Advanced A-arm Questions

[Tyson Schmidt]

So are you drilling a hole through the bushing to get the grease through to the inner surface of the bushing? Is that why you don't want it to rotate and block off the feed hole?

[Chuck Moreland]

The OD of the bushing should be snug in the housing, with no lubrication at all. Staking shouldn't be necessary.

[surflvr911sc]

Read his article again. I think that they will be fine the way Chuck explains. The A arm rotates inside the bushing while the mount and bushing remain still by the zirk fitting holding them together. The way Chuck says to turn the bushing on the lathe is also conducive to this.

EDIT: The man himself beat me to it!

[tobluforu]

maybe this.... Warning! Before upgrading torsion bars, change bushings (pics)

[pbs911]

Tobluforu said everything I could. In fact he pointed right to my thread. I also used the Weltmeister black poly bushing and have been pleased since. I only wish I would have cut a grove along the ID of the bushing to distribute the grease. But even with the way I set up mine there is very, very little suspension noise. I found no need to alter the bushings in any other manner except for the zirk fitting during my project.

[Superman]

Yes, everyone is making perfect sense. You're all ready for the final exam. Island, will you give us our finals?

Tyson, precisely. Chuck, I think you're right. I don't have a lathe, but I have a Dremel and more patience than I did when I was 23. If it is custom shaped, and especially if the sheet metal is not round, the bushing should stay put. I also know to ensure the inner bore is not pinching the a-arm. I'll be cutting some clever grooves there for fresh grease. Should work great.

[phaques]

Any tricks to getting the new poly carb bushings installed on the A-arms?

[cstreit]

Ist there a tech article somewhere on replacing the bushings? Mine need to be done in front. Will this necessitate resetting the ride height?

[kstylianos]

Superman,

"I don't have a lathe, but I have a Dremel and more patience than I did when I was 23"

I just went through this exact same process with the street hardness (black) Welt. bushings. They are hard, but have a consistancy and feel of hard rubber, pretty pliable. I've BTDT with the Dremel and would NOT suggest using a dremel for ID enlargement, you will not get a consistant ID all the way through. I used the Dremel method and the fittment was not very good at all...snug in some places, tighter in others, and if you take off a wee bit too much, you get a sloppy fit. BTW: I used the flapper 80 grit sanding wheel attachment. After dremeling all 4 bushing, they did not feel right on the a-arms so I ordered another set and used another method for hand fittment.

The OD of the welt. bushings should fit snugly into the housings, so you should not have to take any material off the OD. I used a wooden dowell, larger than a broom stick but smaller than ID of the bushing. I bult up the OD of the dowell with duct tape and wrapped/affixed 80 grit Al oxide paper around the end of the dowell, making a snug (not tight) in the ID of the bushing. With the housing on the bushing, rotate, rotate, rotate the bushing on the end of the dowell back and forth, getting a good consistant shaving of the ID. I used a screwdriver in the holes in the housing for leverage. The housing may slip around bushing, so try and get the slimy goop (they may be prelubriacred from factory) off the OD of the bushing before you slip it into the housing. When the ID openes up a bit, place a sliver of ducktape under the sand paper to increase the OD of the dowell and contiune the process. Remember to constantly try to hand fit the bushing w/ housing on the end of the a-arm. A good fit will slide on, rotate freely with little resistance, but with NO horizontal/vertical play on the a-arm. I was able to hold the a-arms by the bushings with housing attached it would rotate pretty freely.

This was the most tedious process of my front end overhaul, taking about 45 minutes per bushing to get a good fit, but beats the $450 charged by other companys to do this for you. I was very happy with the fitment using the above process, and I am quite an anal fellow.

I also fitted 6mm zirk grease fittings and created a figure-8 grease groove inside the bushing.

Chuck gives a good explanation for fitting grease fittings here

I also ordered the special poly bushing lube from or host. Nasty stuff, sticks to everything.
PEL-SUSGRS8 - Suspension Bushing Grease, 8 oz


-Charlie

[arcsine]

And what do we cut the grooves inside the bearing with. The ubiquitous Dremel tool would seem to work but ....

[kstylianos]

To cut the groove in the bushing, I used the dremel with a high speed cutting attachment similar to #190.

Dremel