Powerflex wishbone bushes

The next job was powerflex wishbone bushes. I bought eccentric ones which the M3 had, which push the wishbone in some sort of direction that gives sharper handling. The poweflex bushes however are much thicker push the entire wishbone forward, increasing castor.

The old lolipops came out ok, I just jigsawed (ahem) carefuly through the rubber, pulled off the lolipop and sawed through the metal ring left on the wishbone. This eventually came off and job was nearly done - so I thought.

The bushes go one easily enough, they come with indentations to go over the wishbone as they are much thicker like so:



As you can see though, now the bracket won't line up. There's a bit of advice on this, from soaking the bushes in boiling water, smacking them with a hammer and wood, taking out the ball joint first to give you more wiggle room. I did see one top tip (again on the e30zone!) to use a special device called a 'tweaky bar'. This specialist device (an old screw driver, threaded bar etc), allows you to pry the bracket into place against the holes. Do the inside one first, then push the outside one back again and off you go. Took me most of a day getting nowhere before finding this tip!


It's obvious with the wheels in the air how much more castor you have, not massively back on the ground.



It's like the suspension strut is being used a bit more horizontally, which helps with high speed apparently. No complaints from me, as I went for my first road shakedown, a proper blast on a quiet road for the first time since my titting about with bushes, rear beams etc.  Wow, it's far better! No rear wheel trolley steering, I just need some decent tyres to really get the full benefit,  but it's a fantastic improvement.