Body mount bushings

Back when Kenne Belle was in business with TR, his drawing shows the location of the extra GNX bushing mount #5 & 6 as well as the other bushing location on the driver side, which you can copy to the pass. side. Years back I already added both mounts 5 & 6 and also added the GNX rear seat brace, which help the rear from being twisted and prevent the rear from leaning towards the passenger side.
Attached Files:

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  • Thanks this is nice to have.
 
1KWIKSIX said:
I installed the complete set of body bushings with the rubber ones from Kirban all at the same time (had 2 caged nuts spin on the rear frame cross members that needed to be repaired by cutting open flaps in the trunk to access).....the installation of the new rubber body bushings included the 2 GNX #5 bushings. Could not believe the difference in feel from before and after. It's like a complete transformation from sloppy floaty boaty cadillac feel to a much tighter handling car with less body roll and much less squeaks from the body when going over bumps in the road. Of course maybe the Bilstein shocks and 16" GTA rims & BFG G-Force Sport tires had something to do with it too?
I had a local body shop who's familiar with GN's do the install on their lift. One of the best things I've done and great bang for the buck!
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Did you notice any more/less vibration or was it basically the same as stock minus the floaty boaty Cadillac feel.
 
ikle said:
Did you notice any more/less vibration or was it basically the same as stock minus the floaty boaty Cadillac feel.
Click to expand...


Didn't notice any more vibrations with the addition of the new rubber bushings.....actually made the car feel & drive smoother and much tighter overall. Glad to have a new car feel once again. The only vibrations I felt were there before and is attributable to the poly HR PartsNstuff tranny & motor mounts. It's not too bad & is something that I have gotten used to. Guess it's a small price to pay for a solution to never having to replace them again vs the stock mounts which don't last too long.
 
I'm in the middle of replacing mine. I had to weld in two body washers to repair the frame right behind each wheel. I was able to jack the body up enough to get my welding tip in there. I still have to weld in body sheet metal that is rusted out around the same two bushings.

I have to replace the capture nut/strips that keep the nut from spinning in 6 areas. All this from the rear seat back. Everything from the rear seat forward came out fine. I had to cut 4 holes in the trunk to access those bushings and two underneath the rear seat.

It turned a 2 hour job into a project I keep putting off. I went with poly, because I never want to deal with it again.
 
I'm getting ready to start this project and have a question. I had the car on a lift today and was looking for the location of the GNX bushings and couldn't see it. I understand that they aren't there but it didn't appear that there was an access hole to thread a bolt in the spot I think they should be located. Where exactly is the location and do the GNX bushings just rest on the frame or is a bolt needed?
 
I am pretty sure there is not a bolt for them, I understood that they just sandwiched between the frame and the body. I am in the process of doing mine as well.
 
From Kirban's website
"ONLY the GNXs received the #5 upper body bushings/cushions when these cars were new. None of the 1984-1987 Regals or Turbo Regals received these 1-1/4″ tall, screw-in upper body bushings.
These bushings sit between the body and the upper frame, just in front of the rear axle. They help secure the body to the frame for a tight fit. (The illustration shows where these upper body bushing go… #5 on top of the frame, just in front of the rear axle). No bolts are required to install the bushings. One end is threaded, which seats in a large hole in the top of the frame rail. The other end has a slight point, which seats into the body.
 
Correction : The #5 GNX body bushings do not thread into anything! They simply snap / push into a hole located at the top / rear frame. The bushing has an oversized bulbed end that locks itself into the hole into the frame when pressed in.
 
Couple pointers I figured out tonight:
1. If you are doing it on a 4 post lift, run some straps through the frame and around the lift treads to keep the suspension from rising as you unload the car from the weight of the body. I used a ratchet strap at the rear of the frame.
2. I used the lift jack and a block of wood under the rail in the body under the rear seat and a second jack with a 2x4 towards the front of the drivers compartment to lift each side individually.
3. Finish one side, get bolts in all the holes on the side you finished and then drop them out of the other side.
4. I bought the new bolts from Kirban which were great since the stockers look bad except you need to reuse the #1 bolts and the #3 bolts as they are longer.
5. The number 3 bushings are the controlling bushings for how high you have to lift the frame up. If you can get them out the rest of them have a ton of room
 
Hey bob86gn, can you give us some more detail on what you did. My thought was to put the car on jack stands and then use the lift to raise one side up a bit (placing a 2 x 4 along the edge of the body and lifting) to get access to the bushings. Once I did that I'd go to the other side. It sounds like you kept the car on the ground, "anchored" the frame to the lift posts, then used the lift to raise the body. Is that correct? If so, did you have enough room to work? Thanks.
 
huntsg, I put the car on the lift (4 post) with all 4 tires sitting on the rails of the lift. I put a ratching strap over the frame rails and under the body just behind the rear wheels. I wrapped the strap outside the jack rails and basically made a loop keeping the suspension loaded when the body was lifted off. I used one side of the trolley jack that rides between the rails to lift one side of the body up. I used a small 2x4 section and the reinforcing rib that is under the body near the front of the rear seat. I couldn't tilt one whole side without adding a bottle jack and a 2x4 either in a second jack tray or off the rails of the jack to help tilt the front half of the body. I alternated raising the front and rear jacks so I slowly tilted one side high enough to remove body bushing 3. I removed all the bolts in the side I was working on and made the other side super loose but still attached. Replaced all of them on the first side, lowered both jacks slowly and then put bolts in, tightened them hand tight and then pulled the bolts off the second side and jacked it up the same way. Strapping the rear of the frame helps alot since the only real weight on the rear springs is the body. Without the strap when I would try to jack the body off the frame, the frame would rise up to where I did not have enough jack travel to actually get the bushings out. Obviously, the motor is the real weight in the front so when you lift the front the suspension does not rise that much. Let me know if you want me to recreate the setup and take a couple of pictures.
 
Well now, that was fun! Took us 6 hours. We used a hybrid between the above directions and the ones on GNTType.org. The ratchet strap idea was very helpful, so thanks for that. The #2 and #3 bushings were probably the hardest, just because it was difficult to get the body up high enough to get the new poly bushings in those spots. It took us awhile to get the washers and bushings all lined up to put the bolts back in. All in all it wasn't that bad and with the lessons learned we could do it much faster when we do it on another one. Thanks for all the suggestions
 
Has anyone repaired the body where the bolts mount? If you don't mind, I would be interested in talking to you about it. I have a couple that are going to need repaired. So shoot me a PM and contact so that I can get with you about how you did it.
 
My frame is good... The part they bolt into the body are what I need to replace


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nobody mentioned that they had to loosen the rear bumper or the rear fillers will get messed up when the body goes up but the bumper stays put. The driver's side fuel line also broke on my car when we jacked up the body.
 
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