A little less than a year ago I came across what I like to call an act of God; the Turbo kit. As I soon learned, custom fabrication works exceptoinaly well if you know what your doing. Since no one produced a turbo kit, Tom Coleman decided that he would make his own. After seeing that his project turned out succesful, I started trying to figure out a way I could contribute a little something back to the 3G world to aid in the development of a better ride. In late March of 2000 I picked up an 88Si4ws lude from a family down the street from me for $1,500. While in the middle of performing an unorthodox automatic to manual transmission swap, I soon found that the stock sway bar end link bushings were very BLOWN. At this point I was very much into AutoX racing, and knew that if I wanted to upgrade my suspension that now would be my chance while everything was already apart.
Let me now explain how Polyurethane Busings work. As the ludes body roll increases through corning, the anti-sway bar provides the roll resistance. However, the rubber bushings on the end-links that connect the bar to the body tend to compress under pressure over time. Seems how this happens, the bar doesn't develop the roll resistance until the maxumum compression of as much as 1" has taken place in the end-link bushings. Polyurethane Performance bushings don't compress and thus allows anti-sway bars to develop their maximum amt. of roll resistance immediately.
While the use of polyurethane bushings on stock sway bars can significantly improve their efficiency, if they are of a firm dia., most stock bars are too light to be really effective. Therefore, the rear bushings will aid in more oversteer by causing the bar to react with a more firm base. Seems how the stock rear bar on the 3G is only 18mm and the front is 24mm, it's easy to see how the front won't be effected as much as a firmer rear. You need to know that cars handeling will improve over stock. Front wheel drive cars are known for their understeer abilities while rear wheel drive cars are known for oversteer. With the more supported rear bar, the understeer is decreased which makes it possible for the lude to perform better on an AutoX or road racing track.
The most ideal performance setting 3G owners alike can obtian right now is a stonger balance of front to rear sway bar link bushings. Polyurethane is very strong, and they will bring you happiness for years to come. My bushing sets come slightly larger than stock diameter and heigth wise. The heigth factor is really nothing to worry about, and the width enlargement is going to help to retain a longer lasting life of the bushing as well as an unproven possible stronger suspension feel. If your concerned with the color issue, I only have red, and it's a very dark red at that. All I've done was find pieces of poly. out on the market and have worked them down to shape and size. As you'll be able to see in the pics, they came out REAL nice looking.
The price I'm setting for the set is $40. I know it sounds a tad bit high, but let me mention the costs on my end. First off, it costs myself $10 per set of 8 pieces of polyurethane. The lude needs 12 bushings consisting of 8 up front and 4 in the rear. That runs me $20 for the urethane, and after each set I have to go buy rotoray discs from Sears at about $5 per case of discs. Then there's the mailing costs of 3.20 (I ship priority mail with insurance) and an added cost of gas. Added together that's right at about $30, and I sill have about 5 hrs. worth of work to do in order to produce a set. At this time I'm whipping out a set in about 2 days, but the return time is taking around 5 - 6 days from the time I receive the money. Eventually if this takes off well as it seems to already be doing, I could have a set in reserve and could be sent off imediatly upon receipt of the money. Over all, your going to be real impressed. I encourage you to take one of your tires off and look at the condition of the stock sway bar end link bushings and decide for yourself; the results will scare you. If you have ANY questions please feel free to email me at any time. BTW, I do except PayPal payments.