Lower control arm bushings

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backfire

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Those of you who have been running a polyurethane lower control arm bushings my question is how well have they held up? I'm building a circle track car and I'm trying to decide between polyurethane and rubber for the lowers.
 
I tried polyurethane bushings on my daily driver 68 Barracuda in Detroit, and ended up having to replace them in 3 years and went back to rubber... The poly's could not take the abuse from all of the pot holes in the roads out there...
 
almost all i have seen are cracked or deformed after a few years.I have taken oem vulcanized rubber bushings out of 40 year old A arms and some were still adequate.
 
My poly LCA’s have been in since 1997

I messaged them to fit properly though

6088649-PolyLCAbushings.jpg
 
If you go with poly LCA bushings you kind of need adjustable strut rods to make them work properly. I've had the same pair of poly bushings on my Duster for about 7 years and 20k hard miles including track days (autocross/road racing stuff), no issues. I initially installed them using the stock strut rods but kept having weird pulling issues with the brakes, added adjustable strut rods a few years back and holy cow it's so much tighter and more responsive under braking and is much more stable when braking and turning at the same time.

In a nutshell, if using rubber bushings, keep stock strut rods. If going poly, get adjustable strut rods as well.

And in case someone argues there's no way for a poly bushing to keep the LCA from sliding backwards, and they probably will, it's physically impossible for it to move back unless you disconnect the strut rod entirely. Literally cannot happen and has never happened. I won't waste time explaining the dynamics of it unless someone brings it up LOL. Same goes for adjustable strut rods binding up the travel of the LCA due to the slightly relocated pivot point, it's not a real problem just a figment of people's imagination.
 
Been running poly energy suspension lowers on my dart sport for years. 1st set on one side took a dump within like 6 or 8 months. Being hard headed replaced with same and have been doing good for like 8 years now!!:)
 
QuickDart360 said:
Been running poly energy suspension lowers on my dart sport for years. 1st set on one side took a dump within like 6 or 8 months. Being hard headed replaced with same and have been doing good for like 8 years now!!:)
Click to expand...

Sorry to bring this up but @QuickDart360 your mailbox is full. Did you reuse your old spindle, and rubber bushing sleeves?
 
RichardR said:
Sorry to bring this up but @QuickDart360 your mailbox is full. Did you reuse your old spindle, and rubber bushing sleeves?
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favor and don’t reuse your pivot pins, get a set of greaseable pins from Firm Feel.

Poly bushings will last darn near forever as long as they 1- fit properly and 2-stay properly lubricated

As long as the poly bushings fit tightly in the old outer bushing shells you can reuse the shells. The bushing should be a tight slip fit into the old outer shell, and the pivot pin should be a tight slip fit into the bushing. If they’re loose enough to have any radial play they’re too loose and will wear out rapidly.

You can reuse the old pivot pins if you leave the old inner shells on there. Has to be a tight fit. And then you’ll have no way to grease the pivots without taking stuff apart. If the bushings start squeaking, they MUST be lubricated or again, they’ll wear out.

Both poly and Delrin LCA bushings work very differently from rubber LCA bushings. With rubber bushings the LCA movement is taken up by flex in the rubber, there’s no sliding on the pin. With poly and Delrin the material doesn’t flex, so the movement of the LCA translates into the bushing rotating on the pin. That’s a friction surface that has to be lubricated.
 
Grease the poly.
No grease on the Delrin?
72bluNblu said:
Do yourself a favor and don’t reuse your pivot pins, get a set of greaseable pins from Firm Feel.

Poly bushings will last darn near forever as long as they 1- fit properly and 2-stay properly lubricated

As long as the poly bushings fit tightly in the old outer bushing shells you can reuse the shells. The bushing should be a tight slip fit into the old outer shell, and the pivot pin should be a tight slip fit into the bushing. If they’re loose enough to have any radial play they’re too loose and will wear out rapidly.

You can reuse the old pivot pins if you leave the old inner shells on there. Has to be a tight fit. And then you’ll have no way to grease the pivots without taking stuff apart. If the bushings start squeaking, they MUST be lubricated or again, they’ll wear out.

Both poly and Delrin LCA bushings work very differently from rubber LCA bushings. With rubber bushings the LCA movement is taken up by flex in the rubber, there’s no sliding on the pin. With poly and Delrin the material doesn’t flex, so the movement of the LCA translates into the bushing rotating on the pin. That’s a friction surface that has to be lubricated.
Click to expand...
Grease the poly
No grease on the Delrin
 
Mojoe9955 said:
Grease the poly.
No grease on the Delrin?

Grease the poly
No grease on the Delrin
Click to expand...

The Delrin only needs a light coat of grease on install, it shouldn’t need any ongoing lubrication.

The poly needs periodic lubrication just like a ball joint or tie rod end.
 
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