What radius arm bushings to buy these days?

[unpredictable1]

I'm going to replace them on my 93 X, and would like to put something worthwhile in there since I have many more driving days with this truck left.

I know how to replace them, just want to know what I should buy.

Cheers,

lbrowne

 

[DeRocha]

I would go with a quality polyurethane bushing like Energy Suspension or Daystar. Unlike Rubber, Poly bushings are impervious to the elements and chemicals. In the past Poly has been given a bad rap due to Cheap poly in the marketplace. Cheap poly (ex: perfect circle) is VERY hard (imagine hockey puck hard) and will transmit a lot of road noise and vibration into the cabin. For this reason a lot of people will recommend OEM rubber bushings.. But IMO a Quality poly bushing is the best of both worlds... It will not deteriorate and break down like rubber, but is soft and pliable and offers a great ride quality...

 

[mitch]

I would go with a quality polyurethane bushing like Energy Suspension or Daystar... But IMO a Quality poly bushing is the best of both worlds... It will not deteriorate and break down like rubber, but is soft and pliable and offers a great ride quality...

exactly what i was going to say

 

[unpredictable1]

So NAPA premium brand should be this...I'll ask to see what they're made of.

 

[DeRocha]

So NAPA premium brand should be this...I'll ask to see what they're made of.

I have no idea... Stop buy, and see what brands they have and examine them. Open the boxes and squeze the bushings. If you cannot squeze them and they feel like hard hockey pucks the are way too hard IMO.

 

[unpredictable1]

I bought the Energy Suspension radius arm bushings, but they don't come with any washers etc. It's be so long since I did them on my first explorer - and I know that cheapo set from crappy tire had new washer pieces in the package.

I'm guessing I re-use whats there?

 

[DeRocha]

I bought the Energy Suspension radius arm bushings, but they don't come with any washers etc. It's be so long since I did them on my first explorer - and I know that cheapo set from crappy tire had new washer pieces in the package.

I'm guessing I re-use whats there?

Yes... you re-use the old cup washers and heat shield (passenger side). If these old parts are trashed buy the cheap set and use its hardware...I bought a cheap perfect circle set and it came with all the metal hardware except the heat shield.. It would have been nice for the ES set to have em, but it didn't and now a have a set of rock hard perfect circle poly bushings...good for hockey, but not so good for suspension components.

 

[unpredictable1]

They also had this kit that was the swaybar bushings and tie rod end links, that something worth changing for a noticeable improvement? The parts were fairly cheap (Energy Suspension also)

 

[DeRocha]

The sway bar bushing kit is very nice and I recommend it.. Unlike the stock end links the ES links (pictured below) have a wide contact area to prevent distortion. The tie rod part is just a boot cover and not an actual bushing (I would only change this If I had the tie rod off for some other reason).