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Bushings for A bodies, whats best?

Posted By: NV69B7RR

Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 03:01 AM

Is it best to go with all polygraphite, or a mix of rubber and polygraphite?

Are rubber LCA bushings preferred?

I'm going to be replacing all the bushings on my 71 Duster 340 in the next month and thought I'd ask ahead of time. I'm looking to run some autocross and open track events in the future. I also plan to drive the car a lot.
Posted By: Daty Rogers

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 03:23 AM

Rubber lca bushings are preferred(don't think poly is even available anymore). Poly uppers can be used, I went with the rubber Moog offset uppers to gain more caster than stock myself.

-Daty
Posted By: NV69B7RR

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 04:36 AM

Thanks Daty!

What about the rear leaf spring bushings?
Posted By: jcc

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 04:48 AM

Quote:

Rubber lca bushings are preferred(don't think poly is even available anymore).
-Daty




"preferred" or accepted? And what about "delrin" LCA bushings?
Posted By: 72Swinger

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 05:23 AM

Firm Feel is where to get LCA bushings and some greasable LCA pins. Id skip the rubber.
Posted By: Daty Rogers

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/18/12 05:39 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Rubber lca bushings are preferred(don't think poly is even available anymore).
-Daty




"preferred" or accepted? And what about "delrin" LCA bushings?




Poly lcas failed miserabibly. Great idea, wore out too quickly, Don't know about delrin, it came out about the same time I built my front end. A little gunshy, rubber worked great for me, just don't tighten it before you get it on the ground. As far as handling, rubber below, Moog offset up top on stock lca's you're golden. Wish Moog made poly for the top, that would have worked very well, less movement.

-Daty
Posted By: WheelsUp73

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 09:36 PM

Quote:

Firm Feel is where to get LCA bushings and some greasable LCA pins. Id skip the rubber.




Exactly. We went with upper aftermarket arms with heimjoints and the firmfeel nylon lower bushing and their greasable pins,also installed solid mounted strut rods. Car drives awesome now. Rubber deflects too much. Here is a video of my car comming down from a 150 foot wheelstand.Tires are very stable at landing.
http://youtu.be/LWD9sbw_UWk

Attached picture 7028428-Samoa-maninthestands.jpg
Posted By: autoxcuda

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 10:49 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Rubber lca bushings are preferred(don't think poly is even available anymore).
-Daty




"preferred" or accepted? And what about "delrin" LCA bushings?




Poly lcas failed miserabibly. Great idea, wore out too quickly, Don't know about delrin, it came out about the same time I built my front end. A little gunshy, rubber worked great for me, just don't tighten it before you get it on the ground. As far as handling, rubber below, Moog offset up top on stock lca's you're golden. Wish Moog made poly for the top, that would have worked very well, less movement.

-Daty




I have the same Poly LCA bushing I put on in 1997. We looked at them last year when we put the Hotchkis TVS stuff on and Hotchkis said just reuse them. And there were new poly LCA bushings setting right there in thier kit we didn't use.

.
.
.
Now...I had a horrible time making the Mopar poly LCA bushings fit to "what I thought was right" in 1997.

They did not want to press in by hand with a lot of force. I had to turn down the OD of the poly bushing and polished and enlarged the ID of the old rubber bushing casing.

I also polished the LCA pin shaft too. Then all of that was slather with that special snotty translucent poly bushing grease they give you. I actually bought a seperate mini container of that grease.

IMHO, I bet a lot of people don't go to that effort to get the poly LCA to fit right if they have issues like or near what I did. I also know people that didn't have any ploblems slipping the bushing in. I believe that is because different manufactures of rubber LCA bushings might have different metal casing thinknesses. Also they are not designed to have the ID of the casing as a critical dimension. But when we put poly bushing in there it becomes critical.

Energy Suspension now sells complete poly bushing assemblies for most all applications with metal casings and all(excect Mopar LCA's). BUT before that you had bear poly bushings to put in the old rubber casings.

In about 1988 Dick Guldstand had those bare poly bushing like that for all Corvette, Camero, and GM A-body applications. I remember installing them in our GM A-body racecar that my High School shop teacher had. But a couple of years later Guldstand totally sold Energy kits. They said so many people had issues fitting the bare bushings that they switched to selling all Energy stuff where they could.

Attached picture 7028530-KmemberFixAndSwapAllMed.jpg
Posted By: WheelsUp73

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 10:56 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Rubber lca bushings are preferred(don't think poly is even available anymore).
-Daty




"preferred" or accepted? And what about "delrin" LCA bushings?




Poly lcas failed miserabibly. Great idea, wore out too quickly, Don't know about delrin, it came out about the same time I built my front end. A little gunshy, rubber worked great for me, just don't tighten it before you get it on the ground. As far as handling, rubber below, Moog offset up top on stock lca's you're golden. Wish Moog made poly for the top, that would have worked very well, less movement.

-Daty




I have the same Poly LCA bushing I put on in 1997. We looked at them last year when we put the Hotchkis TVS stuff on and Hotchkis said just reuse them. And there were poly LCA bushing in thier kit.

Now...I had a horrible time making the Mopar poly LCA bushings fit to "what I thought was right"

They did not want to press in by hand with a lot of force. I had to turn down the OD of the poly bushing and polished and enlarged the ID of the old rubber bushing casing.

I also polished the LCA pin shaft too. Then all of that was slather with that special snotty translucent poly bushing grease they give you. I actually bought a seperate mini container of that grease.

[image][/image]




On the bushing fitting the shell, we honed the shell till the bushing fit snug. The hole in that shell is nowhere close to being round and the honing helped true up the hole.The lower arm pivots nice and free now.
Posted By: autoxcuda

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 11:03 PM

Quote:


On the bushing fitting the shell, we honed the shell till the bushing fit snug. The hole in that shell is nowhere close to being round and the honing helped true up the hole.The lower arm pivots nice and free now.




So even with the Firm Feel nylon/delin bushings you still had to fit the old rubber bushing shell to get a nice free running bearing movement.

Sorry, I edited and added above about my little history with those type of bushings.
Posted By: WheelsUp73

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 11:14 PM

Quote:

Quote:


On the bushing fitting the shell, we honed the shell till the bushing fit snug. The hole in that shell is nowhere close to being round and the honing helped true up the hole.The lower arm pivots nice and free now.




So even with the Firm Feel nylon/delin bushings you still had to fit the old rubber bushing shell to get a nice free running bearing movement.

Sorry, I edited and added above about my little history with those type of bushings.




Yes we did it was worth the extra time spent.

Attached picture 7028579-samoa-downtrackwheelie.jpg
Posted By: 72Swinger

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 11:43 PM

Your wife ain't scared^^^^^! I've seen those vids of her shifting mid wheelie Awesome! I used Firm Feel greasable pins with no inner shell and the stock outer shell with Energy bushings. Tight yet free movement.
Posted By: WheelsUp73

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 11:52 PM

Quote:

Your wife ain't scared^^^^^! I've seen those vids of her shifting mid wheelie Awesome! I used Firm Feel greasable pins with no inner shell and the stock outer shell with Energy bushings. Tight yet free movement.



No I'm not scared. LOL Its dissapointing if it don't carry the wheels at least 100 feet.:) Here is a new pic of the back of the car. My husband was the scared one watching those big wheelies from outside the car. You can see in the pic where it use to drag on the ground.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/slcalddrag/DSCN0185.jpg

Attached picture 7028668-samoa-downtrackwheelie.jpg
Posted By: 72Swinger

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/20/12 11:59 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Your wife ain't scared^^^^^! I've seen those vids of her shifting mid wheelie Awesome! I used Firm Feel greasable pins with no inner shell and the stock outer shell with Energy bushings. Tight yet free movement.



No I'm not scared. LOL Its dissapointing if it don't carry the wheels at least 100 feet.:)


I'm not worthy.....
Posted By: ahy

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/21/12 01:15 AM

I and many/most others would say poly for everything except the LCA's. The poly bushings don't hold the LCA like rubber do. If all geometry including strut rod length, bushing thichness isn't right poly's can have slop and let the LCA move around.

Adjustable strut rods can fix the slop. I'm running all greasable poly (FF) on an E and needed the adjustable rods to get it all tight. It works great and has held up well. With rubber, adjustable rods are probably not necessary.
Posted By: Skeptic

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/21/12 04:28 AM

I remember talking to Dick from Firm Feel a few years back @ one of the flings.He didn't think that there was much benefit in going poly on the LCA bushing, as they are not very thick, so there isn't much room to deflect. We were talking about street cars not dedicated race cars. I'm still leaning towards buying the greaseable LCA pins and nylon bushings for my car, since it's a toy, not a daily driver and I've got Bill Reilly's heim jointed strut rods, and will get the matching UCAs .
Posted By: Daty Rogers

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/21/12 09:34 AM

Quote:

Thanks Daty!

What about the rear leaf spring bushings?




I used rubber back there, have no problems with it. I did use new ones though.

-Daty
Posted By: Rick_Ehrenberg

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 03:16 PM

Don't neglect the Pedders urethane offset uppers. If you need the offset, these are way better than the Moog. 100% molded, assembles like stock.


Rick E.
Posted By: mopork

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 03:39 PM

WOW Rick where do we get those bushings at ?
Posted By: Rick_Ehrenberg

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 03:42 PM

I think it is pedders.com.au
Posted By: mopork

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 04:00 PM

Their search function on that site really sucks
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 05:51 PM

If you need any help getting them, I am sure I can grab them easily enough and have a buddy send them over...

I prefer Superpro brand for Aussie bushings, but not sure if they do those offset ones like Pedders or not.

I have used Pedders coil springs before though and my car had Pedders shocks on it way back when (I run Bilstein now.)
Posted By: mopork

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/24/12 10:07 PM

OZ

I would like 2 sets but I want to know how much first and I couldn't find it on that site
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/25/12 11:16 PM

My buddy got a price, but it kinda scared me
Just having him check another place too (see if some of the various other brands over there do a similar one as well)

Edit to mention that when I think about it...my Superpro bushings I used on the Torana were kinda pricey too. Even though I could have found similar fitting ones here, I think the quality of the Oz stuff I used at least is top notch.
Posted By: Kern Dog

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 01:45 AM

Quote:

Don't neglect the Pedders urethane offset uppers. If you need the offset, these are way better than the Moog. 100% molded, assembles like stock.


Rick E.




Does anyone have a ballpark price on a set of 4 of these?
Posted By: moparpollack

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 01:48 AM

Oz said they are gold plated with gold embedded in the poly! They do have a Pedders American site, just google it.
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 01:58 AM

Around $120 a set plus postage (or I could get my buddy to bring them over in March when he comes over )
Posted By: moparpollack

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 02:13 AM

A set of 4!
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 02:14 AM

The Tostito has rear control arms too, so imagine my pain...


(they were a bit cheaper at least, being a much more common selling bushing down there)
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 04:32 AM

Does Peddelers make them in black?
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 04:42 AM

Pedders' red is sort of thier thing, Not sure off hand if they do the bushes in other colors..(only ever seen them in red off the top of my head).

I know the Superpro stuff is blue in contrast.
Posted By: moparpollack

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/26/12 05:07 PM

Quote:

Pedders' red is sort of thier thing, Not sure off hand if they do the bushes in other colors.. (only ever seen them in red off the top of my head).


Red off the top of your head! Must be an Oz thing.

I know the Superpro stuff is blue in contrast.


Posted By: JAMESDART

Re: Bushings for A bodies, whats best? - 01/27/12 01:47 PM

i always wondered why the poly bushing companies didnt offer the offset uca bushings.
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