What are the best quality lower control arm bushings? What brand?
I need to replace the lowers in my 67 Dart, they got wiped out with less than 5000 miles on them so I want to replace them with something good.

I use Moog bushings.Never any problems with them

Just wait for the haters to check in. Problem is, they can't identify anything else that's "better".

Moog has been my go-to for years. Of the replacement parts that are out there, I think ACDelco Professional might be a good bet.

Why did they fail after only 5000 miles? Even crappy ones should last that long. Did whoever installed them let the car go back to normal height before tightening the bolts?

R.

The LCA bushings in my 70 Charger were chewing apart after less than 9000 miles. I do think it was because I tightened the LCA pin nut with the suspension hanging instead of with the car resting on its tires. I did the rebuild in 2002 before I knew the right way to do it.

Back in the day, Moog, and other brands were I think better than the factory ones, but now with the low quality, it has reversed to where now NOS might be better than after market. One reason the lowers fail, I think, is cause most people don't follow the book, and tighten up stuff before ride height is set, and the car is on the ground.

Good luck with NOS rubber that is 50 years old.

I understand what you're saying completely, but with the china junk out there, it might be the only chose.

That is, if you can find NOS, good luck. I might be wishful thinking to have American made that works instead of cheap foreign made ones that make you constantly running either to the parts store or sending stuff you buy back because it's cheap and don't work.

agreed...


I've been using nothing but PST poly bushings/front end kits the last few decades om personal builds and customers vehicle, ZERO failures and long life, high mileage use, road and track.

If installed properly they will out last and out perform rubber OEM style bushings, , esp lower control arm bushings

I've used moog on all of my front end rebuild and have had no issues so far outside of normal wear and tear however I recently learned about pouring your own polyurethane bushings and I have thought about doing this to my satellite seeing as how it's next on the list for a front end

Bingo...

Have urethane front&rear, even a urethane trans mount...

20+ years, and 20,000+ miles...

Can't understand why anyone would even think of using rubber...

(Save for an OEM show poodle...

Especially with the 'quality' out there now...

Well I guess you learn something new everyday as they say. Can someone please tell me the correct way to do this as I just but a set in a car and have not drove it yet. I did tighten everything up while the car was on a lift and then set it back on the ground on the wheels.

supposed to do final torque on the LCA bushings while the car is at ride height.
it's probably fine to snug the LCA nuts down so it pulls the arm into the kmember but no further than just snug.
same with the strut rod bushings and the upper control arm bushings.

i believe the ball joints and tie rod stuff is fine to torque down whenever...

From what I have learned, the LCA needs to be at ride height when the nut is tightened. This is because as the LCA moves up and down in normal driving, the bushing twists in the steel case. with the suspension at rest, the bushing is also at rest. If the LCA nut is tightened with the wheels hanging, once the car is on its tires, the bushing is already distorted. this means that the bushing is under tension at all times except with the tires hanging in the air, Duke boys style.

According to the book the nut on both the control arm, and the nut on the front of the strut rod should only be finger tight until the car is on the wheels, and the ride height is set.

It's in the service manual.

I did not have a service manual when I did the work on my car.
Some things you learn as you go, right?

I've always had a book, because I didn't have enough of a brain to figure it out.

Correct, the only exception to LCA tightening is when using Poly LCA bushings, they can be tighten at any phase of the install, however any upper arm bushing poly or rubber must be at ride height for final torque

So how do the PST greasable ones work? Are they worth the extra cost?