal sleeve bit too

pressed the horizontal prothanes in ... easy
managed to get the 'top' bit of the vertical in fairly easy.
pushed the metal sleeve through ok .... but.

when it comes to the 'bottom' of the vertical bushing i can press it in with a vice but as soon as i undo the vice it pops back out again and i just cant get it to stay in !!!

please help ...

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:34 am

this is how far it will stay in on its own, it can be pressed further in with vice but as soon as vice un-wound it comes out to look like this.

is this how it should sit or does it need to go in further ?

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:52 am

That looks about right. It will be a little work to set the arm in place, but once you bolt it down everything should be fine.

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:54 am

excellent, thanks for your help!

i just wanted to check rather than try and put it all together and find out they aren't in properly

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:55 am

No problem...that's why we are here

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:08 pm

Danteneon wrote:That looks about right. It will be a little work to set the arm in place, but once you bolt it down everything should be fine.

If you think that doesn't look right you'd be really worried if you got the energy

Those look nice when they are all clean like that

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:08 pm

hansken_yo wrote:
Danteneon wrote:That looks about right. It will be a little work to set the arm in place, but once you bolt it down everything should be fine.
If you think that doesn't look right you'd be really worried if you got the energy

Those look nice when they are all clean like that

that is if he got them in

be glad you got the prothane

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:21 pm

Having done both brands, the Prothane is a whole hell of a lot easier to work with.

theTeejmiester · Post by **theTeejmiester** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:05 pm

prothane FTW

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:24 pm

read on this forum a lot before i decided to go with the prothanes and noticed that everone said the ES were a pita, cost me less than $30 shipped to england iirc, they were from neverenough auto ... gonna be fitting them tomorrow, the old bolts are currently soaked in WD40 hoping they come off easier and i have a propane torch ready just incase

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:38 pm

You may want to try an actual penetrating spray (not what WD40 is) if you are worried about them being a pain to get out.

randomZERO · Post by **randomZERO** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:06 pm

PB Blaster ftw! I soaked the bejessus out of everything like 3 times. Only ones that broke were the sway bar bolts. GL

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:00 pm

I simply spread the "ears" for the vertical apart farther when sliding the LCA back into the crossmember. The bolt will draw it back into place with no problem.

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 4:04 pm

didn't have any problems with getting any of the bolts out, none of them rounded and none of them snapped. it did take me nearly 3 hours to get the LHS ball joint into the hole and then the sway bar ends didnt wanna go through the holes either .... 10 hours total and its all done

can someone show what thier prothane bushings look like when they're installed, mine are in fine and the ride is beautiful and smooth but it looks like the bottom bit has come out on one side, seems like it popped out the arm?

Does It Look Right?

have also just noticed a rubbing squeaking noise from left side

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:21 pm

any help please!?

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:33 pm

if you got it sandwhiched together and installed, that bushing isnt going anywhere lol looks fine to me.

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:59 pm

it just seems to me that the bottom part of the bushing has fallen out!

maybe i will try and tighten them bolts up and see if it goes into place better

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:10 pm

The bolts should be as tight as you can get them. They kind of hold the crossmember in place. You don't want it shifting around, or you will never hold an alignment. (Which would be the least of your worries.)

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 8:28 pm

The subframe bolts should be torqued to 180ft lbs or something like that iirc. Can someone confirm the torque specs on that?

If those bolts aren't tight enough it won't "tighten" things up either.

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Thu May 06, 2010 12:59 pm

i used a torque wrench and they were done up tight enough, but i did manage to get another turn and a half on the passenger side (drivers side for you americans) and the bushing is now a lot tighter to the arm. i hope this helps coz i had a squeeking noise over bumps since i fitted them and suspected it was the bushing rubbing

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Thu May 06, 2010 1:05 pm

did you use the supplied grease on the bushing when assembling? that could be part of your sqeak problem if its not lubed properly

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Thu May 06, 2010 1:26 pm

i did use the prothane grease but found it very sticky and messy so i added some silicone lubricant spray when i pushed them together

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Thu May 06, 2010 1:27 pm

yeah i dunno why they'd squeak then

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Sat May 08, 2010 6:32 am

i will see if i can throw some more grease onto them. its only on the one side which is strange, the other side is fine

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Sat May 08, 2010 2:37 pm

ok i have greased up the bushing again and the problem is still there. it actually seems to only occur when i am turning (especially right) and also a bit over bumps but worst when turning

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Sat May 08, 2010 2:39 pm

how exactly do you know thats whats making the noise?

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Sat May 08, 2010 5:00 pm

well, to be honest ... i don't

however it started making the noise as soon as i put them bushings in . never happened before.

i think it could be a case of having to take the bushing out again and grease them up and put them back and see if it helps

nerox · Post by **nerox** » Fri May 14, 2010 4:09 pm

sorted ... i think.

sprayed them all up with lithium white grease then moved them around a bit to spread the grease. seems to have taken the squeak away totally for now.

sprayed all the gearshift components with that grease too and its nice and smoooth