Lowering that S197? RE-CLOCK your bushings please!

Hey guys, just a friendly reminder (or tip) I wanted to share.

When you guys drop your cars down, please loosen all of the suspension pivot point bolts (WHERE THERE IS RUBBER - Poly/Bearings do not apply) and re-torque them at ride height.

I know, I know....it can be a pain in the ass, but it WILL help your suspension pieces live a longer and better performing life.

In case you do not know, or do not want to figure it out, loosen the following pieces and re-torque when changing the ride-height of your S197.

Front:
FLCA to K-Member bolts

Rear:
RLCA Bolts, Front and Rear Mounts
Panhard Bar Ends, L/R sides
UCA to UCA Mount Bolt
UCA to Diff Bolt

That's all.

Huh, I knew I was pulling all of the bolts out of the back but may not have realized I needed to do the front lower control arm bolts. Thanks!

Kelly is such a helpful vendor.
LOL!

Don't hate!

And also remember - this doesnt matter with Poly or Bearing parts!

BMR Tech said:

Don't hate!

And also remember - this doesnt matter with Poly or Bearing parts!

Click to expand...

I could NEVER hate on you, Kelly.

Except for the fact that you never gave me advice what to do about my bottoming out problem while using Koni yellows & BMR springs. BMR LCA's are in middle position using BMR Relo Brackets, if that matters.

My diff bushing is busted now. More than likely because of the almost 2" drop and NOT loosening and re-tightening the bolt. It also leads me to believe this is where my clunking is coming from. Especially when I use Whiteline's trans mount bushing.

Thanks for the reminder.

Wait, I've never retorqued the front A-arm bolts and I've raised and lower the car at least 10 times. What kind of failures can result from this?

I'm trying to understand this as well. If you've got a pivot point, e.g. lower control arms, why on Earth would you need to loosen and retorque the bolts? Those pieces are designed to pivot, right? The suspension pieces you mention will pivot (as they are designed to do) to the new position. Take for example your LCA's - the arms and bushings are free floating, as are the steel sleeves that the bolts ride in (they pivot with the arm). So what exactly is binding?

The way I understand it is that when you tighten the stock rubber bushings the center sleeve doesn't pivot anymore. The rubber twists around the sleeve, but because everything is glued together the rubber can only twist so far. That's why you're supposed to tighten rubber bushings at ride height. So if you tighten the rubber bushings at full droop and then lower the car onto the suspension the bushing will twist up and could keep the suspension from settling completely. And also when you start hitting bumps it'll tear the rubber because you're pushing it past it's maximum twist. Since the poly bushings aren't glued together there's no worry about having to tighten them at ride height.

Reason for my thoughts....years ago I worked in a small shop. The guy was sponsored by Nissan. We had three new Frontiers in the shop and they needed to be lowered. The driver, who thought he knew more then he really did, relocated the front mounting position for the leaf springs to help get the truck low. My boss told me to do the other two the same way. When I tightened everything up I had the trucks sitting on the tires so the suspension was loaded. The trucks I worked on were about an inch lower then the truck that the driver lowered. Naturally my boss was confused. I loosened everything up on that truck and loaded the suspension then tightened it all up. That truck was then as low as the two I had worked on. The rubber bushings were all bound up from what I could tell.

^ Nailed it.

OEM rubber is bonded. It is designed to be tightened to specification at ride height.

When you lower the car, and do not loosen the pivot point bolts, the sleeve stays put...but the rubber twists to conform.

When the rubber is deflected in that fashion, placing additional loads from various directions on the bushing causes premature failure. Ripping, cracking, etc.

This is why, when you install a Roush component that features rubber bushings (for example, their LCA) - they have you mark the shock where the dust boot ends - and instruct you to torque the new bolts/LCA with the line you marked, in the same position as it was before removing the LCA at ride height.

I made a mistake - and did not state "rubber only" in the first post. My second post in this thread, I did state it does not matter with Poly/Bearing.

Updating OP now!

Ahhh, now that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up, Kelly.

(and my bad for not reading your second post!)

I can second this one from experience. After I lowered my car I started to notice a squeak from the rear of the car. This would happen when shifting or hitting a bump. Needless to say it was really annoying. Well it was the rubber bushings on my LCAs screaming for help, since I did not loosen the bolts when I lowered the car. I ended up destroying the bushings, so on went a set of BMR LCAs

Thanks for the list of other things to look out for.

^^^Post whore!





































































J/K!