I got my Original Box pillow bushing set in today for my FD, thought you might be interested in seeing pics of them. I also had some questions for you gurus out there





The pieces are 4 front upper control arm, 4 front lower control arm, 4 rear upper control arm, 2 rear damper mount, 2 trailing link, 2 toe control link. (Incidentally I am selling the trailing link and control rod pillowballs since I dont need them.)

I also have Rotary Extreme trailing links and toe control rods, Border diff mount bushings, Mazdaspeed PPF. I plan to get new stabilizer bars/mounts and engine mounts before I install everything. Oh yeah and Koni yellows w/ KG/mm springs. heh going after the clunking in a BIG way.

Now it appears I will still need these Factory parts as there are no upgrades to the pillowballs that come stock, to complete the rear. These are also the most common ones that go out, and the ones not included in most kits, right?

6 FD01-26-220 Lower Arm Pillow Ball
6 99574-3800 stopper?
2 FD01-28-460 Lower arm bushing
2 FD01-28-461 Lower arm bushing stopper
12 FD01-26-250 Dust Seal

Not to mention various ball joint boots and such..

Does this list look right?

Anyways now my questions. On the stock parts, is the cost difference substantial between getting all the bushings/seals, and the complete lower I-arm ***'y?(FD01-28-300B). It seems a new assembly would be much easier to deal with and have everything installed, but is it way more expensive?

On the upper and lower ball joints in the front - how can you test these? It does not appear they are available as a replacement, you need to replace the whole control arm. It looks expensive.

With these new pillowballs should I get dust covers for all of them?

I noticed Mazdaspeed makes some shock mount rubbers - has anyone had the shock mounts (top of the shocks) go bad?I feel Ill be ordering these next round (sigh)

Sorry for so many scattered questions but I really only want to do this once, and do it right. I hate to sound like I'm trying to cheapskate my way out of finishing this right. My car has 98000 miles on it, and I pretty much planned on upgrading and replacing everything, but damn this is adding up FAST.

Thanks and sorry for the long winded post.

 

Not sure what the stopper is, but the rest of your list is correct. You can re-use the C-clips you already have, so all you need are the pillow bushings (FD01-26-220) and 2 dust caps (FD01-26-250) per pillow bushing. The damping bushing (FD01-28-460) is the inner bushing on the rear lower control arm, and it only requires the stopper (FD01-28-461).

Yes. The bushings and dust caps for one rear lower control arm will cost about $180-185, but a new rear lower control arm will cost you another $100 or more. Sorry, can't remember the exact price, since I lost a bunch of my e-mail, but I considered it also.

BTW, removing and replacing the damping bushing in the rear lower control arms is a royal pain in the ***. See my How-To write up in the archive on removing and replacing them.

See above.

It is, and you do. The service manual shows using a tension device a lot like a fish scale to determine whether or not they need to be replaced. However, at 98,000 miles, if they haven't been replaced yet, they're due.

They have dust covers, of sorts. Notice the black rubber rings?

Get a set of JIC coilovers and get rid of the stock crap.

Tell me about it...

 

These are all the pillow ***** that usually need replacing + the dust seals...
6 FD01-26-220 Lower Arm Pillow Ball
12 FD01-26-250 Dust Seal

Rear lower arm @ body, pillow ball suspended in rubber, I don't know how often these go bad -- might want to check it out first and see if you want to go for a replacement. They look like they would be a pain to install. I have one spare lower lateral arm with low miles (20K, IIRC?) if you find that your arms are bad and need a cheap replacement.
2 FD01-28-460 Lower arm bushing
2 FD01-28-461 Lower arm bushing stopper

I don't know what this is?
6 99574-3800 stopper?

Yeah, the upper and lower ball joints in front only come with the arms. I bet that your new bushings could be installed and removed without damage, so it might be worth putting the car together and then see if you want to replace the ball joints. The FWM has a test procedure where you measure the torque required to rotate the ball (starting torque and continuing-rotation torque) in the ball joints with a little SST spring scale. If you really wanted to be **** about it, you could probably rig up your own test apparatus with a bar and a fish scale. At the very least, you could wiggle the ball joint around with your hand and see if there is any play or if it feels "too" loose. I've got some used arms (upper and lower) that aren't installed if you want to have some others to compare the feeling to -- I'm kind of curious myself.

Where did you get all the pillow ***** in the pictures??? That looks like a very nice upgrade! It looks like they already have seals, too. I bet those weren't cheap.

-Max

 

Jesus Max, did you read my mind? Fish scale? That's scary...

 

Look familiar?



BicuspiD, check your PMs. Pronto.

 

Official Parade Rainer

 

Great minds think alike. Or maybe we're both old (by forum standards) and wise enough to recognize a fish scale for what it is. I bet the Mazda fish scale is $400.

Where did you guys get those bushings? They've got performance and a bit of bling-bling -- I bet they would sell well if someone would make them available to the rest of us. On second though, they probably cost an arm and a leg, and the bling-bling will be all but hidden, so maybe just the hardcores would be interested. Still -- where can I get some and how much?

-Max