patman

iTrader: (3)

looking at the energy suspesion master kit. says it includes front and rear control arm bushings. which are these exactly? is it the bushing on the back of the rear control are or the rear steer bushing?

thanks
pat

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

if you look at the front control arms, you have two rubber pieces that it hinges at, one is a giant block of rubber that goes on the end of the arm, the other is replaced by 2 pieces and it slips inside of a cylindrical opening.

On the rear, you just get the 2 pieces for the cylinder part. There is no sub frame mounts (which are rubber on the rear I believe.)

vaughnc

The only things the Energy Suspension kit doesn't include for restoring a suspension which you need are:

Series IV - 1986-1988
- Front & Rear Swaybar end link bushings (Energy Suspension sells the replaceable end link bushings separately I think)
- DTSS Bushings (replace with expensive OEM DTSS HUB or cheaper Racing Beat DTSS Eliminators)
- Rear Subframe end link bushings (may require OEM new, not sure if these have replaceable bushings)
- Rear Sublink (body to subframe) - requires OEM new if worn out

Series V (1989-1992)
- Front & Rear Swaybar "dog bone" style end link. Replace with OEM new
- DTSS Bushings (replace with expensive OEM DTSS HUB or cheaper Racing Beat DTSS Eliminators)
- Rear Subframe end link bushings - replace with OEM new
- Rear Sublink (body to subframe) - requires OEM new if worn out

Besides this, you'll want to replace your motor mounts with OEM new or Mazdaspeed hard rubber racing mounts. The other drivetrain mounts such as transmission, differential to subframe, and differential to body mounts should be ok and rarely wear out.

Note Racing Beat makes replacement "solid" end links & sublinks for the 86-91 years. Their only for racing applications and will increase the NVH (noise vibration harshness) in the car. Some people can tolerate this and install them anyway. Normally there's at least 2 rubber points to soak up NVH before it's transmitted to the body. By installing solid end links or body links your eliminating 1 of the rubber points to soak up NVH. Even installing harder "polyeurthane" bushings you'll get a tiny bit more NVH in the car.

Also the struts & springs. Mazda did a good job of spring rates with the stock setup. The rear springs are designed with "18 gallons of gas & stuff in the trunk" in mind, thus the rear springs make the car sit 1/2" taller and the springs when uncompressed sit 4" taller. I guess taller uncompressed springs give more absortion/dampening. If you go with Racing Beat springs their about 15% stiffer. You'll want to either 1) keep the OEM springs and get non-adjustable (cheaper) Tokicos / Konis, or another recommended strut for the rx-7s or 2) Buy the Racing Beat springs & go with adjustable tokicos so you can dial-out some of the stiffness.

Either way when driving over seriously broken pavement, the car will tend to bounce allot with stiffer springs & shocks. It feels about the same on normall streets and after 2-3 weeks of breaking in the car will handle much better and only react faster to bumps but will not feel over stiff.