Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

The bushes on the ARB were completely shot and needed replacing. When I removed the ARB, brackets and droplinks it seemed that the brackets and droplinks would need replaced and the ARB could do with refurbing. Unfortunately I did not take pics of the before. Before being too hasty and ordering a bunch of new stuff I decided to give the brackets and droplinks a good scrape and clean, ok not show condition but pretty solid underneath. SO I took them to the powerder coaters along with the ARB for a second opinion, he said they would be fine after media blasting. So that is what I went with, had them all done in black (satin) and they turned out great and only £35 to get the lot done - half the price of replacing the droplinks and brakets!

As for the bushes, I decided to go for Poly' Bushes for 2 reasons i) I like a sporty firmer feel ii) Poly will not deteriorate when exposed to oil and/or power steering fluid like the rubber ones do.

I choose FloFlex bushes as they are a reasonable price (and they had a 20% off sale on ebay) and did a complete ARB kit inc lock nuts ect for the droplinks
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Porsche-944-9 ... 5675afcd08

I also decided to go for a set of stiffening brackets for the ARB hangers, found these on ebay, seems to be a new UK based seller. Very reasonable price and the quality is good.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Porsche-944-a ... 3aaf3bae36

Here it all is

The anti roll bar bushes are the only ones I kept as std.
Your old ones lasted over 20 years and anything new would feel great.

I have poly elsewhere.

I'm looking to do similar on mine, those poly bushes are way cheaper than powerflex at £65 odd.

Any driving impressions?

I have only done a few miles on a test drive, obviously much better than the deformed crumbly rubber i removed. I cannot give a direct comparison with good standard rubber as i have not driven a car with it. However, what i will say is:
1. My main daily driver has powerflex bushes all round, and i have found it much better than on standard bushes
2. The powerflex bushes seem to be better quality in their finish than the Flowflex, but not enough to justify theprice difference
3. If you go for the Flowflex ARB and droplink kit like i did, dont use the big metal washers for the droplink bushes they are too weak, reuse or get new OEM ones. The ones supplied by floflex deformed when i torqued the nut up. No issue with the bushes though.
4. I think the bracket support is well worth it. Beforehand i could flex the hangers by hand with the ARB installed and wheni removed them one of the brackets was bent slightly. With the supports installed the assembly is completely solid. You would prbably feel an improvement with original rubbers + the bracket supports.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, always good to get first hand experience.
i've noticed the ARB hangers flex too so the brackets sound like a good purchase!

When I bought my 944 I did not realise that this kit is not standard so I have exactly the same as you and can confirm that the car handles and corners very well indeed.

My car had a fortune spent on it by the PO until he ran out of ideas and bought 2 Porsche keyrings..................I suspect his wife called time before they went broke

Yes those triangulation brackets do make a big difference even on their own - I reckon fitting them is the equivalent of going up a size in ARB thickness. Haven't fitted better bushes yet and haven't felt the need to...

I have this kit to fix onto my car can anyone tell me the technique to fit the drop link bushes through the eye of the link? I have had a small attempt seems difficult any tips?

Mark

I used a long bolt with big washers to pull the bush into the eye. A little washing up liquid will help as a lube.

Squeeze the bush with a jubilee clip to get it started, makes getting started into the eye much easier then you can use a vice to push it in