my rearend came with bushings already mounted in the upper ears on the pumpkin. The hotchkis replacements are poly and have an extra poly ring that slides onto the opposite side of the bushing. should I use the supplied stuff or leave the rubber? The instructions are a little vague for a newbie like me. It says to take the bushing out of the sleeve, install the sleeve in the axle. ok, how do i get the bushing out of the sleeve? Then install the thrust washer, is this the extra poly ring i mentioned above. *See figure on reverse side... nothing there... So anyone who has done this before help me I'M NEW!!

Leave the rubber.

The poly thrust washer portion of those poly bushings for the upper rear end have a nasty habit of "walking" out of place, then the arm will rub on the steel face of the bushing shell and leave nasty gouges in it. If you run it like that for a long time, it may slice through. Happened to me and several friends who tried them. Rubber it is.

The other option, even better than rubber, is the Wolfe Racecraft spherical joints for the upper rear end. http://www.wolferacecraft.com/detail.aspx?ID=187

For rubber bushings, remember to do the final tightening/torquing with the suspension at normal ride height. Don't tighten them with the suspension at full droop, as this would place a load on the bushings at normal ride height.

Troy

Is the bind everyone is talking about an issue with the UCA at the differential only, or all the joints UCA and LCA? I have hotchkis upper (adj) and their boxed lowers, can't change that now, so would changing the UCA lower bushing to a spherical one be best? I'd like to auto cross my velle, but I've experienced snap oversteer in my old Supra. Don't want that in my restored velle.

The bind occurs in all 8 bushings, but it's much worse in the uppers than the lowers because of the angles that the arms are positioned.

The lowers are nearly parallel, so poly won't be as bad there.