spring plate bushing sliding surface
 

When I took off my spring plates, the end cap pried off with the bushing inside it and the spring plate pried out, leaving the busing in the torsion bar tube.

I am under the impression that the rubber bushings are supposed to be attached to the spring plate and for the rubber bushings to slide within the outer housing and within the torsion bar tube.

The rubber bushings look to be in great shape. It seems to me that the spring plate should slide within the bushings... but that isn't what I saw in a YouTube video on the subject.

Thoughts?

Vulcanized TB rubber bushings.........
 

Your TB rubber bushings are most likely not the original OEM bushings. The OEM bushings were vulcanized on the spring plates and requires some effort to get them off.

Tony

Good point Tony.

The spring plates show obvious signs of "cleaning up" where the old bushing was removed. So, I guess I can just lube the spring plate and put it back... since the bushings look so good.

It was a tight fit getting it apart, which I guess is good for performance. For club racing use, what upgrade options should I consider for bushings?

The rubber bushings are not supposed to slide, they are supposed to deform (twist). They are bonded to the spring plate, and held static against the inside surface of the torsion tube and spring plate covers by friction.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

Elephant Racing gives a good overview on installation. The rubber bushings are glued onto the arm, and no lubricant is used.
http://www.elephantracing.com/documents/911-2290003-2290004rubber-spring-plate-bushing-instructions.pdf

Most popular upgrade here is ER Polybronze.

For my class I cannot increase metal content, so I had to try other options. I initially tried Neatrix (which I'd bet you have in there now for reasons already described above) but I recently changed the outers to Delrin ones from Racer's Edge.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yfj_9NIb3v...o/IMAG0756.jpg

I've read that these things will squeak like hell, that's why I only tried the outsides first. I hour to swap back is a lot easier than pulling the entire suspension apart to do the inners too. So far so good, only maybe 300 miles and no rain though. Plus the price is right at $44 / pair.