Hi guys! I have a question, I had new OEM (Rubber) bushings pressed into my Front suspension arm. So i finally bolted it in to the chassis (but NOT yet bolted to the balljoint or anything else). The car`s sidemembers are on jackstands, so the suspension arm is just DANGLING. I`m aware that you only do the final torqueing once everything is bolted on with 2 passengers in the car, so i just tightened the big bolt-nut going through the bushings maybe 20 lbs or so. I then pushed the arm upward and let it go down, i repeated this a few times and felt some "elastic" resistance (binding?) each time i pushed it upward.

So is this "elastic" resistance normal (i assume its from the rubber part of the bushing of course) ? Or is the Front suspension arm suppose to feel very free when i move it up and down (in both directions) regardless if its lightly torqued or fully torqued? Just needed to be sure this was normal before i finally bolted up the suspension arm to the balljoint.

THANKS!

Resistance will be normal. In the stock bushing the inner and outer sleeves are bonded to the rubber bushing. When the bolt is tightened the inner sleeve becomes stationary with respect to the cross member and the outer sleeve is a tight press fit into the control arm. That's why you do the final tightening with the suspension loaded. The bushing flexes to give the motion the control arm needs. It can't flex more than a few degrees so it needs to be in the normal ride height position when it is finally tightened into place.

Steve

Alright great, i can finish it up! THANKS A LOT steve!

patrick