75ZT Community

Late last year August 2013 I checked my lower wishbone bushes be cause even after I had changed the lower engine mount I was still getting a little vibration, upon inspection I found the bushes to be split and that they needed changing so I purchased two new mounts with bushes included.
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Once the new bushes/mounts arrived they were fitted with the appreciated help of My Devlish & Mr Trebor
on 20/8/2013
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A week later I took the car for it's MOT and it failed on the ball joint, so I had to purchase a new wishbone are and refit the drivers side on the 2/9/2013
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This now brings me to the last nano meet where a fellow R75 owner asked me to check his lower engine mount, reason being he was getting a clonking sound on take off, and through gear change, I did this for him all was ok with the lower engine mount but both his wishbone bushes had been torn/split, one right through in fact I would say the car was not drivable like that.
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It then so happened that fate stepped in and a nano member Piotr introduced his self to me as I had some headrests for him and showed me some wishbone bushes he was having produced, and asked if I knew of someone whom could fit them to their car and give him reports on how they perform.

Well what better car could we have picked than that of the R75 owner who's car was there with us and had damaged wishbone bushes, but of cause we was then left with the Finding ourselves impaled upon the horns of a dilemma, should we fit them due to time and how difficult the job is, did we have the right tools etc anyways cut a long story short we fitted the ( Piotr Bushes ) as I call them now, special thanks to Brian,& Ron
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These have been tested over some bad pot hole roads since then and the report back is they are performing great, some are also fitted to a R75 in Poland driven on roads which a four by four would find hard to cope with and the reports are good.

Now back up to speed Piotr visited me at my home on Tuesday 13/5/2014 as I promised him a fan for his car he came to pick it and had a gift for me, yes the wishbone bushes he is having produced, and asked me would I like to fit them to my car and let him know also what I thought of them, I proceeded to tell him that I had only 8 months earlier fitted two new bushes, but would try them as and when if needed.
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Yesterday 15/5/2014 I had to get the car on the ramps for a different matter, while I was under the car I checked out of curiosity on the wishbone bushes I fitted 8 months earlier to my shock I found this below
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I now find my self having to replace the wishbone bushes I bought in August 2013 after only 1200 miles of driving angry is not the word that came to mind I can tell you suffice to say I will be contacting the seller and looking for a refund, I bought middle of the road bushes not cheap but not the most costly either turns out they are no good at all.

I put out a call for anyone whom had a couple of spare lower wishbone bush mounts used, I did have my old ones but they were given to Dave (Dattrike) so he could use them to fit new insert bushes to his other car, I contacted Mr nice Dave to see if he still had the old ones he took off his car once he had replaced them and he came up trumps they arrived today 16/5/2014 FOC he would not even take a penny for the postal cost big thank you.

Once I got them into my hands I set about cleaning them up, I filed and wire wool them, sprayed them ready to fit the ( Piotr ) insert bushes.
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If you look at these metal mounts they have a chamfer edge to them this is the end that the insert is to be pushed into so clean them well no sharp edges etc.
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Also clean inside the mounts and out side if you want to.
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Do this to both of them it doe's not take much time.
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The mounts after being cleaned and sprayed, also insert bushes below showing a mock up of them.
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These now have to be inserted into the metal mounts to do this grease the inside of the mount and the outer part of the insert which will be pushed through the mount.
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As above & below you can see I have used good old Vaseline to grease them with.
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I placed the mount on a flat surface the edge of my work bench and put the mount on top of the mount.
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I then used a piece of soft wood 2" x2" and a 2lb lump hammer to push home the red bush into the mount, worked great no effort at all.
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Of cause the bush will only go trough as far as the flat face of the other side of the mount because the bench table stops it from going right through.
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I then used a lower engine mount I had to put the wishbone mount over so I could tap the rest of the bush through.
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Inset now pushed through to the other side and fully inserted into the mount.
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Both the wishbone mounts are now ready to be fitted later today 17/5/2014
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A close up of the product (Piotr inset bushes)
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Later today I will add to the thread how the fitting to the car went with photo's also cheers Arctic.

I'm waiting for price & availability on these Steve. They look fantastic and need doing on mine, as have a slight knock on the front end. Its just the fitting to the car I struggle with.

Think quality control is a problem with some bushes. With the car at rest and not jacked up the bushes should not be subjected to any turning forces. Some I have seen would subject them to turning forces, i.e. the producer has just stuck the bushes in to the housing any old how and not in the correct position.

My car at its MOT a couple of weeks ago had advisories for the two bushes, the MOT tester commented 'get the Rover ones from Rimmer and not any old aftermarket ones'.

However, theses bushes look interesting.

This is not a criticism. I think its great what Piotr is doing. But I want to point our something. The standard ones are what is known as void bushes. That is, they have a space, or void in the rubber, meaning the compliance (give) is different in one direction, to the other. So these not having that will have some (though I have no idea what) effect on the ride and or handling. So for those that have fitted them, I'd like to understand what difference it seems to make.

Duncan wrote:This is not a criticism. I think its great what Piotr is doing. But I want to point our something. The standard ones are what is known as void bushes. That is, they have a space, or void in the rubber, meaning the compliance (give) is different in one direction, to the other. So these not having that will have some (though I have no idea what) effect on the ride and or handling. So for those that have fitted them, I'd like to understand what difference it seems to make.

Hi Duncan
I have mine fitted now, and from the first initial finding driving I have found the steering to be more responsive, less feeling of the bumps like sleeping police men and pot holes, I decided to try these as the ones I have just taken off have only been one 8 months and been used just over 1200 miles not good at all in my opinion, and I was assured that they were equal to OEM bushes, seems not I will of cause be contacting the seller about them, I will report back again in a few days then weeks and so on regarding the Piotr bushes.


8 months old and I found this below

Ive been using the Powerflex equivalent of these for a couple of years now, no problems, and more precise feel.

I've got some photos of the powerflex ones after 25,000 miles of hard use, safe to say I'll be using them again - absolutely superb. I have ordered a set of the Eastern European ones to try, but don't think they're going to be the easiest of things to fit.