Well it was a 2 day mare haha.
First off, John Powell is a God. His upgrade parts are top notch.
Love how predictable the car handles in turns after installing his rear bushings and yyz springs that i took out of my Saturn ion, previously put his cabs in, and his oil separator. I live on Long Island, N.Y. and we have parkways, no trucks or trailers allowed, very very tight exits and entrance ramps to save space. Typically what are called cloverleafs. 270 degree turns usually uphill or down, all radius, or with a straight. varied cambers, decreasing or increasing radius, I swear no two are the same. Just crazy fun for light little cars. With stock bushings i always had to be ready to counter steer and could not predict the amount of over steer i would get. Too many variables. These are not high speed turns but even at 30 to 40, or more, coming off 70 mph it's wicked fun. Or accelerating to be able to merge with said 70 mph traffic with little to no merge, that's just the speed of traffic flow here for 75 percent of cars. So I love it so far, too bad it was raining today, i'll get to really push it when it's dry out. But i can feel the difference already. The way i attack them i'll probably always have to be ready to counter steer, if it's smoother and more predictable then i'll be happy and consider it a big win. I can feel that the rear is not moving around, no squishy bushing feel, no changes in roll center or shifting rear axle. Absolutely worth the money and time spent.

So the install, omg, Long Island uses road salt, i just got the car in February from a guy in Delaware and I don't know the first owners whereabouts, but most likely still in the rust belt. Jack car, put stands under it, pull wheels off, remove top shock bolt, they are easier to get back in then the recommended bottom bolt removal, remove springs, put top shock bolt back, use sharpie to outline bracket locations and get to removal. First problem, the pivot bushing bolts would not come out, tried to press them out, not happening. Add much stronger c clamp to my to get list. Tried different things, lube, turn while under pressure, air hammer, still not out, but moved enough to get cut off wheel behind head of bolt. Ok get out cut off wheel, cut both ends of bolt, pry off bracket, cool, go to work on bolt, it may have been bent, i worked it enough to cut more off and then it came out but only would move easy one way. Second problem, bushings would not come out. I love the picture of the special tool. A LITTLE ball peen hammer. Lmfao. I had a two pounder with long handle, nope. Now if the engineers were smart and i could have taken brake lines off without having to take apart the lines i would have just dropped the axle and put it on the bench to work on. But i didn't feel like bleeding them in 38 degree windy weather since i work on it outside. Guess i could have tried heating up the bore but with fuel tank and lines on the one side i didn't bother, just grabbed my drill and started drilling into rubber and thru the aluminum on the other side, made about a dozen holes then wallowed out a few to connect together so i could get my saw zall in. Get sawzall, (reciprocating saw), put in hole, cut out middle of bushing, the aluminum block that the bolt goes into. Grab air hammer, no dice, even with no rubber left to support it, it doesn't move, grab sawzall, cut into the bushing sleeve careful of bore, then air hammer again, even with slot cut into it, took a bit of time to work it out evenly. Cool, i know i can get them out. too dark for now, clean up and quit. Next day, wtf, it's supposed to be warmer, nope, colder and windier. Whatever, i'm dressed for it. Back at it, yep, other side same thing, cut bolt, didn't bother to get the rest of the bolt out, drill, saw, hammer out, cool. Clean up the little scratches to bore and put new bushings in, wow, just a deadblow needed. but perfectly snug. Put brackets back on, go to raise brackets into place, the bushings are two sided while the stock ones only have big diameter on inboard side, not sure if all cars where built like mine but i had to trim an overlapping layer of sheet metal around most of bushing recess, no biggie, lower front of axle for room and cut, cool. Put axle in place, use 12 mm pin in line up hole, use my sharpie marks to relocate brackets and get to tightening bolts. Pretty smooth from here on.
Just wanted to share what i ran into.

I also put in new doorman parking brake cables since one was very damaged from i'm guessing a lift pad at a shop. And looks like i have rebuild calipers cause left park brake won't grab quick enough.

I know i'm like a decade late to the cobalt party but i bought an 06 Saturn ion with 2.2 engine in 2012 with 40k, over the years I put Powell yyz's with cobalt shocks and struts, that's the first i heard of the cobalt. Put a tune in it, sc car downpipe, 2.4 exhaust manifold, i think that's what they were, better flowing ones anyway, better muffler with 2.5 inch piping all the way. Much faster then stock but a little loud and not a cobalt but i drove the hell out of it for 7 years. When I wanted something with a manual, I looked at the Camaro but didn't want the weight, see first paragraph. I figured i know this platform, i have the yyz kit i can put in it, i love driving the lowered, stiff suspended Saturn, the cobalt would just be a faster better handling Saturn ion with a 5 speed. So started looking at ads. Found this one with 120k, oh well if it's in good shape so what. Been really fun getting to know it. And now with the yyz, all Powell bushings, better engine and trans mounts, new tires, slotted brake rotors, new pads, short shift end on bottom of shifter, new shift cables, some tlc, it's a quick little toy. Car was mostly stock except for an aluminum flywheel when previous owner had new clutch done, I cleaned valves, put better pvc parts, new intake boot. Fixed the clutch pedal that would engage on the floor. Pretty much just threw some money at it. I couldn't have done it without the knowledge and people on here sharing.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Damn that was a read, but i need those bushings.

 

Damn. Plan on doing mine as well when I redo the suspension.
My ion was purchased at the saturn of Massapequa and lived in NY for 5 years before we moved down south. Glad I don't have to deal with the rust.

Good info man. Thanks

 

Ha, I live in Massapequa and bought my dads 06 ion 3 from him in 2013 with 47,000, he got it from Saturn Massapequa. Liked it so much I got the cobalt Feb 2019 from Delaware. If i ever do the saturn, if it the bushing don't come out right away i'm taking axle off and doing them on a bench.

 

Small world!
I have an odd question. You wouldn't happen to have any Saturn of Massapequa license plate frames youd be willing to sell, would yuh?
My buddy backed into my car and broke mine. Been trying to find a new one for yearsss.

 

If I had one on the car i'd take it off and give it to you, but i don't have any at all.

 

There's actually a Kent-Moore tool that helps with these bushings.... I happen to own one and after reading this, I'm grateful that I do.

 

Do you have the part number by chance?

 

J 44570
Problem with this is you have to block the far side of axle so it's not just swinging on shocks, may damage them and it take all the force away from driving the bushing out.
Mine were so stuck that even when i cut the bushing case to relieve the press fit and hit it with an air hammer it took a hell of a lot to move it. No way was it coming out with just the tool, and i laughed with the tiny ball peen in the service manual picture they used.
All the engineers had to do was design the housing to accept a tool that drives it out with screw pressure, would have been so much better but they don't care about mechanics much.

 

Was kinda tempted to just pull the rear beam anyway. If that's the case I may as well just use a press. Hm.
ill have to take a closer look. Thank you

 

I was thinking if carefully cutting a slot in the brake line bracket to get the thin part of the brake line out, it's held in at the large connection, that way you wouldn't have to deal with brake fluid while being under the car, or leaving it open. Just hang the caliper to the body. Would reduce the weight of beam also, rotors off too.

 

I gotta question for you man did you have to remove the main bracket itself or is that only if you are installing the Powell rear bushings since I heard you need to make the original bracket holes larger for the Powell bushing to fit correctly? i'm also probably going to do this job myself and buy the kent moore tool online hopefully used.

 

I'm doing this install as well and need to know since i'm just replacing the oem bushing with the same one do I need to remove the main brackets or can I leave them on since I;m not installing the Powell bushing which require the brackets to be removed since the bracket holes that the bushings go into need to be larger? I'm going to be getting the kent moore tool for this install to make it easier. tks

 

The brackets get unbolted from the body and then the bushing to bracket thru bolt comes out. Hopefully. If the thru bolt does not want to come out, put it back together and order new bolts so you can still drive it.

 

Gotcha! fingers crossed it goes smooth