For a good while now I have had a clunking coming from under the car around the transmission on decel and coming to a stop.  I was figuring on it either being one of the mounts on the tranny tailhousing or the converter itself.  When I pulled the tranny a few weeks ago to upgrade a failing stock torque converter, I found that the torque arm bushing was pretty thrashed and figured that was my problem as it was letting the torque arm flail about within the bushing housing.  While I was out on the road the past couple weeks I order a replacement which was waiting for me when I got in late last night.  So rather than resting today like a normal person would after driving over 2200 miles in three days I crawled under my car and worked on it in the sweltering heat.

Here is a comparison of the stock rubber bushing next to the new prothane one that I installed.  The torque arm is now nice and snug once again doing it’s job.  It was definitely a job getting the clamshell mount back together after installing the new bushing as it is much stiffer than rubber, but with a little coaxing with a prybar I was in like flynn.  Took it for a drive and no more clanking.

 

The other job I undertook for the day also involved installing some Prothane goodness.  Not too long ago I was under the car and looked up at the rear wheel well and noticed that the axle bump stops were nearly non-existent.  This usually isn’t much of a problem except that this car still has the original orange decarbon shocks which were not that great to begin with and usually needed replacing after 30K miles give or take.  I am sure the stock springs are tired as well and should be replaced.  Both of these facts are evident when riding in the car as you feel every bump in the road.  I would love to swap these out but good shocks and springs are freaking pricey.  So in the mean time I decided to replace the bump stops to see if that can help out the rear a little bit on the larger bumps.

Here is a shot of just how pathetic the stock bump stops have become.

 

The stock unit was actually crumbling apart in my hand as I tried to unbolt it.  Here is a shot of what was left next to the replacements.

 

Once I went to install the Prothane stops I ran into an issue though.  There was a metal tab that the stock stops rested against that prevented the new ones from seating flush.

 

I, however, did not let that deter me.  Some people might have just shave off the corner on one side of the mount to allow it to fit in there properly, but ohhhh no… not me.  I went at it with a little creative freelancing with the reciprocating saw.  Aww yea, there isn’t anything that can’t be fixed with a sawzall.  Not to mention they are fun to play with.

 

And now we have a new bump stop sitting nice and flush with the mount.

 

Unfortunately while in the wheel well I did notice one other issue, but thankfully not one that is huge.  It appears that the driver’s side tire has been rubbing on the well and has gone clean through to the metal and polished it up quite nicely.  Looks like I will need to get in there and do the BFH mod.  I knew it was going to be a tight fit in there running a 315 on the rear but I’d say it’s not bad if this is the only issue in the past year.  The passenger side looked fine.