I've finally got around to starting my front bushings this week. I've never done it before but there's a first for everything, right? Anyhow I've got my '88 744 gle parked a few miles away in a barn so I plan on taking my time and doing the job the right way. I've been riding my bike back and forth doing a little at a time but I think I've come to a point where I need some more insight. Hopefully some of my questions could be answered so I can continue and get my car back on the road.
1. Did my car really need new bushings? The old ones don't visually look bad but maybe I don't know what to look for.
2. Where can I find new bolts for the control arm to crossmember joint, radius rod to subframe joint, and radius rod to control arm?
3. I purchased new urethane sway bar bushings as well. The old ones were the only bushings that looked really shot. Will my car handle better with these new sway bar bushings even though I'm still running the small stock sways?(ipd sways soon)
4. I can't get the control arm(aluminum) off of the ball joint by using the hammer method outlined on the turbobricks website. I'm debating wether renting a ball joint seperator or just forgetting about replacing the bushing where the control arm attaches to the crossmember. Once again, I can't tell that anything is wrong with the old one. If it costs money to rent the seperator and costs more to replace the ball joint after I rip the boot using the seperator should I just not try to get the control arm off to replace that bushing?
5. The new urethane cone shaped control arm stay bushings that I bought are somewhat diiferent than the old ones. The outside circumference on the inner part of the cone is larger on the new ones as well as some other dimension differences. I understand Volvo changed the design of these many times so will the new ones still fit? I specified aluminum control arms when ordering.
6. When retightening the suspension pieces can I do it with the front wheels on ramps so I have more room to do the tightening. Is there a better or easier way so that the normal weight of the car is on the suspension?
Sorry about the really long post but if you have any advice I would really appreciate it. Also if there is anything I missed please let me know. Thanks a million.
-E. Reid
'88 744 m47
'80 242gt
'90 745ti