BACK by popular demand
OK. Where to start. I installed maximum motorsports IRS bushings, steeda
differential bushings, 14mm front IRS bolts and a borla stinger catback exhaust
I got from davidmax’s xtreme motorsports. Total install time was two full
days.
Tools used to lift and hold:
Asymmetrical frame lift
Tall homemade jack stands
Transmission jack
Floor jacks
Regular jack stands
Power tools:
Pneumatic craftsman drill
Snap-on impact gun
Makita electric drill
Hand tools:
A schitload of metric wrenches, sockets and fun stuff
Craftsman 25-250lb torque wrench
Coping saw (could substitute a jigsaw here)
6” C-clamp
Large C-clamp (8” or larger)
Prybars and steel spikes to line up bushings and bolt holes
Rubber mallets
Hammer
Assorted attachments and junk:
1.5” wire brush (radial or cup)
5/16” drill bit
WD-40 (lubricating drill bit and coping saw)
Ether (starting fluid) for cleaning
1.5” PVC coupler
1.5” to 0.75” PVC adapter
Some big thick flat washers (at least 1” in diameter)
If you read this entire thread however, it should be easy to do in a day or
less with the right tools.
Okay, cars on the lift Friday:
Stock view:
Exhaust off (use WD-40 on hanger studs to make removal easier):
First, I installed the differential bushings. The instructions from steeda
didn’t seem to be real clear on the 03 Cobra, so I just took off the brace
between the front IRS subframes and swapped the bushings. It is pretty easy.
Remove the brace bolts, then remove brace and the dogbone and stock bushings
which come in two parts. In order to get the top halves out, I just pulled
down slightly on the driveshaft to get clearance between the IRS braces on top
of the diff.
Stock bushings in differential:
Grease the new bushings well and then install them similar to what the steeda
directions say. Slide the top red bushing and two washers in up top(pull down
on drive shaft slightly to get clearance).
Press in the black smaller center bushing into the differential casing and then
insert the crush sleeve. I pressed them in using my fingers to start. After
starting them, you can use a c-clamp to press them completely in.
Install the dogbone and then the bottom red bushings and washers. The finished
product:
OK. Now onto the fun. To start the install of the IRS bushing, we got the car
up high, removed the wheels, and used a transmission jack to take the IRS
weight off the rear two IRS bushing bolts. The two stands in the pictures were
home made tall stands that we used to support the IRS subframes at various
times during the install.
We couldn’t get adequate clearance with just the bolts removed, so we had to go
into the trunk, remove the lining and unhook the shocks. This allowed us to
lower the IRS far enough to work on the stock rubber bushings. We used a
floorjack and steel pipe inserted into the lower control arm spring perch to
compress the spring and disconnect the shock.
NOTE: Be careful and support the IRS well. Besides the 4 bolts holding
the IRS to the car, there is the drive shaft, your parking brake cables, abs
sensor cables, and your brake lines. Don’t drop the IRS, or lower it too far.
You could royally f-up your ride.
(My cousin taking advantage of me while taking the interior of my trunk apart):
Cousin unhooking shocks (friendly guy):
Now the fun begins. Lets try and remove those nasty rubber bushings. Our
weapon of choice was a craftsman pneumatic drill with a 5/16” bit. This one
bit survived the entire install, but we regularly coated it with WD-40 to keep
the heat down and lubricated it while drilling:
The first two bushings (the rears) took about 2 hours to remove each. Why? We
tried drilling them out as much as possible and then twisting out pieces of
rubber. Don’t do this. Read below how to remove one of these bushings in 10
minutes.
The hole saw didn’t work worth a crap either. Kept on jumping around and the
rubber slowed it down too much once it got started into the bushing.
(My cousin being friendly again):
We did eventually get most of the rubber out:
Here is how to remove the rubber bushings with ease (we did this on the two
front bushings).
1.) Drill holes concentrically around each rubber bushing (do not walk the bit
or try to waller the holes. Use WD-40 to lubricate and cool bit every hole).
2.) Insert coping saw (or jig saw) and cut to connect all your holes, freeing
the center of the bushing (WD-40 helps get the balde going and keeps it
moving).
3.) Tap center of bushing out with hammer.
4.) Use a decent sized flathead screwdriver to pry rubber away from inside of
shell (very easy).
5.) Clean inside of shell with 1.5” wire brush on drill (quick and clean).
OK. We then used Ether to clean the insides of the shells to prepare the
sleeves for the new bushings and grease.
I applied the supplied polythane grease liberally and only used 1.5 of the 2
tubes provided by MM.
Here is how we pressed the new bushings in:
After greasing the sleeve and bushings, we used a large clamp, a 1.5” PVC
coupler, 1.5” to 0.75” coupler and some large flat washers to press the bushing
in. After we got close to fully inserted, the bushing gets tough to push in
cause it tapers to a larger size. Then we swapped the large clamp for a 6” C-
clamp that was easier to turn. The PVC couplers allowed the bushing to extend
into them and the bushing to be fully seated in the sleeve. The washers were
placed on the end of the bushing and the end of the couplers when the 6” C-
clamp was used to prevent damaging the bushing or couplers with the smaller
contact surfaces on the 6” clamp.
After fully seating the bushing, we inserted the greased crush sleeve (note how
the bushing sticks out past the sleeve on both sides, this is the reason for
the PVC couplers).
To get to the front two IRS bushings, we used the transmission jack to once
again take the weight off the bolts and remove them. We used a 2x4 to bridge
the gap between the two front IRS subframes and jacked it up using the tranny
jack. We left the rear of the IRS unattached and lowered to get clearance.
We let the IRS down far enough that the springs became unseated so we removed
them to prevent them from falling on someone’s head. Be careful not to lower
the IRS too far. You could damage the brake lines, parking brake cables, abs
sensor cables, or the driveshaft/transmission/differential. We actually undid
the parking brake cable rubber supports, the brake line brackets and the ABS
sensor wire fasteners from the car/IRS to give us more room to drop the IRS.
If you do not undo the fasteners/brackets, you may pinch or damage the
cables/wires/lines when lowering the IRS to get to the front bushings.
The springs are easy to put back in. The markings from the castings on the
lower control arms tell you exactly how they came out, and the dirt on the
bottom should tell you up from down. Just make sure the isolators are properly
seated when reloading the spring and suspension during re-assembly.
We removed the bushings using the drill, coping saw, screwdriver, wire brush
method and got them out in less than 30 minutes. We installed the new ones
with the Clamps.
OK. Our last difficulty. Getting the IRS back together and attached to the
car.
We stuck the springs back in and started to raise the front of the IRS. The
front bushings reinserted easily and we lined them up and inserted the new 14mm
bolts from MM one at a time using the steel pointy ends of our prybars. These
were more difficult to get in than the 12mm stock pieces because they actually
filled the holes in the subframes.
As we began to raise the rear and try to seat the rear bushings, the car began
to lift off the rear pads on the frame lift. To counter this, we lowered the
car close to the ground. In order to do this, we had to tie the rear IRS
subframe to the spring perch boxes with a nylon ratcheting strap to hold up the
rear of the IRS while lowering the car.
You can see the strap here wrapped around the subframe. Be careful to make
sure the strap is strong enough to hold the weight of the IRS and the slightly
compressed springs:
After we got the front two tires on the ground we placed regular short
jackstands and floor jack under the rear IRS subframe (see picture above).
Make sure you reattach the shocks to the shock towers during this lowering.
You’ll need to guide the shocks back into the towers as the car is lowered. We
also used a floor jack with a steel pipe seated into the underside of the
spring perch on the lower control arm to compress the spring to make attaching
the shock easier.
We lowered the car until the bushings started to come into the gaps. Guess
what? The drivers side bushing started to catch on the inside of the subframe
of the car. The whole rear of the IRS was shifted about 0.25” to the
passenger’s side. We farted around for a while trying to take care of this,
but eventually just used a prybar with a wide face between the bushing and
subframe as we lowered the car to guide the bushing in. A floor jack was used
to push the rear of the IRS up(see picture above).
We looked through the bushings to line up the holes with the jack and inserted
the bolts. The nuts on the rear of the IRS have tabs welded to them and are
located inside the rear connection point on the car. Just grab the welded on
tab and line up the nut with the hole to insert the bolt. Be careful to hand
start the bolts and line up the bushing crush sleeves with the car connection
points. Be patient, otherwise you could screw the threads up on your bolts. I
actually hosed the threads on the rear bolts during removal by rounding off the
threads cause the rear wasn’t perfectly unloaded when I began to back out the
bolts with my socket wrench. I had to use the front stock 12mm bolts to put
into the back locations.
After finishing the bushing install (woa), we raised the car back up and put
the borla stinger exhaust on. I got the exhaust from xtreme motorsports when
davidmax advertised a special on shipping. The exhaust came UPS all the way
from Arizona (I installed in Frankfort, KY). Not a scrath or dent on it.
Great looking and easy to put in. The tips lined up perfectly when we just
pieced the exhaust together under the car. We tightened the clamps and flanges
on the tubing and lowered the car. Replaced the wheels and put it on the
ground. (Hallelujah)
We spaced the rear tubes apart more before lowering the car to the ground. No
rattles please:
Started the car and it sounds great. Took it for a spin (about 30 degrees and
frost covered outdoors). The wheel hop has been significantly reduced as far
as I can tell. I basically get wheel spin most of the time now. A little
hopping but nothing as violent as before.
The exhaust is sweet. I wish I would have done it sooner.
Thanks to all the IRS bushing installers before me that I picked up some tips
from when I read your posts on svtperformance.
The install crew (they failed to inform me of my grease mustache after the
install):
Let me know if you have any specific questions. I probably forgot something in
this post.
In summary, it is a pain in the arse. If you have the tools ready and the
time, however, it isn’t a big deal. You just need lots of patience. Be
prepared for bolts not lining up, difficulty manipulating the IRS, etc. These
things will piss you off the most, but you can get through it. Good luck if
you undertake this adventure and be careful.
-Jason
OK. Where to start. I installed maximum motorsports IRS bushings, steeda
differential bushings, 14mm front IRS bolts and a borla stinger catback exhaust
I got from davidmax’s xtreme motorsports. Total install time was two full
days.
Tools used to lift and hold:
Asymmetrical frame lift
Tall homemade jack stands
Transmission jack
Floor jacks
Regular jack stands
Power tools:
Pneumatic craftsman drill
Snap-on impact gun
Makita electric drill
Hand tools:
A schitload of metric wrenches, sockets and fun stuff
Craftsman 25-250lb torque wrench
Coping saw (could substitute a jigsaw here)
6” C-clamp
Large C-clamp (8” or larger)
Prybars and steel spikes to line up bushings and bolt holes
Rubber mallets
Hammer
Assorted attachments and junk:
1.5” wire brush (radial or cup)
5/16” drill bit
WD-40 (lubricating drill bit and coping saw)
Ether (starting fluid) for cleaning
1.5” PVC coupler
1.5” to 0.75” PVC adapter
Some big thick flat washers (at least 1” in diameter)
If you read this entire thread however, it should be easy to do in a day or
less with the right tools.
Okay, cars on the lift Friday:
Stock view:
Exhaust off (use WD-40 on hanger studs to make removal easier):
First, I installed the differential bushings. The instructions from steeda
didn’t seem to be real clear on the 03 Cobra, so I just took off the brace
between the front IRS subframes and swapped the bushings. It is pretty easy.
Remove the brace bolts, then remove brace and the dogbone and stock bushings
which come in two parts. In order to get the top halves out, I just pulled
down slightly on the driveshaft to get clearance between the IRS braces on top
of the diff.
Stock bushings in differential:
Grease the new bushings well and then install them similar to what the steeda
directions say. Slide the top red bushing and two washers in up top(pull down
on drive shaft slightly to get clearance).
Press in the black smaller center bushing into the differential casing and then
insert the crush sleeve. I pressed them in using my fingers to start. After
starting them, you can use a c-clamp to press them completely in.
Install the dogbone and then the bottom red bushings and washers. The finished
product:
OK. Now onto the fun. To start the install of the IRS bushing, we got the car
up high, removed the wheels, and used a transmission jack to take the IRS
weight off the rear two IRS bushing bolts. The two stands in the pictures were
home made tall stands that we used to support the IRS subframes at various
times during the install.
We couldn’t get adequate clearance with just the bolts removed, so we had to go
into the trunk, remove the lining and unhook the shocks. This allowed us to
lower the IRS far enough to work on the stock rubber bushings. We used a
floorjack and steel pipe inserted into the lower control arm spring perch to
compress the spring and disconnect the shock.
NOTE: Be careful and support the IRS well. Besides the 4 bolts holding
the IRS to the car, there is the drive shaft, your parking brake cables, abs
sensor cables, and your brake lines. Don’t drop the IRS, or lower it too far.
You could royally f-up your ride.
(My cousin taking advantage of me while taking the interior of my trunk apart):
Cousin unhooking shocks (friendly guy):
Now the fun begins. Lets try and remove those nasty rubber bushings. Our
weapon of choice was a craftsman pneumatic drill with a 5/16” bit. This one
bit survived the entire install, but we regularly coated it with WD-40 to keep
the heat down and lubricated it while drilling:
The first two bushings (the rears) took about 2 hours to remove each. Why? We
tried drilling them out as much as possible and then twisting out pieces of
rubber. Don’t do this. Read below how to remove one of these bushings in 10
minutes.
The hole saw didn’t work worth a crap either. Kept on jumping around and the
rubber slowed it down too much once it got started into the bushing.
(My cousin being friendly again):
We did eventually get most of the rubber out:
Here is how to remove the rubber bushings with ease (we did this on the two
front bushings).
1.) Drill holes concentrically around each rubber bushing (do not walk the bit
or try to waller the holes. Use WD-40 to lubricate and cool bit every hole).
2.) Insert coping saw (or jig saw) and cut to connect all your holes, freeing
the center of the bushing (WD-40 helps get the balde going and keeps it
moving).
3.) Tap center of bushing out with hammer.
4.) Use a decent sized flathead screwdriver to pry rubber away from inside of
shell (very easy).
5.) Clean inside of shell with 1.5” wire brush on drill (quick and clean).
OK. We then used Ether to clean the insides of the shells to prepare the
sleeves for the new bushings and grease.
I applied the supplied polythane grease liberally and only used 1.5 of the 2
tubes provided by MM.
Here is how we pressed the new bushings in:
After greasing the sleeve and bushings, we used a large clamp, a 1.5” PVC
coupler, 1.5” to 0.75” coupler and some large flat washers to press the bushing
in. After we got close to fully inserted, the bushing gets tough to push in
cause it tapers to a larger size. Then we swapped the large clamp for a 6” C-
clamp that was easier to turn. The PVC couplers allowed the bushing to extend
into them and the bushing to be fully seated in the sleeve. The washers were
placed on the end of the bushing and the end of the couplers when the 6” C-
clamp was used to prevent damaging the bushing or couplers with the smaller
contact surfaces on the 6” clamp.
After fully seating the bushing, we inserted the greased crush sleeve (note how
the bushing sticks out past the sleeve on both sides, this is the reason for
the PVC couplers).
To get to the front two IRS bushings, we used the transmission jack to once
again take the weight off the bolts and remove them. We used a 2x4 to bridge
the gap between the two front IRS subframes and jacked it up using the tranny
jack. We left the rear of the IRS unattached and lowered to get clearance.
We let the IRS down far enough that the springs became unseated so we removed
them to prevent them from falling on someone’s head. Be careful not to lower
the IRS too far. You could damage the brake lines, parking brake cables, abs
sensor cables, or the driveshaft/transmission/differential. We actually undid
the parking brake cable rubber supports, the brake line brackets and the ABS
sensor wire fasteners from the car/IRS to give us more room to drop the IRS.
If you do not undo the fasteners/brackets, you may pinch or damage the
cables/wires/lines when lowering the IRS to get to the front bushings.
The springs are easy to put back in. The markings from the castings on the
lower control arms tell you exactly how they came out, and the dirt on the
bottom should tell you up from down. Just make sure the isolators are properly
seated when reloading the spring and suspension during re-assembly.
We removed the bushings using the drill, coping saw, screwdriver, wire brush
method and got them out in less than 30 minutes. We installed the new ones
with the Clamps.
OK. Our last difficulty. Getting the IRS back together and attached to the
car.
We stuck the springs back in and started to raise the front of the IRS. The
front bushings reinserted easily and we lined them up and inserted the new 14mm
bolts from MM one at a time using the steel pointy ends of our prybars. These
were more difficult to get in than the 12mm stock pieces because they actually
filled the holes in the subframes.
As we began to raise the rear and try to seat the rear bushings, the car began
to lift off the rear pads on the frame lift. To counter this, we lowered the
car close to the ground. In order to do this, we had to tie the rear IRS
subframe to the spring perch boxes with a nylon ratcheting strap to hold up the
rear of the IRS while lowering the car.
You can see the strap here wrapped around the subframe. Be careful to make
sure the strap is strong enough to hold the weight of the IRS and the slightly
compressed springs:
After we got the front two tires on the ground we placed regular short
jackstands and floor jack under the rear IRS subframe (see picture above).
Make sure you reattach the shocks to the shock towers during this lowering.
You’ll need to guide the shocks back into the towers as the car is lowered. We
also used a floor jack with a steel pipe seated into the underside of the
spring perch on the lower control arm to compress the spring to make attaching
the shock easier.
We lowered the car until the bushings started to come into the gaps. Guess
what? The drivers side bushing started to catch on the inside of the subframe
of the car. The whole rear of the IRS was shifted about 0.25” to the
passenger’s side. We farted around for a while trying to take care of this,
but eventually just used a prybar with a wide face between the bushing and
subframe as we lowered the car to guide the bushing in. A floor jack was used
to push the rear of the IRS up(see picture above).
We looked through the bushings to line up the holes with the jack and inserted
the bolts. The nuts on the rear of the IRS have tabs welded to them and are
located inside the rear connection point on the car. Just grab the welded on
tab and line up the nut with the hole to insert the bolt. Be careful to hand
start the bolts and line up the bushing crush sleeves with the car connection
points. Be patient, otherwise you could screw the threads up on your bolts. I
actually hosed the threads on the rear bolts during removal by rounding off the
threads cause the rear wasn’t perfectly unloaded when I began to back out the
bolts with my socket wrench. I had to use the front stock 12mm bolts to put
into the back locations.
After finishing the bushing install (woa), we raised the car back up and put
the borla stinger exhaust on. I got the exhaust from xtreme motorsports when
davidmax advertised a special on shipping. The exhaust came UPS all the way
from Arizona (I installed in Frankfort, KY). Not a scrath or dent on it.
Great looking and easy to put in. The tips lined up perfectly when we just
pieced the exhaust together under the car. We tightened the clamps and flanges
on the tubing and lowered the car. Replaced the wheels and put it on the
ground. (Hallelujah)
We spaced the rear tubes apart more before lowering the car to the ground. No
rattles please:
Started the car and it sounds great. Took it for a spin (about 30 degrees and
frost covered outdoors). The wheel hop has been significantly reduced as far
as I can tell. I basically get wheel spin most of the time now. A little
hopping but nothing as violent as before.
The exhaust is sweet. I wish I would have done it sooner.
Thanks to all the IRS bushing installers before me that I picked up some tips
from when I read your posts on svtperformance.
The install crew (they failed to inform me of my grease mustache after the
install):
Let me know if you have any specific questions. I probably forgot something in
this post.
In summary, it is a pain in the arse. If you have the tools ready and the
time, however, it isn’t a big deal. You just need lots of patience. Be
prepared for bolts not lining up, difficulty manipulating the IRS, etc. These
things will piss you off the most, but you can get through it. Good luck if
you undertake this adventure and be careful.
-Jason
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