So I installed new rear trailing arm bushings from PIC, they were replacing the oem ones that came with the car in 1994. I figured it was time to do it, it's been long over due. You can see from the picture that they are completely gone.

Impressions, The car feels tight in the rear now. No wandering. It holds a very straight line now, no wandering like before. I feel a lot more confident taking hard turns. The back end doesn't slide to erratically. It feels planted.

Here are pictures of the new PIC rear trailing arm bushing one and the oem one. I stuck with a hard rubber RTB, hopefully this one will last as long as an oem one.

Side note. The beating the bushing out with a hammer trick....yeah, Um go buy or rent the bushing extractor. It will make your life a lot easier. The hammer trick was tried. It works but it sucks. Took a little over an hour on each side with the hammer trick.




While working on the rear trailing arm bushings I inspected my Skunk 2 rear LCA bushings as well. To my horror, they were all shot. Keep in mind these have only been on about a year. All 6 bushings were in similar shape. Here are some pics;







Some of the bushings were rotted all the way through. I emailed skunk to buy some replacement bushings and then these are going up for sale. I really don't feel like changing bushings every year. I've got new oem LCAs coming in. $72 a piece for new OEM LCAs with bushings...a lot cheaper then I thought! OEM ones last a lot longer. Plus I didn't notice any difference going from oem to the skunk ones. Granted the skunk LCAs Run hard Poly bushings. But I have learned to dislike poly anything now because of my recent issues with poly falling apart. They just do not last.

All my friends run the skunk 2 LCAs, we will be checking on the conditions of those this weekend.

Skunk 2 makes a lot of quality race products, but that's what they are. Race products. They're meant to perform well for what they do. But as for longevity, OEM is the way to go. Been finding that out as I replace a lot of my aftermarket goodies with New OEM pieces.

Side note... My ingalls rear camber kit was shot as well. Only had that on for a year... I did most of my suspension pieces all at once. Looks like I'm replacing a lot of those pieces all at once. The rear camber pieces broke completely from their rubber. Some things I will go after market but most things I will be staying with oem from now on, even if it costs more. In the long run it will save you on costs and headaches.

Inspected my skunk front camber kit. They look good still. All bushings were greased prior to install. The front camber kit from skunk is the only part that is still good. I've got a bunch of mugen bushings coming in....that's gonna be a fun job.

 

Can you press PIC bushings into the SK2 arms?

 

I'm not sure. I've got mugen ones that I ordered before getting my oem LCAs. I'll see if those will fit.

 

i had the same problem with my skunk2 LCAs they suck. then i called skunk2 about it they made me buy a new set of bushings, so i installed them 2 months ago and they are already shot. should have bought function7s off the bat.

 

Just a note those skunk2 lower control arms are fake, the bushing says it all. Real skunk2s only have a 5 grove bushing not 8.

 

Not necessarily:

 

Fake vs reall

http://www.jhpusa.com/store/pc/viewP...idcategory=637

 

i hammered out my trailing arm bushings, took maybe 2 mins tops.

 

He's just got arms old enough to have the old bushings. Those were notorious for failure so SK2 redesigned them. There's even a chance that the companies making the current knockoff bushings are having them made in the same factory with the same materials as the old SK2s.

 

The FAKE versus REAL applies to the counterfeits using 8 slots instead of the old 5 or new 7 genuine Skunk2 bushings.

 

So the old ones were 5? When did they make 8 slots like the ones in their photo?