My 86 sport Coupe with the "hard" suspension rides very stiff but still rolls quite a bit in AutoX. I talked to a competition chassis tuner and he suggested that I use polyurethane bushings on the rear sway bar and on the rear sway bar end links. He said that roll would be reduced and that the car would move toward neutral rather than normal understeer.

Has anyone tried this? How much is sway bar stiffness increased in a 2nd Gen by replacement of OEM bushings withe polyurethane bushings?

Advice? Suggestions? Discussion?

Thanks

 

I have an S5 that I put poly bushings on recently. The thing was, I put on a front strut tower brace a few days before and the difference it made was much more than the sway bar bushings. They seem to have just smoothed things up a bit as far as roll is concerned. I would have tried the endlinks but someone said the Mazdatrix ones squeak on the S5's.

 

Too many variables...
I have a set of Suspension Techniques anti-sway bars, and on it's softest setting (the fronts are two-position adjustable), the car would oversteer like mad!&nbsp I moved the mount position to the stiffer position up front, and the car suddenly is very very stable.

The FC platform normaly understeers, especially on a tight autocross course.&nbsp I dunno about running poly-u bushings and end-links (sounds like he's trying to sell you stuff), but try messing with tire pressures first before swapping stuff out unnecessarily.&nbsp I dunno how serious you are about autocrossing, but try 38psi up front and 32psi in the rear to combat the understeer - tire pressures are the easiest thing to mess with when autocrossing.


-Ted

 

I have the mazdatrix adjustable end links and they have never squeaked once.

 

Samps, that's good to hear because I was thinking of getting some anyway . I have some RB sway bars on the way and am wondering if the stock plastic endlinks will hold up or not.

 

Although I haven't done it yet on my 'vert, I replaced all the bushings with urathane ones on my old 87 sport and it made a night and day difference.

Although they did need silicon spray them from time to time to eliminate the squeak