HC steering rack bushes/bushings?

[Babalouie]

Has anyone out there swapped the steering rack bushes on their HC?

Is it one of those typical frustrating HC jobs which makes you want to burn the car down?

[Babalouie]

Okay, I can answer this question now

Here's what my old bushes looked like when I pulled them out:


The one on the left is the passenger side, the one on the right is driver's side and it's toast...even before I removed it, most of the rubber was hanging free and not even touching the rack. But you can see that conceptually they're really just big versions of sway bar bushes and so shouldn't be that hard to replace....just unbolt the u-shaped rack brackets, slip off the old bushes, slip on the new ones and you're good to go. New bushes were $25ea from Mazda.

Lately my steering's been a little odd, not centering properly and when you're driving straight, sometimes the steering wheel is a little to the left, sometimes it's a little to the right. Basically the rack was sliding left and right within its bushes, and while it'll never fall out or anything, I didn't feel right pushing the car hard now to test the mettle of the new coilovers.

Well sadly this job is the typical HC frustration where you can't reach anything and there is tons of stuff in front of the thing you need to take out. In the case of the rack, the hardlines for the powersteering fluid run right under the rack brackets, so you can't remove the brackets without removing all the hardlines.

What I did in the end, was leave the hardlines in place. You then have a little clearance to gently inch the new bushes into place with a screwdriver, rotating them into place around the rack, all the while squeezing it past the brackets. All in all about an hour's work, and it's not something you can screw up if you're patient. The only thing I would point out is that the bushes do have to point a certain way, and if you look carefully you can see that the new bushes have a flat section and where that should go.

So yeah, if your HC has funny steering, the fix is something you can do yourself...steering feel is now a lot better, and more direct, especially mid-corner. Well worth the 1hr and $50.

[dmeetro]

Hey great job on the write up. This is definetly tech forum worthy.


OOH and who are the little buggesrs in the background?

[Babalouie]

Hey great job on the write up. This is definetly tech forum worthy.
OOH and who are the little buggesrs in the background?[/b]

Ethan and Brandon, one of whom will inherit the Luce one day

[nitros13]

Just saw this! This is a much needed fix for my HC!!!!

[sim_rx3]

the poly kit were organising from the states these bushes is part of it..

[nitros13]

seriously man, my car is ridiculous now! im keen as to get this. also have to get the $$$ too!

[sim_rx3]

yep..

im just waiting to hear back from mazdaspeed929 on a final price and were away..

[LAG-929]

Babs: can i ask which Mazda dealer you got the bushes from?

I was quoted $70 and told they would have to come from Japan on order???

Cheers

[Matsuda 9]

i haven't seen him for a while here, you might want to PM him