PJmak

Front control arms next to each other. Notice the difference in the bushings?

Could this be the cause of my vibrations Ive been having? One side bushing hole is to the side way more. Wouldnt this cause a different toe angle on that side?

Also the second attachment below with the poly bushing....aparently that bolt wont fit all the way through when the control arm is inserted in. The hole in the bushing is smaller than the stock one and as you can see the bolt doesnt fit all the way through. Is this normal? This means I have to get different bolts that dont have the wider ends by the bolt heads which secure the bolt into the control arm bracket.

KJI3jflarryfe93

poly bushing, did you use stock LCA bolts or the dealership camber bolts for front axle?
if you haven't tried the other type of bolt see what happens

PJmak

Yep those are the stock ones and have a wider section on them right after the head to make them fit into the control arm bracket on the car. I will need bolts that dont have that wider area.

Iam just wondering what kind of effect that will have on the whole setup

Ausmbtech

My Kmac bushes looked a bit like that when I changed mine. I changed to Hedgehog Motorsport bushes (look on Facebook, they are in Thailand). The hedgehog bushes are better quality in my opinion. They aren't easily adjusted in car but I know roughly when I want them anyway so it's not a problem.

Personally I'm going to replace the rear LCA bushes with W208 bushes (hydraulic bush) and leave the hedgehog bushes in the front of the LCA so that I can have the extra camber but get a little more comfort......when I get some time.....

PJmak

I would think the bushings need to be adjusted the same. I can turn the center piece around with the bolt that came in.

When putting them in, wouldnt the hole need to be exactly in the samespot as the other side?

bbirdwell

I'm speaking from my experience on my W211 which may (or may not) apply to the W212.

Photo with both bushing and control arms; you're looking at the long end of the control arm; this affects caster much more than camber. Yes, it will affect toe but toe is easily corrected using the tie-rod end. Importantly, with KMac bushings, you do *not* want the bolt close to the 3:00 or 9:00 o'clock position; binding of the bushing can occur at full compression of the suspension.

On the other photo with the bolt in the bushing, I cannot speak for your W212 but on my W211 there is a sub-frame between the bolt head and the bushing so the bolt will not and cannot slide all the way into the bushing.

FWIW, I am very satisfied with the KMac bushings in the front of my car. The rear bushings...not so much and I pulled them out and reverted to stock.

Let us know how it works out for you.

KJI3jflarryfe93

then camber crash bolts will fit the poly bushings, i have the same poly bushings with camber bolts but not installed on my car

stock bolts are thicker they don't go all the way in

PJmak

So the bolts I need are camber bolts and allow for a bit of adjustment I see.

I dont remember how I did this before, i had those same bushing before I ran kmacs on my car.

PJmak

Another question....



Upper control arm....looks like the ball joint on it is torn. I do have multiple spare arms that are good but I know they are a ***** to replace.(it doesn't look like you can replace the ball joint only. Have to do the whole arm)

How much effect does that ball joint have on the ride quality? It doesn't seem like there would be a lot??

ProjectC55

I have brand new Kmac bushings not I stalled yet. Should I sell them and use the bushings for a w208 CLK55?

PJmak

Depends how low you are. Honestly at my height they only gave me additional .2 degrees of adjustment(camber)

benzslo

Looks like a huge cluster****. OEM all the way. Your alignment is all jacked up if those moved at all too. I don't know why anyone uses that stuff. Replacement or do the clk55 bushings.

PJmak

Thats what Im foing. Honestly this was the worst investment Ive fone on my car....they werent cheap either.

Im swapping control arms and using poly bushes

K-Mac

Yes we do create controversy by constantly designing/developing new suspension products (not just sitting on the fence doing nothing flawlessly).

As set out below in attached flyer – until we invented and patented the system allowing a “adjustment bush” to be simply inserted in any position then the use of a single wrench to rotate the bolt head to the required alignment setting.

It was necessary each time a setting needed to be changed.... the labour intensive control arm removal/pressing the bush out, then repressing in and re-installing.

Now with K-MAC a setting change is done on car fast/accurate (under load – direct on alignment rack).

It is often said the simplest design is the best design – and once you get your head around the principle – you will agree it is just that!

Re quality – we do not source imports but manufacture “in-house”. This allows total control over quality and rapid/constant development.

We are also heavily involved in testing/proving in all 10/10ths competition motorsport. Situations in heavy V8 racing where race safety scrutineers – checking/evaluating bushing brands rule K-MAC and only K-MAC are allowed to be used.

Re W208 CLK55 OEM bushings versus W202 – difference is the CLK bushings are firmer. To gain adjustment you can fit the OEM fluted bolts, but they are inaccurate providing one offset position and minimal 1/8” Camber/Caster change!

K-MAC bushings provide absolute maximum adjustment within the confines of the bush casings. This is 3 times the Camber and 4 times the Caster adjustment of the fluted bolts and you can adjust precisely under load!

ProjectC55

The kmac bushings I have and purchased more than 5 years ago has there been an update? I have not installed them yet. Or is there a particular way that you recommend these be installed with other or factory bolts?

PJmak

With the kmac design, I dont see how the bushing will not readjust itself after a some time on the road.

The way its designed, if adjusted to a specific location, the bushing eventually has to turn it self around and come back do its natural position by the weight of the car.


Unless of course its tightened by the arm of god which my passenger side was. I had to crawl under the car, laying on my back push my self of the wall behind my back and push on the wrench by my leg to somehow loosen the control arm.

mickey13

i feel like he is saying the adjustment is for the first installation only. he can clarify but i dont know if he will move off his talking points to have an earnest conversation about the product.

mickey13

sounds like you left a little piece of your soul back there LOL

PJmak

Its like this...take the bushing on the left side from that picture and pretend its not in the control arm but leave it in the exact same position. Now grab the bushing with two fingers, ine on each side and grab it by the hole. So place your fingers on the hole on each side.


Lift the bushing in the air and place weight on top of it. Itll turn down ending up like the bushing on the right.

So the bushing will be hanging fown with the holes exactly on top at 12 oclock

bbirdwell

I have run a set of these KMacs on the front of my W211 E55 for the past 14 months and 20,000 miles so I think I can address some of the issues.

If the through-bolt is not tightened, then yes, the bushing will rotate (this is the case with any true eccentric cam system). During alignment, one rotates the D-bolt clockwise or counter-clockwise until the desired caster and camber are obtained. At that point, the bolts should be tightened to 90 ft-lbs and the locking tab bent over the nut to ensure it cannot back off.

On my W211, when rotating the bushings, I could literally watch the control and thrust arms moving outward or inward. Required one wrench on the D-bolt to rotate the bushing and another wrench or socket to torque the nut.

After 20,000 miles, the caster and camber on my car are the same as they were when set 14 months ago (I have the tools to check and verify every 60-90 days).

At least on the W211, the bushing should not be set at the 3:00 or 9:00 o'clock position as it will bind under full suspension compression (the bushings both rotate and oscillate with the movement of the suspension arms). Acceptable position is 10:00 to 2:00 o'clock and 4:00 to 8:00 o'clock. On my suspension, the bushings on right and left mirror the positions of each other. In the OP's photo, the right control arm bushing is in the "safe" zone (at least on a W211) but the left control arm bushing is awfully close to the "red" zone (at least on a W211).

I have found Kevin at KMac to be easy to work with; he even provided me no-cost updates to my KMac kit that I had purchased from a private individual and not direct from Kevin! He is in a time zone 15 hours ahead of me so I had to account for different times and day of the week.

To close, in this case the bushing will not rotate if you torque the bolt properly.

PJmak

Yea I dealt with them since I bought directly from them and they are nice folks.

Not bashing the product at all but I think I would rather raise my car a bit and run stock stuff.

In my case since the car was so low, the kmac kit didn't provide much additional adjustment so for me it was a waste of money.

My friend runs them on his c43 too but hes car is a good half inch higher and honestly at that height I dont think hed need them anyway. The car would eat tire a bit but nothing too crazy

K-Mac

Re Installation – refer to instructions. We also include with every kit the required size bush extraction and insertion tubes.

Remembering anything and everything can be improved - we therefore have a full time R & D department to carry this out.

Last 5 years has seen continued improvements to polymers and there bonding agents along with we developing a 100% fail safe lock system!

W202AMG

I have K-MACs front and rear, and there is no way those fronts can self adjust when theyre tight. Not a hope in hell.

Theyre VERY easy to adjust, and they work exceptionally well.

The set includes the correct bolts for those LCA bushes, and there is no good reason not to use them, the factory original bolts will not work, and the factory adjustable bolts wont either, not to mension they offer stuff all adjustment to begin with.

The quality is also exceptional, and every bit the equal of OEM.

I guess it all comes down to whether or not you or your alignment people know what youre doing, even though it is so simple it is no shock to me that people in the industry cant figure it out.

Nothing wrong in your pic of them, the centre turns to adjust, and the teeth on those centres will keep them in place without a drama. The outer shell does not turn in the control arm, so im at a bit of a loss as to what is complex about them.

ProjectC55

So wouldn't the height that the car is lowered have an effect on how much the Kmac bushings can be effective? I have #5 pads ALL around with Votgland(not sure of spelling) and my car sirs pretty low. I had to put Speedy Benz adjustable lower arms in the rear so that the car could be aligned properly and not eat up the rear inside of the tires. They sit nice and square now. The arms worked lovely. So I am wondering if these Kmac bushings will help in the front as the inside of the front tires are wearing out?

PJmak

I was told by the guy who didnmy alignment that the bushings only gave me .2 degrees of alignment adjustment in the front due to my ride height.

I think with #5 pads youll be fine and have more to work with. I run bulstein sport shocks and h&r sport springs with no pads in the front.