Front strut lower bushing - poly replacement

[Bazz270]

Hi

Ive replaced crushed oem strut bushings to polyurethane ones.equipped with zerk fittings:

1. Old rubber bushings to be pressed out and the oem inner sleeve to be cleaned and polished.toyota panhard rod poly bushings will fit the outer and the inner diameter plus the original bolt sleeve dimensions

2.clean and grease inner strut eye surface and drill m6 zerk fitting hole.

3. Press in the bushings and then the inner sleeve and good to go.

 

[J_C]

I'm confused. You put a zerk in the strut eye, but isn't the bushing supposed to not move in that contact area, instead movement is at the metal sleeve in it?

 

[Bazz270]

The fitting installed just between two half bushings ( there is actually two parts for every eye).

So if you ask what holds the half bushings from falling apart the eye , it is the press fit only.they are also wont fall out since they are locked in the control arm all around

 

[Fbird]

the grease is for the bushing to spacer contact area to prevent squeaks. One might be inclined to use a grinder and put a spiral groove on the spacer bushing allowing grease a path to get between said components.

 

[J_C]

If this is captive within the mounts of the lower control arm, and the sleeve is not seized in place by the bolt because it instead has a friction against the control arm, isn't the primary pivot point going to be between the bolt, and the metal sleeve in the bushing, not the bushing against anything? IMO the grease is for installation purposes to more easily insert the bushings into the strut eye, the sleeve into the bush, and lube the bolt on sleeve contact.

Has anyone installed these bushings and found them to squeak? I suspect it is a bit different than a constant metal on bushing rotation like you would find on the sway bar.

 

[Bazz270]

So far

They are working fine .no squeaks ( inner tube must be polished)

You have no reason to put em in your struts for whatever improvement

They will only help you to save your good struts with bad or saggy lower bushings (you cant purchase the rubbers separately and even if you do you will need to purchase the special installation sleeve tool )

Ive also installed polybushings all around on the UCA's and the sway bar for years in my Gen4 no problem

The polybushings lasts like forever if you keep it regreased once a year with ptfe grease only

 

[Bazz270]

Talking about bushing kinematics

The sleeve ,bolt and the control arm are tighten together without any relative movement allowed between each other.

The poly bush slips around greased metal sleeve polished surface and allowed to move forward and back a couple of mm thru bush elasticity when the sleeve ,the bolt and the control arm are static relative to each other and the control arm moves right or left with the knuckle.

In other words there is no seizing between PU and any of the metal surface or between metal surfaces ,cause it just slip fitted to the metal even if pressed in with light tension .

Theoretically the only disadvantage of the poly bushings it is the much bigger shore hardness relatively to original style overmolded rubber bushings causing more harsh ride (and improved offroad and highway stability) and a need for regreasing every one year approx .