How to polybush your wishbones while changing shocks

[Porcine_Aviator]

Here Martin you not going to get a job at Haynes, your hands were dirty and you didn't say anywhere in the instructions "you should take the car to a main dealer"!

What where you thinking?

[M-R-P]

Here Martin you not going to get a job at Haynes, your hands were dirty and you didn't say anywhere in the instructions "you should take the car to a main dealer"!

What where you thinking?

Lol, I also didn't use the most common phrase in the haynes book of lies "carefully prise off..."
I did the shock top mounts, inner and outer track rods and replaced the hub carrier bolts today but no pics or how to for that, it was p1ssing with rain and it was marred by incorrect parts from GSF grrrr! Wasn't in the mood to help others lol
Getting the tracking done tomorrow other than that, she's pukka

[dicky b t5]

Mart, where did you buy just a pair of the front wishbone bushes ??

I can only find them being sold in sets of four !! (F&R)

Cheers. Dicky.

[M-R-P]

Got them off the bay of e, am I right in thinking you have a P1 (don't think there's a saffy P2) they only do a set of 4 -
http://www.powerflexshop.com/index.php?cPath=54_262
Personally, I'd get hold of a P2 and measure the bush and see if a P2 polybush would fit. (probably not tho, nothings ever that easy) or just fit the full set

[T4Rick]

What would you do if your ball joint was knackered wouldnt you have to replace the arm again and refit the bushes again?I have the 1995 model im not sure if the ball joint seperates from the wish bone or not.Looks really well though mate

[M-R-P]

Pretty sure the ball joint comes off...
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...hp?f=1&t=12948
Might be of some use
Personally, I'd just swap the ball joint. Looks like an easy job in comparison to what I've done recently lol

[T4Rick]

Seems there is two types 1 being a complete unit which i think i have got and 1 where you can seperate the ball joint from the wish bone its self lol,i think i have the one with the complete unit

[M-R-P]

Seems there is two types 1 being a complete unit which i think i have got and 1 where you can seperate the ball joint from the wish bone its self lol,i think i have the one with the complete unit

Oh, that's a bit of a bugger! Not much to suggest, other than getting the new wishbone and like you say, swapping everything over. Shouldn't be too hard, pushing the polybush back out but probably best to do that in a vice rather than still on the car.

[Leeds_finest]

EXTREMELY interesting thread. The reason is because my powerflex lower arm (front) bushes don't fit correctly, and this has answered the question why...

When you had fully melted all your rubber off the original centre bar, in your pictures it reveals that the centre bar reduces in diameter in the middle and is wider at either end. Mine however, was a consistently large diameter all the way across, and this is why mine didn't fit properly. The bush then expanded too much when the centre bar was inserted, causing it to be almost impossible to then fit into the arm.

The only reason I can think of is, yours were maybe original Volvo arms and bushes which is what the Powerflex bush will be designed to fit to. Mine on the other hand must have been aftermarket ones, not made to the same spec, but I couldn't have known this at the time. Truly gutted. Unless of course the S60R and V70R come with different centre bars through the original bushes? If so, Powerflex should be informed really. Mine:



Still fits to the car fine, handles fine, no noises and doesn't show up discrepancies with laser tracking... still not right though.

[t5_monkey]

To anyone thinking of getting theirs polybushed.

Mines fully Polybushed front all back (all of the suspension bushes) it's the best Mod I ever had done and the handling is in a different dimension with an acceptable loss in ride comfort.

[M-R-P]

LeedsFinest, are you sure you removed the outer metal sleeve off the old bush, out of the wishbone? Looks far too squished to be the rod. And the inside of the polybush isn't shaped inside, its straight, so the rod shape shouldn't have an effect.

[Leeds_finest]

LeedsFinest, are you sure you removed the outer metal sleeve off the old bush, out of the wishbone? Looks far too squished to be the rod. And the inside of the polybush isn't shaped inside, its straight, so the rod shape shouldn't have an effect.

Right, here's the explanation as to why mine don't fit properly:

The centre bar that came out of your OEM bush is narrower in the middle than mine is. If you follow the diameter of your bar from left to right, or, right to left, it goes... wide-narrow-wide ...this is a perfect shape for the inside of the PFF88-601 poly bush which also goes... wide-90degree step-narrow-90 degree step-wide:



Mine did not have the curved in middle section yours has, it was just the left part where the bolt goes through, then a middle section ALL the same diameter, then the right part where the bolt goes through. As mine was fatter in the middle, it pushed the polyurethane outwards. As it can't go outwards because the metal of the arm is there, it goes length ways and bulges out the end.

I put ALL of this down to you originally having genuine Volvo bushes with correct centre bars and mine being aftermarket ones, that, clearly the Powerflex bush is not designed to fit to.

Also, even though we were getting confused about whether or not I had removed the correct amount of outer sleeve and rubber of the original bush, well, yes I had as my arm (ready for the new poly item) looked identical to yours:



I was just unlucky and even though I knew it wasn't right, I saw "this bush is not easy to fit" on the Powerflex instructions and put two and two together.

[M-R-P]

Aaah, I got ya! Been using my phone to view the forum today which makes it ard to go from thread to thread to double check my facts. Sorry if i confused things.
If you wanted to rectify the problem, you cpuld remove the polybush and ream out the hole to fit the bar better. I wouldn't grind the bar down for obvious reasons. As you say the bush is doing its job well and can be left alone but distorting it like that could lead to it failing at some point.

[Leeds_finest]

Disappointing from my point of view as we removed and re-fitted the bush so many times until we decided it was a design fault and that's how it was staying.

Still, works fine on the car and i'm glad your thread has given me the definitive answer as to why mine's wrong

Good write up btw.

[Erik The Viking]

To anyone thinking of getting theirs polybushed.

Mines fully Polybushed front all back (all of the suspension bushes) it's the best Mod I ever had done and the handling is in a different dimension with an acceptable loss in ride comfort.

Ok - sold on the bushes - where did u get your powerflex "full kit" from t5_monkey ? if you dont mind me askin' ?

Martin - cheers for the walk through

[M-R-P]

Go to www.powerflexshop.co.uk, find your car, get the part number for the full kit. Then go to flea bay and type "powerflex <part number>"
It will be cheaper there than the manufacturers.

Thanks for your comment

[Leeds_finest]

where did u get your powerflex "full kit" from?

As Martin said really! ^^^

Personally I went onto ebay and searched:

1. 'Volvo S60 powerflex' <--- exactly like that.

2. Then sort the search results by 'price and P&P lowest first'.

3. Then scroll through until I got to the cheapest full front kit.

I ended up paying about £119 delivered I think for a full front kit for the S60 which included wishbone front bushes, upper stabiliser bushes, lower stabiliser bushes and strut brace inserts.

[M-R-P]

£119 is a good price. Best I saw was £135. Keep an eye on the strut brace bushes - they have a rep for not lasting.

[Leeds_finest]

£119 is a good price. Best I saw was £135. Keep an eye on the strut brace bushes - they have a rep for not lasting.

Didn't realise strut inserts died, best keep an eye on them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLVO-S60-...item3a6773bd47

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Powerflex-...item3a6494a48f

These ^^^ are the S60/V70 for mine and yours although i'm not sure which car the other member drives? P1 V70 by the looks of his thread? In which case it will be:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POWERFLEX-...item35ac4fc42d

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Powerflex-...item3cb32cf021

[M-R-P]

How much of a difference did you notice after doing the bushes? I did bushes and shocks at the same time so there was a massive difference. The old shocks had done over 180k so it's hard to say how much improvement can be attributed to the bushes.