She's done boys. Over the long weekend the lancer got the last of its parts before getting back onto the road. Dad and I hoisted it up, removed the entire back end of the car (in total 4 different arms each side that link the suspension together.) and tallied up the bushing count.
After some analysis we realised I was short 4 bushings (which was bound to happen, we went off of a warehouse trader page with no diagrams), but we found a home for all of the 10 bushings I did get. In short, the lancer back end suspension consists of: 1 large trailing arm that goes down to the hub, 1 upper arm (banana arm we called it), 1 small lateral arm that connects to the centre of the back end, and 1 larger lateral arm at the very back each side that hold the edge of the trailing arm, coilover and connects to the upper frame of the car.
Might sound confusing at first, but taking it all a part it really makes a lot more sense, and isn't very complex. Each arm had 2 bushes each, excluding the trailing as it only had 1 BIG bush at the top of it. So (1 + 2 + 2 + 2) * 2 is 14 bushings all up. The only ones I didn't change because I didn't have, are the longer back end lateral arm bushings. Spose they would be called lower outer and lower inner bushes, but they weren't worn much anyways.
Anyway, we did 1 half of the back at a time so we could rebuild each side with a reference... Disassembled, took all 3 arms to work, used the hydraulic press countless times and meticulously pushed each out with various bearings, cylindrical pieces of metal and anything else we could find. We ran into some shit half way through, actually a couple times. Putting the wrong size bushing into a bigger arm, (which we released it was for the tiny lateral instead) and mushrooming an old trailing arm bush ahaha. Eventually all got out, all the new polys in, took them back rebuilt 1 side and rinse and repeat with the other side.
Initially we were not going to do the big trailing arm bush as you have to take the brake lines apart, the hand brake line, caliper off, rotor off, hub off, etc. Just to bloody see what your doing. It was a lot of work for one bush, I now know how the inner workings of all my brakes etc work. Quite simple as well! Oh also we actually improved the handbrake action a LOT by disassembling it, my handbrake has VERY satisfying clicks and stages that you can feel, also goes further easier too.
Once putting it all back together and rotors/calipers back on, we then had to bleed the brake lines of air, and boy did we do that for a while. Probably an hour just doing all 4. Eventually I felt a bit of a placebo with the brakes, we stopped and they ended up being extremely responsive as we got virtually all the air possible and entirely new brake fluid by the end of it.
After that we did a cheeky oil change because why not, with a NEW OIL FILTER this time, last time we had to reuse my old one, cleaned up because I got given the wrong one... Topped off with the wheels aligned this morning, the car is GOLDEN.
It's scary how fast I can go round a roundabout or corner now, it just keeps hold of the road so much differently then it use too, and no more lifting. The car rides hard, it's not uncomfortable though. The only thing I found uncomfortable at times, is the BIG dips and ditches, because when I hit them now the suspension just drops instantly, and comes back up instantly, so it throws your head around. But medium to small sized dips etc are quite placid.
Also forgot how quick this car is then the Getz I was driving, holy balls and its not even tuned yet.
Got some very busy weekends up ahead that are not car related, so hoping I can still fit in a time to get the rest of bits and pieces sorted for it, that I have talked about in the past. Few pics below of some bushes and the front control arms with poly's from a build update ago.
What do you guys wanna see next? I haven't got many parts to go now.
Avenir
