Posted By: DaytonaTurbo
School me on control arm bushings - 01/12/12 09:50 PM
A year or so ago I started buying parts for my front end rebuild and soon I will actually start working on it. At the time I bought a set of poly upper and lower control arm bushings. Now for the rest of my front end I've got 1" torsion bars, stock front swap bar and new poly bushings for everything.
My question is, are the control arm bushings I've bought a good choice or should I look elsewhere? I have heard of offset control arm bushings and I've heard of guys running a mixture of poly and rubber control arm bushings. Will be mostly a street car but trying to set it up to handle half way decently too.
Posted By: amxautox
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/12/12 10:01 PM
You can have a decent handling street car with all rubber bushings. I did back in the mid '70s. Only 2 things I added was a front and rear anti-sway bars from Addco. The rear was a common setup using tried and tru links with rubber bushings. The front bar had 'solid' links using hime rods and no rubber bushings. The springs were all stock and so the ride was about the same as stock, but it turned great and mostly flatish.
The car was a '71 Sebring with a 318 engine, then I installed a 273 out of a '66 Barracuda S. Ran and handled great, even on the 1/4 mile oval at Port Angeles, Wa.
Just depends what all you are going to do with it, and how extensive you want to modify it.
Posted By: ThermoQuad
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/12/12 10:30 PM
LCA's should be in rubber, nos bushings if you can find them. There needs to be some "give" somewhere.
LCA's must be boxed [plate welded to the bottom]
Uppers should be in plastic some call it urethane.
UCA's should be tubular like RMS - no cap junk.
Tubular uca's improve the ride and handling. Adjustable ones allow correction for the variances found in every car as well as good caster 3-6 + degrees.
Posted By: 340SHORTY
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/12/12 10:39 PM
Poly is going to firm it up over the OEM rubber bushings.
The offset bushings are used for better adjustment for Caster and Camber..
Energy Susp quit producing the poly lowers because they didnt hold tight like the OEM bushings.
They said a lot of people were complaining about them floating back and forth.
Posted By: DaytonaTurbo
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/13/12 09:43 AM
Had a look on moog's website and theirs specifies a different, non-offset UCA bushing for 73+ B body. So I guess that option is out. Looks like for my car they make just stock replacement stuff. Nobody's going to make an aftermarket UCA for this body style either. Not looking to make the best handling car out there, just want to optimize what I can while I have it apart.
Doesn't really look like there's much I can do then to play with caster and camber. I think the ones I have are the energy suspension poly upper and lower bushings. They're sitting in a box somewhere, I'd have to check. Should I then use them for the uppers and buy a set of regular moog lowers?
Posted By: Rick_Ehrenberg
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/24/12 10:01 PM
Single best mod you can do to a 73-up B-body: SOLID (alum, iron) K-member "isolators". NOT URETHANE. Metal.
Rick E.
Posted By: bigtail
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/25/12 11:50 PM
I'm surprised Rick didn't mention this, but the new issue of Mopar Action has a place where you can get offset URETHANE bushings listed. Way better than spongy offset rubber ones. They are from the land down under. Check out the newest issue in the steering upgrade article.
Posted By: HUSTLESTUFF
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 01/26/12 12:03 AM
I just turned some aluminum k-member bushings for my 74 Charger. After all said and done I should have just gone here...
http://www.solidbushings.com/catalog.html and spent $199 for the set. Materials with shipping was about $100 and the oblong shape for the k member was not easy to do without mill.
I used Firm Feel's UCA's but haven't done an alignment. Waiting for a WheelFit to measure offset for the big Goodyear Bluestreaks. Also went with big sway and tbars from Firm Feel, Greasable lca pins and bushings.
Posted By: Mattax
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 02/09/12 02:53 PM
The problem with using solid UCA bushings is that the rotational axis for the bushings are not in line with each other. Draw a picture of the UCA and the axis of each bushing, you'll see what I mean. That's why those joints must be compliant or rod end. Don't feel too bad, we machined up a nylon bushing to test fit before we realized the concept was flawed.
Posted By: cheapstreetdustr
Re: School me on control arm bushings - 02/10/12 02:59 AM
on welding the boxed plates on the LCA i suggest you put the front end together and set up the alignment first then weld up or atleast tac the plates on with the suspension loaded..
those two stamped pieces have alot of movement.
(sort of a sissor effect) and if you weld them loose and off the car..you could adversely effect the amount of adjustment in the alignment.
i had this isssue..i boxed up a set when they were loose/off the car...and couldnt get the castor where i needed it..because the supports forced it in a fixed position.
after installing a new set then getting my alignment where it needed to be..
we tacted them in loaded..then finish welded them
it seemed to work very well after that..
FWIW
