Suspension: Bushings


Topics covered:

Castor Correcting Bushings

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Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 14:34:51 -0500
From: "Kyle Caskey" kjcaskey@artsci.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: [D90] castor kit and vibration

>how does castor kit work?
>never seen one... can some one explain?
>and will that fix the vibration in the driveshaft?

I think the castor kits consists of offset radius arm bushings. (The ones that go between the radius arms and axles) There is an eccentric in the way they're made, the bolt hole is not in the center of the bushing. When pressed in the correct way it causes the holes to line up in a way that the pinion sits lower, thus getting some castor back that's lost in lifting. Getting this castor back will make the vehicle track better on the highway. I can't really imagine that this would fix driveshaft vibration. Lowering the pinion should cause even greater U-joint angle at the X-case.

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Radius Arm Bushings

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From: Gomes, David[SMTP:david.gomes@us.gambro.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 9:46 AM
Subject: [D90] RE: ARB bushing failure (again)

I thought Michael's comments below might be of interest to some on these lists..... Some already know this, but it seems radius arm frame mounts are not the place for Poly-U bushings.....
-Dave G.

All,

In preparation for my upcoming adventure in utah I decided to take care of a bushing 'clunk' and replace the radius arm to body bushings last night. It rained .05 of an inch yesterday, most of it while we were working on the car outside at about 10PM. I'm sure you've all been there, so I won't explain the amount of misery it was.

Anyway, this is the second time I've seen OME bushings fail in that particular location. The first set actually cracked and split along the narrow shoulder that sits inside the frame eyelet and allowd the arm to bang against the frame.

This time the inner shoulder was seperating along the lip of the shoulder, with a crack that went around the entire bushing right where the narrow portion widened up to the wide portion (at the base of the L-shape 90degree).

I replaced them with factory rubber bushings and the clunk and sloppyness is gone. this is after about 15K miles after my front axle swap that i did last labor day at the portland field meet.

So, if any coil-owning ARB-bushing-using owners are experiencing a 'clunk' when turning right or left, or on a sudden suspension move, check those bushings when you can. The damage might not be evident, but that's probably what it is. A LR technician and I incorrectly diagnosed a damaged CV joint that was causing the clunk, so we pulled them and inspected them. When replacing the bushings I noticed that's where the mystery clunk was coming from.

Just my .02 cents again...
Michael Slade
Portland, Oregon

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From: Bill & Rachel Burke[SMTP:bill@bb4wa.com]
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 7:31 AM
Subject: [D90] Southdown Rear Diff Guard and Poly Bushing

I installed poly bushes across the board in my D90 when the rubber ones wore out. I'm not impressed with the polys in certain aspects, for example, radius rod to frame mount. I do like the polys on shock absorbers; they last longer. But, I am now tired of the clacking of my axles and am going to stock rubber on the radius rods, front and rear.

Bill
Bill Burke's 4-Wheeling America

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Bump Stops

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Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 12:36:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Robert D. Leggiero" rdl@nomurany.com
Subject: Re: [D90] Bump stops

Danno, Check out http://www.suspension.com Click on the Energy Suspension logo, scroll down to the bottom, click on "Bump Stop Page". They have pictures of everything Energy makes online. Great site and great guys. I got all my bumpstops from them as well as some other stuff.

Rob

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