Replaced failed strutrod poly-bushing today - Took video of working suspension

BigBlockMopar said
These bushings have been on the car for about 6 years.
Daily driven.

I didn't mount them myself, they where on the car when I bought it.
But the car had not been driven since they where installed. All suspension bushings where new at the time.
LCA's have polybushings too. They appear in good shape what I can see, no play in LCA either.

Didn't measure compression distance but I did look at that to decide if maybe the sleeve was too short perhaps, putting too much force on the bushings.
I made the new pair of front strut bushings because I needed the car on the road again that day.

If you look at the left bushing in the pic, you can just make out it's starting to tear near the center.
I tend to think the strut rod was pulling the center out from these bushings, tearing off the rest of it.
Perhaps the edge of the strut-hole on the K-member was too sharp (?) causing it to cut into the bushing?
But I would think more of these failures would show up.
The K-member has been powder coated also 6 years ago.

The 'new' bushings have the same contact patch as the previous bushings had.
Only thing I did different now is I mounted the large washers as a 'cup' to the bushing (like the factory ones), and not as a 'dish'.

Had I known upfront the strutrod still managed to compress the bushing that much during hard braking, I would turned larger discs on the lathe from a piece of round polyurethane I've got.

View attachment 1715084464

The problem I have with the poly bushings is that they list the same kits for both the 67-72 and the 73-76 strut rods. And the factory used different bushings and different length strut rods for the 73+ cars. So no matter what, the energy suspension and prothane bushings have to be wrong for at least one of those applications, because the strut rods are different lengths. I know guys have needed to cut down the poly bushings to get them to work on the 67-72 strut rods, but that doesn't mean they're the right size for thr 73+ cars either. I honestly think most people either use the OE style rubber bushings or use adjustable strut rods.

Polyurethane is definitely tougher for compression, but it will cut against a sharp edge, so there might be something to that too. To me the bushings you made don't look compressed enough at rest, the bushings should be under compression with the washers and that would reduce the fore/aft movement. Of course it could also make the strut rod functionally too short and cause the LCA's to bind. But you don't have much choice there, they have to be tight enough to compress the bushings fairly substantially and the length is just what you get.