SPL diff bushings

tranceformer

I broke my rear diff bushing a few months ago, and I had a set of these bushings laying around (never got to install em on my 350Z). Can't have the diff flopping around like that so I dropped off the car & some parts at jnaut's shop (J Spec Auto). J Spec Automotive Inc.

Yep, solid aluminum diff bushings from SPL. These are a set made for a 350Z but I had Jason aka jnaut squeeze them into my Z. What a royal pain in the *** these were. It took quite some time & effort to remove the rear bushing. Squeezing the aluminum bushing was slightly less annoying (but still a pain the ***). NOTE: The 350Z bushing was slightly oversized and needed some work to be squeezed into the 370Z subframe. Installing the front set were cake by comparison. The entire rear subframe had to be dropped from the car to get the job done. And yes an alignment was needed afterwards. Perfect opportunity to install a set of rear camber arms.

How do they drive? I picked up my Z from the shop and went on a 180 mile road trip to the other side of FL. DAMN these bushings are LOUD. Any and all gear whine is transmitted throughout the entire cabin. Certain mph ranges are worse than others but highway speeds are tolerable. Note: I had Jason install another pumpkin with 4.08 gears at the same time. These gears had a little bit of a whine (in comparison to my stock 3.7 gears). On the brightside, shifting seems smoother but then again I had all the fluids replaced for this visit as well. No wheel hop on the street. Car feels planted onto the road.

The road trip gave me some time to think about what to do about this? So I grabbed a sheet of 45mil (approx. 1mm) thick EPDM rubber liner and gave it to Jason to squeeze between the bushings & subframe in an attempt to quiet down the noise. He ended up putting a few pieces between the subframe and body as well to reduce the noise. In the end it helped. Noise was reduced and now it is liveable (but still noticeable over stock). Would I daily drive the bushings w/o the rubber insulation? HELL NO. Would I daily drive with the rubber insulation? Yes.

Props to Jason @ J Spec Auto for all this work done to my Z!!! I had decent amount of work done on this visit and the car feels awesome. THANKS!!

http://jspecautomotive.com/

PICTURES!!!!!

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Ray
2009 370Z Base Sport 6MT / 12.860 @ 109.09mph / 1.921 60ft / street tires
official 1/4 mile track times