bouis

The haynes manual says that the outer nut should be .42" from the end of the rod, but the ones on my car were more than an inch. I know that the manual was written with the 79 model in mind; is it possible that this spec has changed? Should I go with what the haynes says, or what my car already had?

cdrad51

Check the '85 manual online

http://www.wankel.net/~krwright/cars/rx7/85_manual.html

bouis

I've been downloading that but it's slow going.

cdrad51

hey, beggars can't be chosers

slashdawg00110

bouis - if ya didn't get the manual downloaded, then here's the answer. It's the same. 10.75 +/- 1mm or 0.423 +/- 0.039 inches.

I haven't checked, but I'm willing to bet my '83 has more than 0.4 inches between rod end and nut. Let us know what you did. I'm gonna have to replace the bushings this summer and I'll have the same question.

peejay

Go with what your car already had.

The extra threads on the tension rod are another means of adjusting caster. Someone's been in there before. Put it back close to where it was, and if it doesn't drive straight then have the car re-aligned.

slashdawg00110

ahhh. thanks, peejay. i'll have to remember that.

bouis

Oh, I'm definately going to need an alignment. Hard to avoid, really. Here's what I'm doing:

New balljoints; new control arm bushings; new tension rod bushings; new end link bushings; heavy front sway bar and matching bushings; new springs and new struts; and a new CPRacing R&P kit with new tie rod ends.

bouis

Ok, wait, here's a bit more specifics. The balljoints are autozone specials, all the bushings are energy suspension, the sway bar and springs are suspension techniques, and the shocks are tokico blues.

slashdawg00110

Sounds like fun. Did you have trouble getting the tension rod nuts off?

slashdawg00110

Grrrrr. Double-post.

bouis

None at all. Contrary to what has been suggested, I'm almost sure that my tension rods had never been touched. The nuts were virginal. Hell, I don't think that the splash cover for the engine bay had ever been removed.

So far, I've discovered that my driver's side strut and my passenger's side balljoint were bad. The driver's side balljoint seems okay, but I'm not just going to do one. The balljoints were $32 each at AutoZone, and they offered to rent me a ball joint press for free but I'm not sure if I should take them up on it, because I can get both balljoints pressed professionally for $40.

bouis

By the way, you shouldn't have to remove the rotor/hub and wheel bearings from the spindle to get the shocks out. I don't know why the manual says to. I may clean and repack my bearings anyway though.

bouis

By the way, again, a one-inch wrench fit those nuts perfectly. Just an FYI if you don't have a full assortment of extra-large metric wrenches. I know I don't.

slashdawg00110

Thanks for the tips and info. I don't have a full assortment of metric wrenches but I've discovered a place (called Cummins) near my house that sells tools dirt cheap. I got a 25mm combination wrench and a 21mm combination wrench for $1.98. I think that's a $1 less than it was supposed to be but I'm such a cheap bastard I didn't question it. They have tons of tools at great prices. I'm sure the quality isn't the best, but I don't use those sizes very often and I about died at the price I paid at Sears for a 23mm wrench.

Hope the rest goes well. And I'd have the professional do the pressing. Just my .02.

peejay

Don't be surprised if the ball joints rattle around loose in the control arms. I have *never* done a Mazda press-in type ball joint that didn't trash the hole when pressing it in.

Solution is a little tack weld here and there, using a MIG. Don't try to gas weld it, the heat will ruin the ball joint. Learned that lesson Fortunately the customer called back and told us to replace the whole control arm. One dreaded phone call avoided

BTW - Apparently Mazda discontinued the '89-92 626/MX-6/Probe control arms a while back. Learned this the last time I did ball joints in one, which was in early '01.

Rx7carl

The way I measured it came out to putting the washer right up against the cotter pin. So I backed off the rear nut, adjusted the front so the washer just touched the cotter pin, then tightened the rear nut solid. Worked ok for me.

peejay

All you really need to do is simply don't move the backing nut (the nut on the control arm side of the rod). Just remove the front nut, unbolt the rod from the control arm, remove, replace bushings, slap together. Adjustment will not change.

GavinJuice

The poly bushings are stiffer than oem though, as they're going to not compress as much as oem would. So ths stock torque specs are going to be off as compared to the new bushings. I simply got myself a steel ruler at my work that showed thousands's of an inch conversions and got as close as i could. I just kinda matched the tension on the back nut as compared to the front. They say to use an open end torque wrench but who's gonna have one of those on hand!

*Also, a good rule of thumb when tightening bushings like that, including your end linds or anything, is assuming your using the washer that came with it is to never let the bushing expand OUTSIDE of the washer. If it expands outside then it's too tight and you need to back off.

peejay

They *have* to. If they didn't, the strut rod's end nut would be loose.

GavinJuice

what i meant was if you kept the nut where it was and put the poly on, they're going to be too tight, as the oem ones compressed more when they were origionally put one. If you follow the manual they say if you going to reuse the bushings then don't move the nut, if you put on new to readjust it.

bouis

Welds on the ball joints? Crap. You said it rattles? Would this be noticable before it's installed? 'Cause I don't wanna install them and find it rattling later. Hopefully, if it won't go in solid I can get out of paying the $40 .

peejay

And what I mean is you *have* to tighten the nut until it bottoms out on the sleeve, otherwise the nut is loose.

Of course it's going to be tight. That's WHY you bought poly bushings in the first place!

re: rattling... I meant that in a figurative sense. You do NOT want the ball joint loose AT ALL in the control arm, or it will wallow out the hole until someday the ball joint simply comes out of the control arm. But even well before that, it'll be loose in there and it'll be just as bad alignment-wise as if you kept your loose ball joints in the first place.