Check out eeuroparts.com. I have always had excellent service and pricing from them.

http://www.eeuroparts.com/searchresults.aspx?&carid=1584&cat=1033

I faced the same dilema of the front CA bushings in Poly not being available. Therefore my logic was that I would go with all Volvo/Boge rubber for the front and rear position so as not to have different durometers (harnesses) of the bushings. No matter what, the poly bushing will not be the *same* hardness as the rubbers. Certainly you will have new poly's in the rear and 20 year old rubbers in the front. Is it a big deal? I don't think so, and as Dan and others have said they've done it. But that was my line of thinking as I wanted to replace the front's too.

I think you have to remove the control arm either way. I took mine to a local machine shop and they pressed out all four and pressed in all four. $20 out, and an 18 pack of cheap beer in.

I installed the blue poly sway bar end link bushings from IPD and (to me) they felt like bouncy doughnuts. The one's I received from them were much softer than the original Boge rubber and they were very difficult to fit into the big washers on the end link.
I replaced the link-to-CA arm and the sway bar to frame with the same IPD poly's and those seem to work ok for me.

I bought the yellow sway end link poly's from FCP. They are WAY firmer than the blue one's from the IPD kit I bought. I like the FCP one's much better. They fit perfect and I can tighten down the nut to washer on the endlink and REALLY feel the difference in how the sway bar reacts. I fiddled with the amount of threads showing above the nut...between 4 and 8. I have it set at about 6. Fairly firm and I enjoy it.

You'll get a ton of opinions on this. These are mine based on what I experienced.



~jason
--
89 245 'loaded' with a Great Pyrenees

I like poly bushings in this location they should last forever and are easier to install. Take off the bushing mount heat the old bushing shell until the rubber separates from the shell with a Bernz-o-matic torch. Clean up the leftover rubber with a 2" wire brush in a drill and hand press the new poly bushings into the old shell. The bushings are a bit more expensive but this way you don't need to press bushings in and out and you don't need to pre-load the suspension/bushing to tighten everything down. FCP Groton has them for $43 for the pair. Dan

Dan, I've seen you mention this before on other posts. I mean no disrespect, but I want to ask you to explain why you say front end clunks are usually rear control arm bushings?

I've only done fronts and rears on ONE vehicle, so I certainly am no expert. But in my long process of replacement, I figured a couple of things out-- but I certainly want to learn more. So please explain the best you can.

240 NC guy, the most prone front control arm bushing to wear is the rear position. From my recent repair experience, I followed the suggested bushing checks in the FAQ's for 700's and in my Bentley manual, however I did not notice any play from those checks. I replaced them anyway.

When I removed the three-bolt bracket holding the rear control arm bushing to the frame and took it off the vehicle, only then did I notice that bushing was shot. The hole was warped out allowing movement I could not see during the checks. The inner metal sleeve- once a part of the bushing was stuck to the control arm. This bit of play in the hole/sleeve created a huge thunk I felt when suddenly going over larger potholes and speedbumps. I felt a huge thunk in the floorboard directly under my feet - drivers side of course.

I suggest jacking the car up as well and getting a flashlight and looking at the inside of the bracket (towards the outside of the car). That rubber should be uniformly wrapped around the sleeve. If you see it rolling back or mishaped at all it's probably shot.

Do this on top of the checks in the FAQ's and Bentley manual.

Good luck.
~jason
--
89 245 'loaded' with a Great Pyrenees