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To help the MKIV chassis’ meager camber curve somewhat, Whiteline sent their adjustable rear control arm bushing. Utilizing an eccentric bushing, caster can be adjusted by up to 0.75°. This added caster helps to increase camber gain under roll, and its solid polyurethane construction is a vast improvement over the stock rubber bushing with built-in compliance holes. The stock bushing allowed as much as ½” of deflection, and was starting to show some rather frightening cracks warranting its immediate replacement.
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| Whiteline rear control arm bushings add up to 0.75° of positive caster to the front suspension.
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| The bushings are grooved to prevent slipping after installation. Since the TTY bolts that hold this in needed a large breaker bar to complete the tightening sequence, we highly doubt they’ll slip. |
Installation of the Whiteline bushings was very similar to bushing installs on other vehicles. First, insert a reciprocating saw blade (or hacksaw, if you’re less endowed, toolwise) and hack out the center part, then ever so slowly and carefully cut the aluminum sleeve until it is mostly cut. Grab a punch and hammer down on the outside of the sleeve until it collapses, then simply remove it from the control arm. Install was a little bit trickier, since a socket of the appropriate OD could not be located. Some liberal application of grease, and some patience, and the new bushing pressed in by simply clamping down on one side a very small amount, then the other. Repeat this walking back and forth until the bushing is flush with the control arm on the other side.
One other tricky part of the control arm install came from those accursed TTY bolts. Because they needed to be replaced every single blasted time they’re removed (previous attempts to re-use these TTY bolts resulted in stripped threads), it was not a simple matter of bolting it together and letting the alignment guy deal with it. To remedy this, simply get the bushings in approximately the same position with the hole on the outer side of the bushing. After assembling the suspension entirely and ensuring the car is level, leave the control arm bushing loose, measure caster on the front of the strut with the suspension unloaded with a cheap magnetic angle finder, and adjust to maximum but equal on both sides. To ensure the upper mounts weren’t inconsistently tweaked, measure the angle on the control arm itself and adjust if necessary.
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| The Whiteline rear control arm bushing installed in its new home. |
To round out the suspension modifications, Whiteline provided their anti-roll bars for the MKIV chasses. For the front, a non-adjustable solid 22mm unit was used to replace the stock 23mm hollow unit, and a 24mm solid adjustable bar was installed on the rear. The front bar is not simply a stiffer version of the stock bar, but is designed to go under the axle as opposed to over it, making the bar less likely to contact the axle under bump.
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| The Whiteline front and rear sway bars with all included hardware. The rear sway bar (top) features 3 way adjustability.
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| The Whiteline front sway bar goes under the axle rather than over it. Here you can see the differences in design. |
