Bushings! Rack and tranny?
 

OK, I get to use replacement bushings this year. Which ones? Remember, no more metal than stock, so I am assuming I am looking for polyurethane, or similar. How tough are the respective installs?

Tranny bushings make the car so much faster that you end up in SM

Not in '06.... Go read teh rules... 14.8d-f Steering rack, Diff, and tranny mounts are now fair game in STX! :P

Dean, I had the whiteline rack bushings on my '03 and they were a huge improvement. If I remember correctly they were only around $30 shipped from Oakos.

STi Group N Tranny mounts are the most popular. Whiteline rack bushings are also the most popular. Both are available from Oakos I believe.

The rack bushings are a pain to get on. It took me a couple of hours by myself, it would have been easier with an extra hand or 2. I haven't done the tranny or differential bushings yet.

I really want to get the stearing bushings for my car. I hate the spongy stearing and I hear the bushings really help.

If you shop around Dean (and what are the odds? :p ) you can get Whiteline steering rack bushings for around $30 and the Group N tranny mount (the only legal one as far as I know) for around $65. There's also Noltec and I think one other source for the steering rack bushings, but I recall there being fitment issues with them at some point, though fixed by now most likely.

Best Deal's on individual parts right now... OK, maybe not the best, but it was the best I could to with a Quick search.

Steering rack Bushings... $17.99 Killer deal! http://www.kastleskorner.com/store/p...oducts_id=1262

Rear Diff bushings: $28.99 http://www.kastleskorner.com/store/p...roducts_id=782

Tranny Mount: Well, best price was $65 at Subarustore but shipping was outragous, so I just added it to my Kastle's order. $79.98 http://www.kastleskorner.com/store/p...products_id=51

I saw it for $75 at Mauro Motorsports with reasonable shipping, but it comes from New York which takes longer than from AZ, and would have been more expensive overall due to shipping from both places.

If shipping seems wrong somewhere, try calling. I ordered something from subaruwrxparts.com a long time ago (forgot what it was) but the shipping was quoted as like $6 on the site, but they only charged me about a buck because that was actual shipping.

In this case, I think it was one of the common ploys I've seen lately. Lowball product pricing, and high "shipping & handling"/Pure Profit. In this case, $21 to ship a tranny mount from NY.

subaruwrxparts does charge a lot for shipping...and they wouldn't give me a break when I asked nicely (my order was ~$500), so now I don't recomend them. :P

Looks good Dean.

Dean, let me know if you need a hand with the install. I'd like to get my hands dirty and why do the mounts make the car so much faster?

The mounts supposedly help the drivetrain efficiency to some minute degree, but they are also a feeling mod since they make everything firmer and less spongy. Also, my car loves to buck in 1st gear with the stock mounts. I've been told firmer mounts would help reduce that. The stock mounts were only designed for stock power and they do wear out and cause issues like clutch chatter too.

It's not about faster so much as precise. on the steering, and just less slop in the driveline for the tanny, and diff. Right now, the diff clunks pretty good when I do a quick shift even though I have the engine mounts and top gizmo that I forgot the name of.

Remember that part of shipping and handling is paying the monkey who packs the boxes, and buying the shipping materials. You can't get no-margin prices on parts and pay actual shipping cost if you want to buy from a relatively small business. (And the www.subaruwrxparts.com side of Exeter Subaru is small).

Well the u-joints on either end of the drive shaft do a pretty good job of rendering that lack of motion up front pointless when it comes to keeping the diff still. ;)

Ok, I got my rack and front of rear diff bushings, and the tranny should be in tomorrow. Anybody want to help swap them? I'm thinking about doing the first two tonight, and the tranny tomorrow night.

I'm not off until next Sunday. If you run into a snag or have to wait for one reason or another, let me know. On another note, two of my tires came today and the other two are still in transit. They look like they'll do the job!

Thanks, but I'l be at Thunderhill this weekend, so I'm shooting to get them done before I go.

I could lend a hand Dean. You do have a heater in that garage right? I should also have that can of brake fluid I owe you soon.

I can help you tomorrow night.

Heater Schmeater... wear gloves... If I read it corectly, the bushings should be relatively quick as should the passenger side rack. the driver's side is a different story aparently.

If you want to help, come on over. I'll be home shortly after 5:00.

I can't make it till 7 or so. 7:30 if I have to go buy gloves. :P

I hope to be done by then. I'm thinking I may go home shortly and get a head start with a little daylight...

Okay, well good luck. I guess that means I actually get to go to the gym.

Front of rear Diff bushings: 30 minutes
Passenger side Power Steering bushing: 15 minutes
Drivers side Power Steering Bushing: 1 Hour and 45 Minutes. Definitely not priceless.

Heating it up in warm water for a bit finally made it pliable to get around the second corner.

Oh, and Scott, remember when we spent like an hour rummaging through your garage at your apartment looking for the "old" Diff bushings to put back in so you would be STX legal, and failed to find them?

Well, I know why now. There are no "old" bushings. The Poly bushings in the kit supplement the stock ones by basically taking up all the space around the stock bushing so they can't deflect, as well as adding 10mm on the top and 4mm on the bottom of highly incompressible Poly for the mating surfaces to push against. The only thing I have left are the extra inserts for the pre '02 10mm top bushings, just like you had in the drawer...

Oh, and it is quite a mild night out. No wind is a big help.

Did you drive it yet Dean?

Going to grab some food now...

It's at least two stickers worth faster... We'll see how it does at THill.

Well, I really like how the driveline feels. Throttle steering is extremely predictable and requires very little throttle input. Upshifts and downshifts appear crisper. Not in the shifter itself, but in the chassis\power perspective.

Any increased vibration that would make you think twice before doing this to a daily driver?

I only notice the additional sound under deceleration when the exhaust is quiet. I'm not sure I really notice any vibration compared to what I get out of my suspension. Remember, I now have all the Group-N driveline bushings except the rear-rear differential one, as well as Group-N rear top mounts, and pillow ball front top mounts, so my car is pretty dang noisy already.

Oh, and the steering rack bushings feel very good under load. Again, they have added a level of crispness to the steering making mid turn adjustments very small.

Now if you hand or foot motions are not slow and smooth, you may find the response of both the driveline components and the steering rack to harsh and/or twitchy.

Hmmm, maybe I'm better off with my squishy mounts and bushings for now. At least that's what I'll tell myself. :P