polyurethane vs oem rubber

[lil red]

the old truck seems a little sloppy driving around and I was thinking of rebuilding the suspension this fall/winter.

I'm thinking of replacing the rear leaf spring bushings and in front doing control arm bushings, strut arm, sway bar end links, and bushings

what materials are better, I've heard the poly pieces are noticably stiffer and sqeak, and are the graphite impregnated pieces better than the plain red? I just find that the ole thing is sloppy and is showing its 200,000 km age and I want to try to restore the ride to what it use to be

any inforayer:??? experiences would be appreciated

thanks Jim

 

[64physhy]

If you use the grease that comes with the poly bushings, they don't squeek, at least the ones in my Duster haven't yet. I've also used white lithium grease on them in the past, and never had the squeek that everyone talks about. I think that only happens if they are installed dry. I haven't tried the graphite empregnated ones.

 

[lil red]

physhy - did you use energy suspension brand red poly - did they make a noticable inprovement?

 

[Demonracer]

IMO, the polygraphite bushing are much better for street use. The urethane bushing have a tendency to shed the grease and begin squeaking after a while.

Bill S.

 

[lil red]

I noticed PST sells a polygraphite kit - it's supposed to be an improvement over the polyurethane - I think this sounds like the route to take - An improvement over stock but hopefully no annoying sqeaks

 

[64physhy]

They were energy suspension, but some were black and some were red. I don't think I bought the whole kit at once, so I just bought what was on hand. Since all the original rubber was totally destroyed, it made a huge difference.

 

[RedFish]

Arm bushing failure causes noise, misalignment and tire wear.
If the "sloppy" refers to steering wheel motion and holding it straight in the road you'll need to look at a different string of parts starting at the box couplig or rag joint and ending at tie rod ends.

 

[2 Darts]

the old truck seems a little sloppy driving around and I was thinking of rebuilding the suspension this fall/winter.

I'm thinking of replacing the rear leaf spring bushings and in front doing control arm bushings, strut arm, sway bar end links, and bushings

Suggest while it's apart, replace the ball joints, too.

what materials are better, I've heard the poly pieces are noticably stiffer and sqeak, and are the graphite impregnated pieces better than the plain red? I just find that the ole thing is sloppy and is showing its 200,000 km age and I want to try to restore the ride to what it use to be

any inforayer:??? experiences would be appreciated

thanks Jim

If you want "to restore the ride to what it used to be", use rubber bushings. All of the polys are going to make ride harsher. That said, my personal preference is for the PST Polygraphite. Going to the poly bushings gave the steering a sharper feel to it. I've replaced bushings 3X on 3 different cars and have not had squeak problems with any of them.

If you have 200K km on the truck, either way you decide to go with bushing replacement is going to be an improvement. Good luck.

 

[lil red]

thank fellas

2darts, I won't mind a harsher ride - now it kinda fells like it "floats" when it drives but of course my daily driver is a 05 Z71 GMC and '11 journey so everytime I leave the old dodge sit for a few years then drive it for a few, then let sit....each time it seems to drive worse but of course i compare it to newer driving vehicles each time ..... make sense???

I thougth about ball joints as well - PST sells a front end kit that includes them and tie rod ends etc