Sqeaky ERP Bushings

[zzwhm]

I've got squeaky front ERP bushings on my track Carrera. They've been on for about 3K track miles.

When I lube them via the Zerk's all of the grease comes out of the bushing in just one spot quite close to the Zerk itself. I loosened the a-arms and retightened thinking it was misaligned after using a few too many curbs for turn in , but that didn't help.

Am I missing something obvious?
Bill

[Jeff Alton]

First, are you talking about Elephant Racing Products front polybronze bearings? They are a different company from ERP which incedentily also sells performance Porsche parts.

Cheers

[zzwhm]

Yikes, I meant Elephant Racing's polybronze bushings. It seems like the grease is coming out of the bushing all in one spot instead of going through the whole bushing.
Bill

[CRH911S]

Try again but take some of the pressure off the bushings by lifting the car.
Clinton

[Chuck Moreland]

Bill

The grease follows the path of least resistance. It will fill the grease grooves and any space between the race and bearing, then excess squeezes out. It is not unusual for it to squeeze out in one place only.

Provided the bearings are greased, any noise is likely a loose race. A race insufficiently tight on the A arm can rotate, making noise.

The solution is to re-fit the race. I've been testing successfully with a new technique for race fitment that eliminates the shims and instead uses JB weld between race and arm. This is proving to be an easier method of installation.

[jbrinkley]

way easier, if I might add

[Chuck Moreland]

Jerry, you used the JB weld technique? and it's working well for you?

[nikita76]

Hey Chuck, I haven't done the install on the parts I got from you yet...what is the procedure with jb weld?
thanks,
Nikita

[jbrinkley]

very well..
couple thousand miles now. no noise, binding etc. I think that on a couple it ended up being a combo shim/JB to take up the slack.

I'm getting ready to tackle the rears. End of summer I think.

[Chuck Moreland]

Nikita

No shims. You will fill the space between the race and the control arm (or spring plate) with JB weld.

Make sure both parts are clean and grease/oil free. Coat the entire inside of the cylindrical portion of the race with JB weld. Coat the entire mating surface on the control arm (or spring plate). You are coating both surfaces to prevents voids. You want complete coverage of the contact area.

Slide the race into place. Clean off any excess JB weld, especially off the friction surface. Let it set up.

Voila!

[DW SD]

Originally posted by Chuck Moreland
Jerry, you used the JB weld technique? and it's working well for you?

Chuck,
I may suggest you take a look at the shim, Locktite bearing retainer compound technique, too.

I used a bearing retainer compound to take up the slack from the shims (this is its specific purpose) It is cleaner and less messy than JB Weld with more working time, too. You can take up to 0.015" with the retainer compound and it is meant for similar or dissimarly materials. I found it at mcmaster.com who sells about 100s of loctite products.

Check out product: Loctite 620™— High strength, high viscosity (8500 cp), and high temperature. Fills spaces up to 0.015" dia.

OR Loctite 638™— Maximum strength. Fills spaces up to 0.015" dia.

Installation was a breeze, once I worked out this method (both a-arms and spring plates). I used digital calipers to make sure the shims got me within 0.015" thousandths and then applied the compound between the stack of pieces (shims, race, etc).

I also used the product in the rear monoballs which did not have a tight press fit, initially.

I believe I found a thread where Tyson Schmidt was using a similar technique, which was validating for me.

Doug

[safe]

Originally posted by Chuck Moreland
Nikita

No shims. You will fill the space between the race and the control arm (or spring plate) with JB weld.

Make sure both parts are clean and grease/oil free. Coat the entire inside of the cylindrical portion of the race with JB weld. Coat the entire mating surface on the control arm (or spring plate). You are coating both surfaces to prevents voids. You want complete coverage of the contact area.

Slide the race into place. Clean off any excess JB weld, especially off the friction surface. Let it set up.

Voila!

Wow, that would be so much easier....

Trying to fit a heated race on a cold a-arm with shims was not the easiest job i tried....

[CRH911S]

Chuck, I didn't have any issues with the rears...just followed your instructions to a T. However, haven't done the fronts yet because the a-arms and cross bar are being blasted and sealed or primered. Are you recommending JB over the shims now? Or only if the shims aren't working? Thanks
Clinton

[Chuck Moreland]

Clinton, I recommend the JB weld approach. It works well and makes the installation almost fool proof.

The loctite 620 bearing retainer that Doug mentioned should also work, however I haven't tried it myself.

[zzwhm]

Chuck -
To see what was going on I dropped the the a-arms and pulled the front bushings out. They were almost dry toward the front even though I'd been trying to pump em with grease and the zerks test ok. The race is definately tight as I used a combo of shims and some JB Weld when they were installed.

I lubed the fronts by hand and lubed the rear a-arm bushings via the zerks. Bolted it back up and it's silent. I'm wondering if maybe the bushings were not pushed tight enough against the back edge of the race and the grease found a way out before it filled the grooves.
Bill

[Fishcop]

Chuck

FWIW, I used a bead of Sikaflex polyurathane calk rather than the shims. It's worked very well for the last 12 months.

[safe]

Chuck
I had problems fitting the rear inner bushings in the torsion-tube. They were loose and your instructions said to use shims, but that was impossible to get a snug fit without messing up the shims.

[911 Rod]

I did mine last weekend and used locktite 609.
Very very impressed with the fit.
It was recommended by the head of the machine shop at work.
His opinion was that JB weld was old technology.
BTW He builds stock cars as well.

[wrcRS]

I have been helping my father with the polybronze bushings and the shims seem to work fine. I would look into the GREEN loctite. This the same compound we use to retain bearings in drivetrain situations (its even called Bearing retainer on the bottle.)

Let us know what happens with that.