prothane upper control arm bushings

[moparmat2000]

another suspension question. i was looking at the prothane upper control arm bushings kits. the kit i was looking at you leave your stock outer shells in the upper and lower control arm, and just insert the polygraphite bushing along with its inner sleeve, and end thrust washers. (these are the ones without an outer shell) prothane # 4202 $16.17 set of 4 you reuse your old shell by burning the center rubber out.

i have used this type of bushing setup on a set of upper and lower control arms on my 94 chevy pickup. those were made by energy suspension. worked really well, torch out the center leaving outer pressed in the arm, snap in new center and sleeve, reinstall. i have had these in the truck for 100,000 miles so far, no deterioration, or looseness in the front end.

this would be easier for me as i dont need to have a puller / installer tool, even tho i have seen one here i could duplicate thats homemade and pretty spiffy. besides the fact that these are cheaper and easier to install on the UCA as upposed to the ones with the steel outer shell. whats the downsides to them?

i have the polygraphite lower control arm bushings like this, along with the greaseable pins from firm feel.

any ideas any advice.

i am asking these questions only because

A i dont want to do the job over because of cheap parts
B i dont have extra cash and want to spend it wisely
C i want the car safe and functional

thanks in advance
matt

 

[72bluNblu]

I've done this on a few of my cars so far. You may not even have to torch out the old bushings, on my duster the pins pulled right out of the bushings, I just pried the old rubber out with a screwdriver. On my Challenger I pressed the pins out with a press. Less messy.

Couple things though-

Clean the cups really well, don't want any old rubber or junk in there, especially if you use a torch.

The stock pins weren't designed to be used with the poly bushings. Aftermarket pins have a square shoulder on them to retain the poly bushings better, and most of the aftermarket ones available have zerks so you can grease the bushings. Poly has a tendency to squeak if it dries out, and that can get annoying. If you use the stock pins, grease the crap out of those bushings with poly grease.

Make sure when you tighten up the strut rods that everything ends up in the right place. You can use the stock strut rods, but adjustables work better with the poly bushings. Makes it easier to be sure that the pins and bushings are all sitting in the right place, as the bushings no longer positively retain the pins.

***Edit***

Just realized you're talking about upper bushings, not lower. ops:

Uppers are easier, just make sure the cups are nice and clean, and grease the living daylights out of them. You'll also want to make sure they're seated all the way down, will make installing the UCA's easier.

 

[moparmat2000]

so have you used the prothane upper control arm bushings that dont have an outer shell?

did they work well for you?

my lower bushings are poly graphite from firm feel, and i have the lower control arm pins with grease fittings from firm feel too

i plan on using adjustable strut rods as well.

BTW hows the steering shaft working out for you?

 

[72bluNblu]

I have a set, but honestly I don't run them. In the stock UCA's I've rebuilt I installed Moog offset bushings. The poly is nice, but there isn't a whole lot of rubber in the originals anyway, ie, not a ton of flex. The alignment specs gained by using the offset bushings outweighed using the poly bushings for me.

And, its not that hard to make a puller for the uca bushings. I made one out of a piece of 3 in pipe, a long bolt and a couple of oversize washers. I can post a picture of it up in the morning. Works slick, think it cost less than $10 to make out of stuff at the hardware store.

The steering shaft came in handy for measurements, and it sure looks pretty. I'm sure I'll find a car to put it in eventually. But for my Duster I actually converted my power steering shaft over using a section of collapsable 1" DD / .75" DD shaft to run a borgeson vibration damping u joint. I've got to post up a build thread for it. I also replaced the lame lower plastic insert bearing with an insert bearing, no more play.

 

[moparmat2000]

You might want to post something about the lower bearing you used too. The plastic insert and bearing as reproduction is something like $78. I got lucky and mine was in good shape. I cleaned, regreased, and reused mine.

Since theres no such thing as stupid questions, what is the reason for using the offset upper control arm bushings? How do you orient the offset hole with the arms? What additional adjustment are you looking for, and why?

All my old mopars ive ever done were for straight line speed, this is the first one im doing for handling as well, im.learning as i go LOL.