Trailing arm bushing removal Options

[mwizard1]

Making good progress on my upgrade to 5 bolt 911 parts, but... I also want to change the OEM rubber bushings on the rear trailing arms to delron. Any tips for getting the old rubber bushings out?

[technicalninja]

I'm surprised no-one has chimed in about the use of rubber over others.

First question is street or race car?

The aftermarket bushings (other than rubber) all allow rotation of the trailing arm shaft in the bushings.

Elephant has what I believe are the best ones.

https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/914/...914/polybronze/

Elephant ALSO has rubber bushings.

https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/914/...ng-arm-bushings

And the old school rubber bushings are more expensive than their poly-bronze stuff.

Why would the Alpha suspension company offer both AND the rubber version be more expensive?

Comfort alone is the answer.

Aftermarket (non-rubber) have limited NVH abilities. On a racetrack for short periods of time this is optimal.

Driving cross country for hours and the hard bushings will kick your ass...

The hard bushings commonly make noise. Doing as Brant has suggested is the best way to reduce this. You also get to grease them pretty regular.

The rubber versions require zero maintenance.

Properly sized rubber bushings bond to both the trailing arm and the shaft and "flex" instead of slip.
Because of this the shafts have to be "pre-loaded" before they are tightened up.
Two people and 100lbs in the rear trunk is how I'd preload a 914.

This procedure requires access with the rear wheels fully loaded. So, you're either working in a pit or the car is on what I call a storage lift that you drive onto.

Just saw Brant's last post...

Mono-ball is the ultimate "no-striction" bushings. They are more "bearing" than "bushing". These have ZERO NVH abilities.

This is what you end up with when performance is the ONLY goal.
They usually suck bigtime for street use and do not have long service lives.

A good rubber bushing is a 50-100K mile solution. Mono-ball will have 1/10 the lifespan.

Mono-ball is a "trailered race car" solution. It is the BEST solution for what it is intended for.

Do some research before you jump here.
What do you really want?

Some members who tried the aftermarket moved back to the rubber ones due to the "un-friendly" aspects of hard bushings.