How to tell if rear LCA bushings are bad
#1
Launching!
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How to tell if rear LCA bushings are bad
I've been searching for about 45 mins and can't find the answer. Stock LCA's, replaced bushings with Moog about 4 years ago.
When tightened to 90lbs, on the rearend, other end not attached, should there be any side to side wiggle? How do you tell if the bushings have gone bad?
When tightened to 90lbs, on the rearend, other end not attached, should there be any side to side wiggle? How do you tell if the bushings have gone bad?
#2
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since no replied i'll try to help. I've never had stock lca's on my car, but you prolly will have some side to side play with the stock bushings as they are soft rubber for good noise dampening. If your concerned about it, why not just buy a set of lca's from one of our vendors. Around 100 bucks i believe and will improve the car.
#4
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4 year old moogs should be fine. side to side wiggle is normal because they are rubber, and you need some side to side movement for normal suspension articulation anyway. Poly bushings don't have much (if any) side to side movement, so they suck for street applications because they bind.
#5
Launching!
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Cool, I'm chasing a bind, so I'm looking at everything extra careful. I think I found part of my problem in the torque arm. The holes are ovalled a bit and, the hard part, I have an option of taking the angle that the top prefers against the rearend or the angle that the bottom prefers because it's "spread open" a bit. Unfortunately, there's a noticeable difference between the two and I don't know which (if either) is right. All I have is a cheap-*** protractor to measure the thrust angle with and that's not going to cut it
#6
The Scammer Hammer
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63 bucks, brother. You go buy bushings alone and you're over half way there. Just a thought.
Founders Performance.
http://www.foundersperformance.com/p...trol-Arms.html
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Are you speaking from experience? Because I put on the same LCAs pictured from founders and my car felt/rode/handled better. I was pleasantly surprised because of all the jargon I hear on here about poly bushings.
#11
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My stock bushings were noisy as hell. Any little bump in the road and you would hear clunking and rubber squeaking. Replaced them with Moogs and they're dead silent. Didn't need a press BTW, but it would have made removing the old bushings a lot easier.
Skip the poly and rod ends, **** all that for a street car. Shame on all these companies for pushing a product that's inferior to stock and saying it's the greatest thing you can buy. A bunch of snake oil salesmen.
Skip the poly and rod ends, **** all that for a street car. Shame on all these companies for pushing a product that's inferior to stock and saying it's the greatest thing you can buy. A bunch of snake oil salesmen.
#12
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I'm not saying I'm a suspension expert, certainly not. But when you need a secondary axis and poly doesn't give that it isn't hard to see why poly would be a problem.
I don't know what your car is like, nor the condition of your suspension before you got the poly ended LCAs, but one possibility that comes to mind is that your stock rubber bushings were really bad so they weren't doing their job. At that point any bushing - more bind or not - would be an improvement. I was there with my old 98, the factory rubbers literally fell out when I took off the LCAs.
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No I haven't had any poly bushings, just rubber. But I've looked at the way the rear axle moves, looked at the single axis that poly gives, and concluded that it probably wouldn't be too great. Others here then have done actual tests and my analysis on paper was correct.
I'm not saying I'm a suspension expert, certainly not. But when you need a secondary axis and poly doesn't give that it isn't hard to see why poly would be a problem.
I don't know what your car is like, nor the condition of your suspension before you got the poly ended LCAs, but one possibility that comes to mind is that your stock rubber bushings were really bad so they weren't doing their job. At that point any bushing - more bind or not - would be an improvement. I was there with my old 98, the factory rubbers literally fell out when I took off the LCAs.
I'm not saying I'm a suspension expert, certainly not. But when you need a secondary axis and poly doesn't give that it isn't hard to see why poly would be a problem.
I don't know what your car is like, nor the condition of your suspension before you got the poly ended LCAs, but one possibility that comes to mind is that your stock rubber bushings were really bad so they weren't doing their job. At that point any bushing - more bind or not - would be an improvement. I was there with my old 98, the factory rubbers literally fell out when I took off the LCAs.
Also the stock stamped pieces have to flex a lot under significant load and I don't like the thought of my only link between my axle and body bending and flexing under load just so it won't "bind". Sounds worse imo.
#14
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More about polyurethane...
http://hewsoninc.ca/mythinformation.htm
If you want a stiff suspension, you don't want it to come from binding bushings. Tuning your suspension should be done with shocks, springs, and sway bars.
http://hewsoninc.ca/mythinformation.htm
If you want a stiff suspension, you don't want it to come from binding bushings. Tuning your suspension should be done with shocks, springs, and sway bars.
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More about polyurethane...
http://hewsoninc.ca/mythinformation.htm
If you want a stiff suspension, you don't want it to come from binding bushings. Tuning your suspension should be done with shocks, springs, and sway bars.
http://hewsoninc.ca/mythinformation.htm
If you want a stiff suspension, you don't want it to come from binding bushings. Tuning your suspension should be done with shocks, springs, and sway bars.
However, my car rides less harsh and handles better with tubular lcas with founders "poly" bushings than it did with stock lcas and 30k moog replacements.
If they didn't I would take them off and caulk up the $55 to bad judgement. However, they feel great and I recommend them.
#18
Launching!
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Seems like it wouldn't be too tough to fab a set of rubber bushings for the above arms, looks like they're a little smaller than stock, so shaving down some moogs... Ah, nevermind, just talking out my ***...