Finished up the rear suspension refresh (prior - replaced the Panhard rod bushings and passenger-side upper control arm bushings). Got the other upper arm bushings, replaced with red poly bushings from Sonoran Steel. And installed two HD lower control arms with new poly bushings, also from SS.
This was to correct a 'swaying' my car picked up after last year's road trip (Colorado, Utah, fair amount of pretty HD wheeling). Once started by a road heave, it would just sort of wiggle back and forth gently, not increasing to out of control, but not damping down and going away on its own either.
I only did the Panhard rod bushings the first time around (also that one upper arm because I had the muffler out to replace it as well and access was great) - because I wanted to see if that was the problem. Everything else seemed to be pretty tight still (233K miles), but the axle end of the Panhard showed a *little* wiggle. And after replacing that, the swaying seemed to be all gone.
The front bushings on the lower control arms, however, were looking a bit tired as well. They're directions, with fore/aft voids in the OEM bushings, but they were pretty easy to wiggle around. It's possible they were joining in on the slight side to side slack on the Panhard rod to make that sway happen.
Anyhow, all 4 control arm bushings replaced, Panhard bushings replaced, it's rock-solid again.
I also crossed my fingers extra hard and tackled the fuel filter. It's probably original, sitting underneath a car in the salt belt for 21 years now. I spritzed it with some PBlaster about a week ago and let the fittins sit. And they both came off, big relief. *woot* I pondered cutting it open to see what 233K miles worth of stuff in the gas looked like, but then decided I'd get more entertainment from setting it out in the middle of the driveway and setting it on fire to burn off all th gas inside. Nice fireball for about 3 or 4 minutes.
