MX5 NC Upper Control Arms - Replacement Bushes

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MX5 NC Upper Control Arms - Replacement Bushes

We recently published and article about building up an MX5 NC as a road car/track car for one of our customers in Melbourne. Part of this write-up included the replacement of the upper inner control arm bushes to the Whiteline offset pin kit. The benefit of this is it allows for extra camber to be dialled in.

Standard bush in arm
We start by cutting the outer edge of the bush off with a drop saw

Using a hacksaw we cut into the outer metal ring of the OEM pressed bush. Then lever up the edges and move them backwards and forwards to break off the tabs.

 

This exposes the outer edge of the stock aluminium arm and allows a support point
Using a press we align the arm to rest on the edges and using a drift of sorts press out the bush
The same is repeated on the other side of the arm
Arm with bush removed

Then its just a matter of pushing in the new bushes. I like to use a vice as I find its easier to move the arm and centre the bush at the same time or use a press.

With the grease they are now slippery little buggers so it can be be tricky to push in and you usually have to chase the bush around the floor if it gets loose!!

Push the metal offset pin into the arm and tap it home with a drift. Align it before it's pushed all the way home.

Refit the arm.

This will affect your wheel alignment so put that to the top of the to-do-list!! For those in Sydney the obvious choice is Spinning Wheel as what they don't know about MX5's wheel alignments isn't worth knowing!!