For the outer bearing, remove the four bolts off the cover over the torsion bar. Clean it all inside & out. Grease it up and re-assemble. It's a pain in the butt, but at least you know it's greased thoroughly.

While the outie is apart it's easier to get locked onto the inner bearing zerk.

The permanent fix is to fashion up a threaded fitting to replace then zerk. Then bend up a short piece of bundy tubing with a compression fitting (or a flare nut fitting if you have the flaring tool). Bend the tubing to whatever location suits you. Fit the zerk to another compression fitting (or flare nut) on the end of the tubing. The advantage of the flared fitting is you'll never blow it apart with your grease gun.

Here are some more ideas.

Mark the position and angle of the fitting next time you have it all apart.

Like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585688981.JPG

Now you can hit the zerk without being able to see it.

Like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585689166.JPG

Now the other side, which is even more fun....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585689301.jpg

Piece of cake

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585689461.jpg

Here's the adapter I was using: I think this was the 5th or 6th try :rolleyes::D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585689631.JPG

As an added bonus, it fits onto a straight nozzle without disassembly. AAAnd the spring loaded sleeve stops it releasing when you don't want it too.

Cheers for now!

Nice! Thanks for the tips. What adapter is that and where can I get one?

I settled on grease from Fuchs, Renolit Molyway LiCa 932. It has a base oil viscosity of 1100 and will hold out water and tolerate 130C temps. I cleaned up the whole area, got some of the new grease pumped in to the bushings, and then put dust caps on the zerks. I’ll drive a bit and then see if the bushings will take a little more grease.

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Lumax-LX-1404-Silver-Degree-Coupler/dp/B000MS5T42/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=grease%2Bcoupler&qid=15856992 04&sr=8-12&th=1

My father told me to always grease the suspension unloaded. The theory being that the contact area will open up and accept the grease. Sounds good ;):p:D:D

Thanks! I recently purchased a locking coupler (Lock-n-Lube) and it works well, but it is a tight fit. I may have to get one of these adapters.

I always grease with the suspension unloaded, much easier with the car in the air and the wheels off anyway.

-EDIT-

Ok, so I'm revisiting this thread, and have my rear suspension apart. It was a mess, and what I'm seeing makes it clear that the type of grease was less the issue then where it was going (or actually, not going!) Not being able to get the grease gun squarely on the zerks meant that lots of grease went everywhere except into the bearings. I was able to clean up all the bearing surfaces nicely, and fortunately there is a minimum of damage. The resurfaced parts will be just fine with enough and proper grease.

My priority now is to extend the zerk fittings out where they can be easily accessed, as suggested above. Not being able to click squarely on the fittings (especially the inner one) is a major source of the issues I've been having, and I'm not putting this thing back together until I have a better setup for greasing. Elephant could tell me that the threads for the spring plate zerks are M6 x 0.75mm, so I'll work up a solution and post back what I come up with.

Photos soon.

Just to add some information to the discussion:
Finished ( finally! ) a complete suspension refresh ( all NEW everything) car feels great.
Poly-Bronze, only @ Torsion Bar, first 25 miles they squeak a bit... (to let me know they are there?) Wondering if the grease was removed by the technician who did the ( expensive) corner-balance?
I will re-grease and get back to you.

At the risk of public humiliation, here are the photos. Apologies for the graphic and disturbing images... the "after" pics are better!


Yes, that is water in the torsion tube.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614099055.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614099055.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614099055.jpg


After cleanup with 400, 600 and 800 grit followed by metal polish.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614099055.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614099055.jpg


I have a plan for the grease fittings-- more soon! SmileWavy

I posted above showing the carnage and resurrection of my polybronze setup, and I thought I'd post an update about solving the issues I've been having getting grease into the bearings. At the end of the day, the real problem was simply not being able to get the grease gun properly locked on to the zerk fittings.

So the solution is quite simple: I added an extra 45˚ angle coupler to each existing one to make 90˚ couplers with good clearance plus new zerks that have a long fitting on them. Now the zerks are easy to get to and no longer crammed behind the bearing plate and close to the body.

Hope this can help someone else! SmileWavy

The new angle couplers and zerk fittings. The threads on the original fittings from Elephant Racing are 6mm x 0,75mm.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

First one installed. I used 2x 45˚ fittings to give me 90˚ but with more clearance. You could probably find a 90˚ coupler that would give the needed clearance, but this is what I could get hold of.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

The outer fitting installed:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

Done! I also have rubber dust caps.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616524803.jpg

Very nice solution!

Cheers,

- Craig_D

disturbing to see the water inside the torque tube ! Think I will take mine apart and maybe go back to rubber if there is water. What do you think, are the PB bushings letting in water ?

Great idea to extend the fittings for the grease gun.
When I have greased the polybronze on my car it leads to colorful language.
Do you think the mod could be done when the bearings are installed?
Probably not considering the space available, or...??

Hei Trond SmileWavy

In my case, there just wasn’t enough grease in the bearings, and when I originally posted this thread I also did a major cleanup of the grease outside the bearings. I used a lot of brake cleaner which may have gotten inside, making the problem worse. I think that as long as the bearings are properly greased the water should stay out. Now that I can grease my PB properly, I’m not worried.

You might be able to do this mod with everything installed, if you go with the multiple couplings as I did. It isn’t difficult to remove the outer bearing plate though, and if you do that then you shoud be able to do this pretty easily.

Hmmm. If it's an issue, maybe the torque tube should have a vent system to reduce condensation.

Mine has two small holes. Originally I thought these were missing the plugs, perhaps they are the drain tubes. anyone know?

No idea, I don't have any holes or plugs in mine that I know of. Anyway, holes that would allow drainage would also let in water and dirt I suppose. I coated my torsion bar ends in grease, and now with my new grease fitting setup I'm pretty sure that the water should stay out.

Not all openings allow easy ingress of water and dirt. Here's the vent on our gearboxes:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1616613327.jpg

If the vent opening is too close to road splash, route a tube up and away from that area.

I'm not advocating venting the torsion tube unless there's an issue with condensation buildup. Is there?

Sherwood

Good point about the gearbox vent, though as you point out holes in the torsion tube would be more exposed.

I’d like to think that mine was a unique case with the PB bushings without adequate grease, and the fact that it rains a lot where I live. If you won’t drive in the rain in Western Norway, then you won’t drive. I’ll top up the grease twice a season from now on I think.

I would go back to rubber.

I suggested this design needed seals (among other things) a very long time ago.

If you stay with those use a heavy synthetic grease with high tack.

Thanks for the posts and pictures.