Rear Upper Control Arm Bushing

Sharad said:

The problem is, the control arms themselves aren't very strong, and the labor involved in replacing the stock bushings makes it not worth doing.

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Yes but the problem with replacing them with anything but stock is that you beat the out of the boxes (need to weld the seams and do battle boxes if keeping the UCAs) and you NEED to do spherical heim joints at the chassis side or you will break something. The stock 4 link is kinda crap but I have seen ppl run good times with the spherical UCAs, a lot of reinforcing and a panhard bar to control side movement. You can even get rid of one of the UCAs if you run the panhard. I keep waiting for someone to come up with a kit that allows us to run a single centrally located UCA like the S197 guys to. The MM torque arm is really nice but its effing heavy and expensive. For a car trying for weight reduction its not exactly optimal.

There is the Team Z upper relocation bracket which I hear is worth looking into tho.

With all due respect, ^^this is commonly repeated internet thinking, but it's not really true. Aftermarket control arms work quite well. Not singling out any one particular brand.

Two Cents: the UCA relo brackets are proven to be unnecessary. Also, I've seen a Fox chassis which was converted to a three link, like the 05+ cars. It was a pretty creative install.

I used Prothane kit on my Fox. Not sure if that kit will also service the SN cars or not. I don't see why not though. That kit was cheap and is your only way your getting all of them for a reasonable price. With that said it was a mega pain in the ass to do all the bushings. I can't remember why I did just the bushings and not new control arms. I ended up getting new ones like 6 months later. I can tell you that using polly bushings in the rear will make the ride harsh. I definitely recommend get spherical for the chassis side. I hear people all the time say that you HAVE to use spherical but I have never seen anyone tear any thing up using just poly.

If you want to get those bushings out easier and have access to an Oxy/actty torch use it. I used mine to heat it up and they usually will pop out. Just don't do it in an area you want to keep clean it makes a mess.